Handle the ENVIRONMENT with care
First of all, what is the greenhouse effect? The greenhouse effect is the way in which heat is trapped close to Earth’s surface by “greenhouse gases”. But what causes the greenhouse effect? Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years. For example, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.
The greenhouse effect causes environmental and health issues. They cause climate change by trapping heat, which in turn affects various species. This climate change also contributes to extreme weather, wildfires and droughts. That’s what we call “the global warming”, an issue that the whole world is facing. Deforestation is one of the contributors to global warming. Each and every second, a rainforest the size of a football field is destroyed.
Plants, trees and vegetations consume carbon dioxide in much the same way that humans consume oxygen. Therefore, as the rain forests disappear, there is less vegetation to the carbon dioxide produced on earth. And since many forests are burnt or impacted with wildfires, the result is an increasing amount of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere. Over 30 million acres of forests and woodlands are destroyed everyday by wildfires and in 2016, they destroyed thousands of houses in California. This causes the earth to warm up and ice caps at both poles begin to melt, causing sea levels to rise. Extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts and harsh storms become more common. Cold and heat waves become more frequent and severe, endangering many lives.
To avoid this situation, experts say we must reduce our emission of greenhouse gases and a new international movement appeared in the world : The Earth Hour. This movement encourages people all around the world and countries to switch off their lights for one hour on every last Saturday of March. The objective is to sensitise people about the environment and remind them that each person can make a difference!
Written by: Hajar El Amrani
