Earth Hour, are you serious?

Do we really understand the global warming?

“Some experts believe that mankind is on the edge of a new kind of weather, which can be very harsh, while we are lacking preparation”, according to an article from New York Times.

Is there anyone that is not worried about the global warming?

In fact, the article mentioned the effect of the global cooling which happened in 1970s. This event could lead to the collapse of agricultural system and therefore mankind would suffer from starvation. But, what caused the global cooling? The 1970s witnessed the well growth of industry, which produced tons of pollutants. These pollutants helped cool the Earth by cover the sky from the sunlight.

However, we are no longer in need of dealing with global cooling. In contrast, we are facing the global warming problem. Like the global cooling in 1970s, it is a common knowledge that human is the main factor of global warming. It is inarguable that human contribute to global warming. But, the question is, how much? And what can we do now?

Many people consider carbon dioxide as the biggest enemy. They argue that carbon dioxide has caused the greenhouse effect. Because this effect prevents the sunlight from going back to the space, the heat of sunlight doesn’t disappear and makes the Earth hotter. This argument sounds true. In fact, it’s true. But they have eliminated the good side of carbon dioxide. How can we survive without plants? And how can plants survive without carbon dioxide. Many years ago, we are taught that carbon dioxide is food of plants. Now, we are told only about the bad effect of carbon dioxide, which ironically is not completely true. The event of 1970s proved that carbon dioxide could help cool the Earth. Everything only went worse when we started to clean the sky. Some people may not agree with the proof from 1970s. But even if carbon dioxide is really a greenhouse gas, it doesn’t work very well. Scientists have proved that two times of the recent amount of carbon dioxide only restore 2 percent of total thermal radiation that the Earth produces. To regard carbon dioxide as the biggest enemy is not different from saying that trees make the earth hotter. In fact, planting trees in some specific areas can make the global warming worse because dark color leafs restore the heat better than grass, deserts or snow field. Thus, the increasing amount of carbon dioxide is nothing to worry about. It’s good for the Earth. The only problem is that the amount is increasing too fast. If “Earth hour” wants us to turn off the lights, in order to raise our awareness of global warming mainly through the bad effect of carbon dioxide, it has chosen wrong target.

Even if you want to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, it is considerable whether we are doing right. Almost everyone blame cars for producing too much carbon dioxide. Believing in this idea, many people have decided to drive a hybrid car, although it is much more expensive than the traditional one. Traffic indeed produces carbon dioxide. But your effort to reduce greenhouse effect will be wasted when you drive a Hybrid to go shopping, at least when you buy meat. The enemy of nature is not machine but nature itself. Cows and lambs produce methane which causes the greenhouse effect twenty five times more than carbon dioxide. Ruminants produce an amount of greenhouse gas 1.5 times more than all the traffic system. Thus, the next time you eat beefsteak, or lamb, you are making the earth hotter, even though you drive a Hybrid to the nearest restaurant. If cows contribute so much to the global warming, should we stop eating beef in order to stop the recent disaster? Yes, we should! The Earth hour should ask us to stop eating beef for a day instead of turning off lights in an hour. This will be easy because we can eat other kinds of meat like fish, chicken. Turning off bulbs and then lighting the candles does not help the Earth.

But if carbon dioxide is not contributing much to the global warming, why do people nowadays only talk about solutions to reduce carbon dioxide, not methane? There are many explanations for that. One of them comes from the uprising of China and other emerging countries, known as BRICs. These markets depend heavily on industry to catch up with the developed countries. The BRIC, typically China, in order to compete with other countries, have chosen the obsolete technology to reduce cost. Obsolete technology means better growth and more harm to environment. Failing to compete with the super cheap “made in China’, developed countries have emphasize the effect of Carbon dioxide on the global warming to put China under pressure to cut down the use of obsolete technology which means higher cost for Chinese products. Higher price will lead to less competitiveness.

There are so many popular but wrong ideas about the recent event. The sea level is rising not mainly because of the melt down of Greenland or South Pole. The fact is less serious: higher temperature will lead to expansion. There must be a reason why all the climate conferences in Copenhagen and Cacun produced no solution. Because the situation is not as bad as we are told. Human activities only result in 2 percent of total amount of carbon dioxide produced worldwide. However, human activities do have some impact on the environment. We should be able to know our true enemy. Carbon dioxide is not our enemy. Thus, limiting your travelling or use a hybrid car will not have much effect. Enjoy your life in a different way, mainly in your dinner table. Methane and steam are the two strongest greenhouse gases. While we cannot reduce steam, we are able to decrease the amount of methane. Exchange your diet of red meat of cows and dairy products for chicken and eggs. Clean up the dead trees because rotting plants is the main source of methane and carbon dioxide. That will help much more than turning off the lights and doing nothing during this time [for God’s sake, in the darkness, who knows what will happen?].

The Earth Hour 2011 is coming. What are you going to do? There are 2 options.

1/ Following the wrong concepts

2/ Telling everyone that “I have a better solution”.

Be wise.


Kz