We are killing the Earth. Every day, hour after hour, we emit harmful gases into the atmosphere that do nothing but slowly destroy the delicate balance that has belonged to our planet since its creation. To cause all this are not only our comforts, but above all the big industries.
Scientists on this subject fall into two groups. The one thing all scientists agree on is that the earth’s climate is changing. The temperature rises inexorably, degree after degree, to levels that those who are still alive have never known. What scientists are divided on is the reason for this temperature increase: some argue that it is a natural change that occurred at other times in the history of our planet, while according to most the burden of this natural change has increased many times of pollution. The greenhouse effect, if kept at normal values, allows life on earth: various gases present in the atmosphere, called greenhouse gases, allow solar radiation to pass, while they absorb part of the infrared rays emitted from the ground and re-emit them in all directions. therefore also towards the planet. This allows the Earth’s average temperature to never drop to the freezing point of water. The greenhouse effect is so called because it recalls what happens in a greenhouse, even if the basics are different: the greenhouse gases behave as if they were the glass in the greenhouse.
Greenhouse gases also include carbon dioxide, which is emitted by factories and machines. So, if we think about the industrial development that has taken place in recent years, we can only vaguely imagine how much more carbon dioxide we have introduced than what is already present. In addition, deforestation must also be calculated, which affects because the trees no longer absorb carbon dioxide. There are new studies that have shown a chilling fact: the Arctic ice sheet, which has always had the task of helping the planet to cool, is melting at such rapid rates that, if we do not act in time and decisively, within 35 years the ice could permanently disappear in the summer months. Some climatologists argue that the average temperature in the coming years will increase by a few degrees and that by 2020 the arid zones of our planet will have moved several kilometers north. But despite this evidence, some scientists disagree that this warming is man-made and accuse their colleagues of having only bias against economic development. There are still many doubts about the climate change taking place and scholars are working hard to better understand what is happening to our planet and to make ever more precise predictions about what will happen in the coming centuries. But on one thing I think that all scientists and all living things cannot help but agree: pollution hurts.
Cristian Comis, III M
