By GRACIE STOWERS
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade honors English class, taught by Tanya Busailah.
Climate change is classified as a broad range of overall changes happening to our planet (science.nasa.gov). Global warming is classified as the long-term warming of our planets (science.gov). Some natural causes of global warming are volcanic eruptions, fluctuations in solar radiation, wildfires, tectonic shifts, and changes in earth’s orbit (nrdc.org).
However, these causes do not contribute to rapid global warming, which means human-induced climate change has been the main reason for global warming directly. We all know burning fossil fuels damages the ozone layer and contributes to global warming. But what does that really mean?
The three main fossil fuels are oil, natural gas, and coal. These are hydrocarbons that were formed over millions of years, buried deep in the ground and a result of high temperatures and pressure over time. These are nonrenewable and depletable resources. Fossil fuel combustion is the process of converting these fuels into heat, power, or energy. This process has directly powered the industrial revolution and continues to power any type of transportation used daily, power plants, industrial operations (steel production, etc.), and homes, heating, or electricity.
Specifically, trucks, cars, ships, planes, and any other type of transportation are one of the most significant things that release carbon dioxide emissions. Even electric cars, contrary to popular belief, are not much better than gas and diesel vehicles. This is because the way humans get the battery for electric cars (EVs) leads to the release of greenhouse gasses and contributes to deforestation because it requires raw materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel) we have no other way of getting.
However, EVs do reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent because they are not constantly releasing carbon dioxide. Not to mention, the large corporations that we use to charge these cars and make these cars are power plants that burn a large amount of fossil fuels, releasing greenhouse gasses. According to earthday.org, “The burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas contribute to 75 percent of the total global greenhouse emissions and 90 percent of the total global carbon dioxide emissions.”
Another main culprit for releasing damaging greenhouse gasses lies in big companies or corporations, power plants, and factories. This goes hand in hand with large industrialized countries being the main contributors to emissions. Industrialized countries release more emissions because their large corporations rely on burning fossil fuels to stay in business and keep producing goods or products.
In conclusion, most websites suggest that the best way to reduce global warming or excessive carbon emissions is to try to use as much renewable energy as possible, like wind or solar energy. However, there is only so much each individual person can do since there is a tremendous amount of research putting big corporations at fault.