Definition of the topic in simple terms from a reputed site like NASA
Fossil fuels are made from dead and decomposing plants and animals. These fuels are found in the Earth's crust and contain carbon and hydrogen, which can be burned for energy. Coal, oil, and natural gas are examples of fossil fuels. Examples of fossil fuel use in our day-to-day lives includes petrol and diesel for our vehicles, coal to power all the electricity that we use in our houses, gas that we use for cooking.1 (NatGeo)
This is a map of the world showing the consumption of fossil fuels across the world. Note that the unit for measurement is TW - TeraWatt. Regular bulbs that we use at home are between 25 - 100 Watts. One TeraWatt is 1,000,000,000,000 Watts. That is effectively 10,000,000,000 bulbs per hour. The light bulbs that we usually use at home need 25 to 100 Watts of energy to work. In 2021, India used up 8815 TWH (Tera Watt Hours) of power. But one TeraWatt of energy is equal to one trillion Watts! That's a really big number! To give you an idea, it's like turning on 1000 crore light bulbs (10,000,000,000 bulbs) in just one hour!
Fossil fuels have been created over millions of years through the long-term decomposition of plant and animal remains, and given the rate of fossil fuel usage in the last few centuries, we will exhaust the global reserves of fossil fuels in a matter of years. Waiting for new deposits of coal, natural gas and oil that would take millions of years to form, is not a practical solution, so it is crucial that we look for alternatives and work on moving forward with renewable and less harmful energy sources. The natural process of fossil fuel production takes millions and millions of years, and humans were lucky to have found these fuels in abundance.
Imagine that you are in a forest, and you happen to find a treasure chest full of lots of gold, jewellery and money. You take all of these riches and use it to buy a new house, buy a car, buy whatever you want. But because you have spent all this money so freely without thinking about the long-term consequences of your choices, you have run out of all your money and are left with all these things that you now no longer can use. That is what humans have done with fossil fuels - they are riches that we have not understood, and slowly, we are running out of all that wealth, and will be left with no way to sustain this life that we have built using all these riches.
Countries around the world have committed towards reducing their fossil fuel consumption and focusing on renewable energy sources like solar energy, hydropower, windpower, etc.
India has committed towards reducing their emissions, their dependence on fossil fuels and increase the consumption of renewable energy sources in order to combat climate change. India is currently the third largest polluter in the world, and has to take steps to ensure that they reduce their consumption and burning of fossil fuels.
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org)
The Sustainable Development Goals4 were created by the United Nations in order to ensure that human society moves towards a more sustainable lifestyle that is less harmful towards the environment, and also creates better circumstances and living situations for all life on Earth. There are 17 SDGs.
SDG 7 - Clean and affordable energy
SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13 - Climate Action
SDG 14 - Life below Water
SDG 15 - Life on Land
Just because there is one single SDG on climate change doesn't mean that that is where we can stop when addressing climate change. The entire system is connected, and unless we address other SDGs, like 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), or 14/15 (Life Below Water + Life on Land), we won't be able to comprehensively combat climate change. Talking about a healthy ecosystem and healthy biodiversity, alongside healthy consumer and producer choices and understanding the interconnectedness of all of this is central to understanding how our actions can and have affected everything around us and led us to this situation.
Couple of examples from the subcontinent preferably and from other countries if not available locally
Coalmines in Dhanbad 5 are the oldest in the country - it's known as the 'Coal Capital of India' - mines are run by 'Bharat Coking Coal Ltd.' - as a subsidiary of Coal India
This coal from Dhanbad is used in metallurgical processes:
The process of metallurgy is used to create metals that we can use in our day-to-day lives. Vehicles like cars, trucks, motorbikes and scooters are made from metals that have been fabricated through these metallurgical processes that are powered by coal.
Natural gas sources in India are used for cooking, heating and powering vehicles as well (CNG).
Some other more relevant examples could be the use of chemical- and synthetic products - like pesticides and fertilisers - and attention could be drawn to the fact that their production is also fuelled by the burning of fossil fuels in factories.
What 1-2 key ideas should the facilitator focus on while communicating the topic with their local communities?
The continuous and increased burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and creates a layer of gases around us that traps the heat inside and makes the world more and more warm. Imagine lying in bed on a warm night. But now you put on a blanket, despite it being warm outside. You would start feeling hotter very soon. The blanket in this analogy are the greenhouse gases - that are created and spread by the burning of fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels are INCREDIBLY central to the functioning of human society as we understand it. Transport, electricity, energy, etc. all powered by the burning of fossil fuels, and this extensive overuse means that not only are they depleting too rapidly and quickly, but they are also damaging the world at a more rapid pace than ever before. In 2021, for instance, global coal production peaked at 5,350 million tonnes, which is almost the highest amount ever. This coincided with the largest ever annual increase in CO2 emissions. The average car weighs roughly 1.5 tonnes. 5350 million tonnes of coal is the same weight as 356,66,66,666 crore cars. That means that, in that year, humans produced coal equal to the weight of more than 350 crore cars./ Fossil fuels are extremely important for our society because we use them to run our homes, cars, generate electricity, and heat. But the problem is, we're using them too much and too fast, which is terrible for the planet. In 2021, we 'produced' a lot of coal, a kind of fossil fuel, and this caused a lot of pollution. Just to give you an idea, the amount of coal produced that year was as heavy as 356,666,666,000 cars! That's more than 350 crore cars! This shows that we need to be careful and find ways to use energy that won't hurt the Earth.
They are a finite resource - which means that they are not unlimited, and their continued use in all these will drain the world of these valuable fuels. Hubbert's Peak theory is that because fossil fuels are a finite resource, oil production will eventually peak and then decline, roughly following a bell-shaped curve. Hubbert was a scientist in the 1950s who found that humans were exhausting the oil reserves faster than they were discovering new reserves, and thus, he predicted that this would lead to dramatic problems, as the demand would continue to increase, but the production and supply of oil would fall. Fossil fuels, like oil, gas, and coal, are not unlimited. This means that if we use them too much, we will run out of them eventually. Hubbert's Peak theory is a way to explain this. Hubbert's Peak theory is a way of predicting when this will happen for oil, which is one type of fossil fuel. A scientist named Hubbert looked at how much oil we were using compared to how much we were finding, and he saw that we were using it up faster than we were discovering new oil. This means that eventually we won't have enough of them to meet the demand, and we will have to find new ways to power our lives.
How does it connect systemically with the other topics on which we are working?
The excessive burning of fossil fuels results in the buildup of greenhouse gases and the heating up of the atmosphere, which consequently leads to other drastic problems in the world around us. Combined with the degradation of our environments (from the Healthy Biodiversity section), this accelerated and sustained burning of fossil fuels is causing a massive change in the biosphere - more extinctions of wildlife, more natural disasters and hazards (floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.)
In addition to all of this, the burning of fossil fuels reduces the ecological resilience in the environments and breaks down the natural barriers to environmental degradation. The wildlife that surrounds us is under threat, and widespread extinctions of plant and animal species will only further break down the ability of our environments to withstand global warming, further reducing this resilience.
This lowered resilience and increased burning of fossil fuels is also leading to rising sea levels and increased natural disasters (see greenhouse gases) are leading to more and more climate refugees - communities that have been displaced and threatened by natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.
Another consequence of the burning of fossil fuels is increased Food and water insecurity as competition for these resources (also finite) increases, as they are becoming more and more scarce with environmental degradation.
Examples of success stories from around the world of people/organisations that have brought about some positive changes in this space
Burgeoning of alternatives to fossil fuels 6 in the form of renewable energy sources 7 - solar power, hydropower, wind power, etc. and the rise of non-fuel -powered vehicles are showing that there are other possibilities that would cause less damage to the environments.
The fact that there are now attempts to make these alternatives a part of our day-to-day lives shows that there is more awareness being built about the problems with fossil fuels and what we can do to remedy the problem, in some way.
There are some challenges to this, however. Each of these alternatives have also come with their own challenges. Solar power, for instance, is an expensive alternative to conventional, fossil-fuel-based sources of energy, which makes it inaccessible to a large part of the world. Electrical vehicles run on lithium batteries, which are harmful towards the environment in thier own way.
Bangladesh: By transitioning from natural gas to green hydrogen and biomass power plants, the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan is Bangladesh's roadmap for climate resilience, energy independence, and access to renewable energy by 2030. Over the next few years, the country plans to achieve 30 per cent renewable energy consumption and 30 percent electrified transportation, extending energy access to 100 per cent of the population, providing more than 4 million climate-resilient jobs, and ensuring widespread clean cooking solutions.8
Transition Town Totnes: Group based in the town of Totnes in the UK. They are a community-led initiative that are moving towards creating a society that can survive without any dependence on fossil fuels, reduce their impact on the environment and create more resilient and sustainable communities. With TTT also, there have been certain challenges to the community. The democratic approaches have led to certain tensions within decision-making processes, and across new TT initiatives, there has been some difficulty in ensuring that these changes survive in these communities in the long-run.9
An activity that the readers can try individually or as a group that will help them gather firsthand data and understand the concept/ topic well in their own context
Give the participants a bowl full of blank pieces of paper - each participant gets a few. Explain to them that each piece of paper is a token - representing fuel, and they can use these tokens to do anything. Put them in a scenario where they live out their lives, and then use that to explain that MOST things are dependent on fossil fuels.
For instance, when they wake up, ask them what their bed is made of. If they say wood, ask them where the wood came from, and then what they used to cut the tree down. That tool that was used was an axe that was made from metal, which was heated in a furnace that was powered by coal - so they return one of their tokens.
The next activity in the day would be to brush their teeth. If they have a plastic brush, explain to them that the plastic in their brush is made from processes that are powered by the burning of fossil fuels. So take one more token away from them. Similarly, to bathe, they would use a bucket - making the bucket involves burning fossil fuels. Going out - unless they're walking, everything involves burning fossil fuels - making the cycle, taking the bus, using a car, etc.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a gas that can be found in the air and in the oceans. It's important because it helps trap heat from the sun, which keeps the Earth warm. Carbon dioxide comes from natural things like volcanoes, fires, and when we use fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. It's the most important gas that causes the greenhouse effect.
Plants, algae, and some other living things use carbon dioxide from the air. They take in carbon dioxide and use it to make their food. This process is called photosynthesis. In addition to this, the Earth itself helps by storing away the extra carbon dioxide in different places. Like a big sponge, forests, rocks, the ocean, and even the ground absorb the carbon dioxide too. They act like the Earth's storage places, storing away the carbon dioxide naturally, like putting things in different compartments or boxes. This is known as carbon sequestration. All these systems work together as a team to keep everything balanced.
When we talk about carbon emissions, it's like talking about releasing more smoke into the air. It happens when we put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Just like blowing up balloons fills a room with more air, emitting carbon dioxide fills the Earth's blanket with more layers, making it warmer.
Society and Carbon Emissions
The Industrial Revolution started in England in the 1700s and then spread to other countries like the United States, and eventually the rest of the world. This period brought big changes to society and the economy. It also led to a lot more burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, which released a gas called carbon dioxide into the air.
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, human activities have caused the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to go up by 50%. That's even more than what happened naturally at the end of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago. Back then, the levels of carbon dioxide in the air were around 200 parts per million (ppm) during the ice ages and about 280 ppm during warmer times. But in 2013, for the first time ever, the levels went over 400 ppm. This is higher than anything we've seen in the past 400,000 years. And the main reason for this increase is the burning of fossil fuels.
If we keep using a lot of fossil fuels for energy and don't make changes, we will release a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the air. This could happen by the end of the century, and it's not good for our planet. It means we will use up all the fossil fuels and the levels of carbon dioxide in the air will keep rising. This will have long-lasting effects for tens of thousands of years.
There are other activities that humans do which also contribute to the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air. These activities include cutting down forests, changing how we use land, raising livestock, using fertilizers, managing waste, and industrial processes. All of these things add to the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases in the air. How?
Direct Emissions
Direct emissions are the ones we create ourselves, and we have control over them. It's like when we do something that affects the environment directly where we are.
Generating electricity
Making electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, or gas releases gases that trap heat from the sun. This is a big part of our energy production and makes up a lot of pollution.
Manufacturing and industry
When we make things like cement, iron, steel, and clothes, we use a lot of energy and release pollution. Some materials, like plastics, come from fossil fuels too. It's like when you heat up limestone to make cement, it releases a lot of pollution.
Deforestation
Cutting down forests for farming or building things releases the carbon stored in trees. This adds to pollution and reduces the ability of nature to clean the air. Deforestation is a big part of the pollution we create.
Using transportation
Most vehicles, like cars, trucks, ships, and planes, run on fossil fuels. This creates a lot of pollution, especially carbon dioxide. Even electric cars still need electricity made from burning coal. Transportation is a big source of pollution.
Producing food
When we produce food, we release gases like carbon dioxide and methane. This happens through deforestation, clearing land for farming, livestock digestion, using fertilizers, and running farming equipment with fossil fuels. Making and distributing food adds to pollution and affects the climate.
Indirect Emission
Some emissions are called "indirect" because they happen at power plants where electricity is made, not where it's used.
Powering Buildings
Buildings around the world use a lot of electricity, especially for heating, cooling, lighting, and appliances. When they use coal, oil, or natural gas for these things, it creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. This happens because the demand for energy in buildings keeps increasing, like with more air conditioners and devices.
The Internet
The internet may seem like a good thing, but it has an environmental cost too. The servers and data centers that run the internet need a lot of energy, and most of it comes from burning fossil fuels. This creates a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions, making the internet's carbon footprint bigger than we might expect.
Consuming Too Much
The way we live and the things we use also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Our homes, transportation, food choices, and waste all play a part. Even the clothes, electronics, and plastics we consume add to the problem. Private households are responsible for a big portion of global emissions. The richest people in the world have the greatest responsibility for reducing their impact.
Waste Generation
When we waste food, we're also wasting the energy and resources used to produce it. A lot of food gets wasted every year, and it adds up to a huge amount. This wasted food releases methane gas, which is a powerful greenhouse gas, when it rots in landfills. Solid waste facilities also release nitrous oxide, another strong greenhouse gas. Both of these gases contribute to climate change a lot more than carbon dioxide.
All of these indirect emissions from buildings, the internet, consumption, and waste have a big impact on the environment and contribute to climate change.
Activity: Identify the biggest carbon emitters in your community or village (farms, factories, etc.). What purpose do they serve? Can you think of ways to help them reduce or limit their emissions?
Reducing our Carbon Emissions
Decarbonization
The process by which countries, individuals or other entities aim to achieve zero fossil carbon existence. Typically refers to a reduction of the carbon emissions associated with electricity, industry and transport.
This means trying to get rid of or reduce the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. It focuses on cutting down the carbon emissions from making electricity, industries, and transportation.
Anthropogenic removals
Anthropogenic removals refer to the removal of GHGs from the atmosphere as a result of deliberate human activities. These include enhancing biological sinks of CO2 and using chemical engineering to achieve long-term removal and storage. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) from industrial and energy-related sources, which alone does not remove CO2 in the atmosphere, can reduce atmospheric CO2 if it is combined with bioenergy production (BECCS). [8]
This happens when people intentionally take out greenhouse gases from the air. This can involve helping nature absorb more carbon dioxide or using special methods to capture and store it for a long time. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can help decrease the amount of CO2 in the air when combined with bioenergy production.
Net zero emissions
Net zero emissions are achieved when anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period. Where multiple greenhouse gasses are involved, the quantification of net zero emissions depends on the climate metric chosen to compare emissions of different gasses (such as global warming potential, global temperature change potential, and others, as well as the chosen time horizon).
Net zero emissions happen when the pollution people create by releasing greenhouse gases is balanced out by removing the same amount of gases from the air. This needs to be done over a certain period of time. When there are different greenhouse gases, how we measure net zero emissions depends on how much they contribute to global warming. Net zero CO2 emissions, negative emissions, and net negative emissions are related terms.
Scientists have found that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the main cause of global warming and climate change since the 1990s. To tackle this problem, representatives from 154 countries came together in an agreement called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They meet regularly at climate change conferences to discuss ways to reduce emissions and check each country's progress.
To prevent the Earth from warming by two degrees Celsius, we need to keep the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere below about 450 parts per million. This includes gases like methane and nitrous oxide, not just carbon dioxide. Right now, we are at around 430 parts per million, and it's not going down. To reach our goal, we must use more renewable energy, fix how we use land, and develop technologies that capture carbon. We have to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, or else we won't limit the warming to just two degrees.
Ideally, we should aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. This would help protect our oceans, prevent sea level rise, and save coral reefs and other marine life that we rely on. To make this happen, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent compared to 2010 levels by the year 2030. After that, we must continue on the same path to reach zero net emissions by 2050.
Creating the right conditions to fight climate change involves things like providing financial support, developing new technologies, improving policies, strengthening organizations, having different levels of government working together, and making changes in how we live. These actions are crucial to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, adapt to climate change, and achieve sustainable development, end poverty, and address inequalities. Here are some things we must do to reach the 1.5 degree target:
Create and implement policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation
Climate policies are rules and actions made by governments to address climate change. They include using renewable energy, reducing waste, and promoting public transportation. Governments and businesses collaborate to create these policies. Examples include supporting renewable energy, imposing taxes on polluting activities, and setting fuel efficiency standards for cars.
Policies consider people's needs and available resources. Some policies focus on reducing people's demand for certain things, such as using less energy. Others aim to change how goods and services are produced to meet people's needs, like increasing the use of renewable energy.
Activity: write a letter to your local leaders to propose changes and strategies that you created in the previous exercise.
More renewable energy
By 2050, we want most of our energy to come from renewable sources like wind and solar power. This means we have to reduce the use of coal and other fossil fuels that produce a lot of carbon dioxide. It's a big challenge because we need to change the way our power grid works.
Energy companies can adapt and find new ways to operate that are better for the environment. In fact, it's a great opportunity for them to transition to cleaner energy options. It's important for all companies to explain how they will reduce their oil and gas production or find ways to produce less while still meeting our energy needs in the future.
Afforestation and reforestation
To help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it's important to stop cutting down forests and protect the ones we have. But because the climate crisis is urgent, just stopping deforestation is not enough. We also need to plant new forests and replant trees on land where forests have been cut down recently.
Afforestation means planting new forests in places where there haven't been forests before, like on land that used to be something else. It helps create new places for carbon to be stored. Reforestation is when we plant trees on land where forests were recently cut down.
These approaches can work well alongside other ways to reduce emissions. It's like finding solutions that benefit everyone. However, if we're not careful, afforestation and reforestation can harm other ecosystems that are not forests, like natural grasslands. So we need to make sure they are done in a sustainable way.
Develop affordable carbon capture technologies
Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is a process in which a relatively pure stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial and energy-related sources is separated (captured), conditioned, compressed and transported to a storage location for long-term isolation from the atmosphere.
It is a way to catch and store carbon dioxide gas that comes from factories and energy sources. It involves separating the carbon dioxide from other gases, making it pure, and then putting it in a special place where it will stay for a long time without going into the air
To remove carbon dioxide, we need a combination of methods. Some involve using technology, while others involve natural solutions. If we only relied on planting trees, we would need forests five times the size of India to effectively absorb the carbon. It's important to focus our efforts on specific areas, like the tropics, where there are dense forests that can capture a lot of carbon and a low risk of wildfires.
We have to remove carbon dioxide from the air. Right now, we're working towards a transportation system powered by electricity, but we also need to reduce the amount of land used for raising livestock. By eating less meat, we can reduce the demand for more cattle farms.
Efficient urban planning
City planning is about how we design our cities and neighborhoods. Where people live affects how much carbon dioxide they create, mainly from transportation. Neighborhoods closer to city centers have smaller carbon footprints because they have good public transportation and everything they need nearby, so they don't need to drive as much.
The world's population is growing, and that means more people using Earth's resources. By 2050, there could be 9.7 billion people, and by 2100, over 11 billion. More people mean more emissions and using up resources. This leads to greenhouse gases in the air, which causes global warming and harms our planet. We can all help fight global warming by making choices in our daily lives that are better for the climate.
Activity: A thought exercise on low impact and affordable ways for your household, community/school/college/workplace or village to reduce carbon emissions.
Reducing our individual carbon emissions
Knowing your carbon footprint can help reduce the harm you do to the environment with what you use. Even small changes can have a big effect over time, like how you travel, what you eat, what you wear, and how you handle waste.
Food
Consume local and seasonal products
Limit meat consumption, especially beef
Select fish from sustainable fishing
Bring reusable shopping bags and avoid products with excessive plastic packaging
Make sure to buy only what you need, to avoid waste
Clothing
Take good care of your clothes
Try swapping, borrowing, renting or buying second-hand
Shop for responsibly-made clothes, when you can.
Transport
Cycle or use public transport
Be smart about when and how you drive
Avoid flying when possible
Energy and waste
Turn down the heating by 1°, it will already make a difference
Take short showers
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth or clean the dishes
Unplug your electronic equipment and don't leave your phone on charge when the battery is already full
Reducing carbon emissions is crucial to combat global warming and climate change. It requires transitioning to renewable energy, protecting forests, and developing carbon capture technologies. Individuals can also contribute by making sustainable choices in food, clothing, transportation, and energy usage, while policymakers play a vital role in implementing effective climate policies. Together, we can create a sustainable future by taking action to reduce our carbon footprint.
Greenhouse Gases
Definition of the topic in simple terms from a reputed site like NASA
Greenhouse gases1 let the sun's light shine onto Earth's surface, but they trap the heat that reflects back up into the atmosphere. They function as a blanket for the planet. In this way, they act like the insulating glass walls of a greenhouse. The greenhouse effect keeps Earth's climate comfortable. Examples of greenhouse gases include water vapour, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and industrial gases. Water vapour2 is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, as it amplifies the effect of other greenhouse gases. Higher temperatures mean that water will evaporate faster, which means that there will be even more water vapour in the atmosphere, which in turn leads to even more global warming and increased atmospheric temperatures, which leads to even more water vapour in the atmosphere, and so on.
CO2 is released when people burn things like fossil fuels, or even other human products. When humans breathe, CO2 is released, but that is not a sufficient enough amount to cause any harm, but when waste and garbage like plastics are burnt, or when vehicles burn petrol to move from one location to the other, CO2 is released. Factories and industries burn high amounts of fuels and other chemicals in their functions, which also leads to the emission of greenhouse gases.
The greenhouse effect is actually good for life on earth, as they make the planet a healthy and sustainable ecosystem for life to grow and flourish. These greenhouse gases keep the planet warm, and without them the planet would be a cold wasteland that wouldn't be able to support any life. Greenhouse gases on their own are not harmful to the planet, but due to increased human activity and man-made pollution, there has been a significant increase in greenhouse gases, which has caused global warming and climate change. Other planets in the solar system, like Mars or Venus, are either too cold or too hot for life to be sustained. On Earth, however, the human-enhanced greenhouse effect is incredibly harmful for the environment, and unless we do something about fossil fuel burning and human pollution, the effect - commonly known as global warming, will make life on earth unsustainable. Returning to the blanket example - the blanket helps keep our planet warm, which is good, as the planet would otherwise be too cold. Human activities, however, have added another few blankets on top, which is causing the planet to heat up 8to unforeseen levels.
The increase in the release of greenhouse gases has several negative effects on the global environment:
Increase in temperatures will cause glaciers and ice sheets to melt4. Himalayan glaciers will melt faster, and will then lead to rising sea levels.
Coastal communities are under threat, as rising sea levels would threaten their homes.
Bangladesh and the Sundarbans are examples of a region that would be under threat.
Sinking Sundarbans - Climate voices from India - YouTube 6
Within India itself, more than 36 lakh people have been forced to move because of cyclones, floods and storms within the country. For example, in West Bengal and Odisha, farmers have been forced to move inland because their land has turned salty and infertile. Fisherfolk have been forced to move to other areas of the country because of regular cyclones and storms that make it unsafe for their jobs.
Cyclone Amphan, in 2020, killed 128 people and destroyed the homes of millions of people across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - several of whom sought refuge in India as 'climate refugees'.7
Erratic weather patterns -- more cyclones, more storms, etc.
Increasing frequency of natural disasters in the Bay of Bengal. More floods, more hurricanes.
Couple of examples from the subcontinent preferably and from other countries if not available locally
If a car is left out in the heat for a long time, the inside of the car gets really hot, because all the heat from the sunlight gets trapped inside and cannot escape the car because the windows and the metal trap the heat inside. Heat gets in, but can't get out, which means that when someone gets back into the car, they experience all that heat.
Cattle and livestock are one of the sources of methane - through their farts/flatulence and various digestive processes. Man-made sources of methane are, however, much more relevant in the case of climate change and contributing to the greenhouse effect.
The most prominent greenhouse gas is CO2 (Carbon diOxide), because there is so much of it in the atmosphere, and so many human activities release CO2 into the atmosphere. Burning of coal, burning of wood, gas, oil, solid waste - all release CO2 into the atmosphere.
What 1-2 key ideas should the facilitator focus on while communicating the topic with their local communities?
Understanding the greenhouse effect is central to understanding why climate change is such a serious threat.
There are other planets in the solar system, but Earth is the only one with a system that is balanced and supports life in this way - without the greenhouse effect, the world would be approximately 33 degrees colder, and it wouldn't be able to support life in the same way that it does now. So the greenhouse effect on its own is actually very good for the survival of life on Earth, but the human activities and widespread consumption and burning of fossil fuels is what is making it a warmer planet, and an unsustainable situation for human society.8
How does it connect systemically with the other topics on which we are working?
The greenhouse effect is central to supporting life on earth, but when this effect is combined with the burning of fossil fuels and the other ways in which humans are damaging the biodiversity, the planet is getting warmer and warmer, causing global warming.
Increase in the greenhouse gases will create climate refugees - entire communities who need to be removed because their homes are under threat from erratic weather patterns and rising sea levels.
The increase in greenhouse gases reduces the ecological resilience of our planet - by breaking down key functions and disrupting the systems that facilitate the provisions of ecosystem services and makes the environment a less supportive space for most life on earth.
Examples of success stories from around the world of people/organisations that have brought about some positive changes in this space
There is currently more awareness than ever before about the dangers of the burning of fossil fuels - and countries around the world are promising to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels and find renewable energy sources in order to combat climate change, rising temperatures and rising sea levels.
There is a lot more work to be done, and it is up to us as citizens to ensure that these global governments are being held accountable and work towards achieving their climate goals.
Costa Rica is a model example of a country, as they are turning more and more towards renewable energy sources. In 2019, 98% of Costa Rica's energy was sourced from renewable energy - like solar and hydro power. 10
An activity that the readers can try individually or as a group that will help them gather firsthand data and understand the concept/ topic well in their own context
Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth's surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere.
Global warming is also known as the "enhanced greenhouse effect", when there are more heat-trapping gases in the Earth's atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act like a blanket around the Earth, trapping more heat from the sun and making our planet warmer. This extra heat can cause long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns, known as climate change. Just like wearing an extra layer of clothes makes us feel hotter, the enhanced greenhouse effect makes the Earth get warmer too.
Imagine the Earth as a body, and global warming is like a fever. Just like when you have a fever, you feel more than just being a little warmer. You might get headaches, stomach aches, and coughing. With global warming, it's not just about the temperature going up a little bit. It's about the stronger effects it has on different places and the weather patterns.
State of the Climate in 2009: Supplemental and Summary Materials: Report at a Glance: Highlights[1]
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: National Climatic Data Center
Causes of Global Warming
There are natural causes of global temperature changes, such as variations in the Earth's orbit and rotation, changes in the sun's intensity, and volcanic eruptions. These natural factors have historically led to shifts in temperature over time, including ice ages and interglacial periods. Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide,are important in maintaining the Earth's temperature. Without them, the Earth would be about 30 degrees colder than it is today, making it difficult for life to survive.
Now, since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have significantly contributed to enhanced global warming. Through the burning of fossil fuels in transportation, electricity generation, and industrial processes, we have been adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Deforestation and excessive agriculture, also release stored carbon into the air. These human-driven actions disrupt the natural balance, causing the planet to warm at an accelerated rate. This type of global warming is known as "Anthropogenic Global Warming".
Marine and land ecosystems act as carbon sinks, absorbing and storing carbon for their processes. When these ecosystems are damaged, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. Excessive land use activities, such as electricity generation, manufacturing, deforestation, transportation, food production, building energy consumption, and excessive consumption, contribute to emissions by changing soil composition and releasing greenhouse gases stored in the soil.
Global warming has many serious and far-reaching effects. It causes extreme weather like heat waves, droughts, and floods to happen more often and be stronger. These disasters can hurt communities and make people sick. The loss of biodiversity puts many plant and animal species at risk. We are seeing more heat waves, droughts, and floods, which are causing harm to communities and increasing the number of deaths. If we don't reduce our emissions and address global warming, it could lead to the deaths of over 250,000 people each year and push 100 million people into poverty by 2030.
Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters
As greenhouse gas levels rise, the Earth's surface temperature increases. Each decade since the 1960s has been hotter than the previous one, and we are experiencing more hot days and heat waves. Higher temperatures lead to more illnesses and make outdoor work harder. They also worsen storms, floods, and droughts, changing weather patterns and making wet areas wetter and dry areas drier. Wildfires are more likely and spread faster in hotter conditions.
In recent years, Mumbai experienced rare cyclones, with Nisarga in 2020 and Tauktae in May 2021. Unusually warm surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean led to a severe storm in the Arabian Sea, highlighting the changing weather patterns. Severe cyclones are expected to become more frequent and intense on both the east and west coasts of the Indian subcontinent due to the rapidly warming Indian Ocean, as abnormally high ocean temperatures accelerate cyclonic system intensification.
Risks to Polar Regions
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other regions, causing ice sheets to melt rapidly. This loss of ice reduces the Earth's ability to reflect sunlight and regulate global temperatures.
Pakistan has over 7,000 glaciers, and their meltwater is crucial for rivers, drinking water, agriculture, and electricity. As the climate warms, there is an increased risk of sudden glacial lake outbursts, which can cause devastating floods and damage infrastructure. In 2022, Pakistan experienced triple the usual number of these outbursts, posing a significant threat.
Severe Storms
Destructive storms are becoming more intense and frequent worldwide. Rising temperatures lead to increased evaporation, resulting in extreme rainfall and flooding. Tropical storms are also influenced by warming oceans. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons thrive in warm waters, causing destruction, deaths, and economic losses.
Increased Drought
Climate change affects water availability, making it scarcer in many regions. Global warming worsens water shortages, leading to agricultural droughts and ecological vulnerability. Droughts can trigger sand and dust storms, affecting ecosystems and reducing land for food production. Many people now face regular water scarcity.
The ocean absorbs most of the heat from global warming, but this leads to ocean warming, acidification, and rising sea levels. Melting ice sheets contribute to rising seas, threatening coastal communities and islands. By 2100, it is estimated that sea levels could rise by one to four feet, endangering coastal systems and major cities.
The sea levels are going up because the Earth is getting warmer, which is a big problem for coastal areas all over the world, including the Indian subcontinent. This happens because the ice on land, like glaciers and ice sheets, is melting and adding more water to the oceans.
Mumbai, a city on the west coast of India, is in danger because the water could cover the coastal parts. Flooding and erosion could harm the places where many people live and important things like buildings and roads. The Sundarbans, a special place shared by India and Bangladesh, is also at risk. The rising water can hurt the plants and animals there, and the people who depend on them. In Kerala, a state in India, places near the coast like Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram could have problems too. The rising water can affect the backwaters, which are important for the local economy and people who work in fishing and tourism. These examples show that we really need to do something to protect the coastal areas and make sure they can handle the rising sea levels.
Extreme deforestation can cause desertification, leading to the permanent loss of productive land. Drought, overgrazing, fire, and deforestation can deplete vegetation and topsoil, making it difficult for plants to grow and rainfall to penetrate the soil. This loss of productive land has serious consequences for food production.
Loss of Biodiversity
Climate change puts species at risk of extinction on land and in the ocean. Rising temperatures and extreme weather events contribute to the loss of species at an alarming rate. Forest fires, invasive pests, and diseases pose threats to ecosystems. Some species can adapt, but many cannot survive the changing conditions.
Food Shortages
Climate change and extreme weather events are increasing hunger and poor nutrition globally. Fisheries, crops, and livestock are affected, and the acidification of the ocean jeopardizes marine resources. Changes in snow and ice cover disrupt food supplies in Arctic regions. Heat stress reduces water and grasslands for grazing, leading to declining crop yields and affecting livestock.
Health Risks
Climate change is a major threat to human health. Air pollution, disease outbreaks, extreme weather events, forced displacement, mental health issues, and food scarcity all contribute to health risks. Environmental factors cause approximately 13 million deaths each year. Air pollution and changing weather.
In conclusion, global warming is a serious problem that is causing the Earth to get warmer. Global warming is causing extreme weather like heat waves, floods, and storms to happen more often and be stronger. It is also causing the sea levels to rise, which is a big risk for coastal areas and putting various communities and ecosystems at risk. We need to take action to protect our planet and make sure we have a safe and healthy world for everyone.
Environmental Feedback Loops
Definition
‘Climate feedback loops are processes that either amplify or diminish the effects of climate factors. Essentially, they make the impacts of key climate factors stronger or weaker, starting a chain reaction that repeats again and again.'
In short, Environmental Feedback loops are reactions that either strengthen or weaken the effects of the climate. Let's understand them better below.
Did you ever ride a bicycle as a child? If yes, Feedback Loops have already influenced your life.
Feedback loops exist within systems. To understand feedback loops, we need to understand what systems are and how these loops work inside them.
Systems are made up of different elements or parts that interact with each other. Take cycling as an example. Cycling is a simple system with just two elements – you and the bicycle. Together, you are able to move forward at a good speed while maintaining your balance, which neither you nor the bicycle can do separately. Your actions affect what the bicycle does, and the bicycle's behaviour influences how you respond.
Nature - Earth's largest living system - works the same way. It has millions of parts and processes that interact with and influence each other in complex ways. And humans are one of the millions of elements within the complex system called Nature. We are affected by Nature and, in turn, we affect Nature in many different ways. Some of these interactions in Nature are visible, but most remain invisible to us.
Let's now look at how Feedback Loops work in Nature. But let's begin by asking why they're even required.
The primary function of a Feedback loop is to provide information to the larger system about what's happening, so that the system can make changes as required. And these changes are mainly needed by the system to maintain a state of balance. To stay in a state of balance, every system uses information from its environment to change or adapt as required.
Let's take the human body. Nature has arrived at 98.6ºC as the set point for a healthy body temperature in humans. When our body temperature drops below this or goes higher than this, we fall ill. Nature has, therefore, developed mechanisms to bring our bodies back towards this set point and into a state of dynamic balance. We observe that when the body temperature drops below 98.6ºC, we start shivering. This generates heat and increases the temperature, bringing it back to the set point. When the body develops a fever and the temperature rises higher than 98.6ºC, we perspire or sweat thus cooling the body and bringing the temperature down to 98.6ºC once again.
The body is constantly receiving some information about its current temperature. This information from the system is called Feedback. And when this feedback is used by the body to make small adjustments to return to the set point, a loop is created.
All feedback loops need an action to get started. For example, while cycling, the person has to first sit on the bicycle and push the pedals to start the process of cycling. In the above example, the body becoming cold or hot was what kickstarted the feedback loop. This initial action made the body do something in response.
There are two kinds of feedback loops in Nature - Negative and Positive. But, unlike our traditional understanding of positive and negative, it's the opposite here. In fact, a more accurate way to label them would be Reinforcing and Balancing feedback loops.
Positive or Reinforcing feedback loops increase environmental changes. They are not very stable because they increase the effects of these changes, which in turn allow more of the same action to take place. As we can see, the role of a positive or reinforcing feedback loop is generally not to bring a system back to balance.
Negative or Balancing feedback loops, on the other hand, tend to negate or cancel the impacts of environmental changes. Generally, negative feedback loops allow systems to stabilise themselves.
Examples
Let's take melting ice as an example of a Positive or Reinforcing feedback loop. Glaciers, snowpacks, and sea ice reflect most of the sunlight that Earth receives, back into space, as they are mostly white in colour. This keeps warming on the planet low. However, when this ice cover melts due to increased warming over time, it reveals darker surfaces underneath which then absorb more energy from the sun which leads to more warming and to more ice melting.
As an example of a Negative or Balancing feedback loop, the drilling of borewells to access groundwater for agricultural or household purposes could lead to a severe drop in the water table. However, as the water table drops significantly, people will stop drilling for groundwater as the costs for drilling hundreds of feet into the ground can quickly become very expensive. They may, instead, rely on other water sources that are less expensive and more accessible. With borewell drilling not happening, the water table will get recharged gradually.
This is how feedback loops bring new information into the larger system that allows the system to make necessary changes and to maintain its state of dynamic balance.
Key ideas to focus on
The understanding that Nature is, essentially, an assortment of systems interacting with each other to maintain a state of dynamic balance. Feedback loops are one of the key mechanisms through which Earth's many systems share information with each other. This information is then used to make the necessary changes for each system to maintain its state of dynamic balance.
In Nature, these environmental feedback loops or limits are already built into Earth's systems through millions of years of trial and error. Many of the issues we face today, including the Climate Crisis, are a result of our breaking these limits that feedback loops offer.
How does it connect systemically with the other topics?
Almost every action we take contributes information back to the systems in which we are a part, whether local or global. The current state of the world clearly shows us that the Earth is out of balance. Its systems are being overburdened by the many stresses our civilization has placed upon it. And this overburdening has happened primarily because we have ignored or broken many of the natural limits that exist in Earth's systems.
The rise in greenhouse gases, depletion of fish stocks in the oceans, erosion of topsoil, depletion of groundwater, among many other global issues are all outcomes of existing balancing feedback loops being broken knowingly or unknowingly by us.
Success stories
In this article, you can see how the local authorities in Garden Grove, California used feedback loops to get drivers to slow down while going through school zones. Despite many efforts like replacing old speed limit signs with new ones, ticketing speeding drivers during school hours, etc., the drivers just wouldn't slow down. Finally, the authorities took a different approach. By using the power of feedback loops to encourage better behaviour among drivers - by just sharing information about their driving speeds without any punishment - brought about a 14 percent reduction in speeding and even brought average speeds below the posted limit in some areas. This demonstrates the potential effectiveness of feedback loops in promoting positive changes in behaviour.
The ability of an ecosystem to return to its stable state after going through disturbances like floods, hurricanes, forests fires, cyclones, pollution or deforestation, etc. is known as ecological resilience. These disturbances can impact the normal functioning of a food web in an ecosystem causing severe damage to the ecosystem. Unfortunately the number of these disturbances is increasing due to human activity.
The resilience of a system can be described either by the time it takes to return to its balanced state after a disturbance, or its capacity to absorb disturbance.
There are 3 crucial factors that determine resilience of an ecosystem:
The ability of the different plants and animals in an ecosystem to continue with their daily interactions despite a disturbance
The ability of an ecosystem to continue functioning and provide the same services. For example; clean air, food, and livelihoods despite the disturbances.
The sudden change that ecosystems undergo following a disturbance, that cannot be absorbed; for example, a quick and significant change in ecosystem services or in plant/ animal interactions, as the ecosystem becomes fundamentally different than it was before the disturbance
Some examples of ecological resilience
Coral reefs across the world are under serious threat from the impacts of climate change. The warming of the planet is leading to rising temperatures of the oceans. Oceans also absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. As the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increases due to burning of fossil fuels, more CO2 is absorbed by the oceans leading to increased acidity of ocean waters. Warming oceans and ocean acidification lead to a phenomenon called coral bleaching.
Corals have tiny organisms called zooxanthallea that live inside them. These organisms not only make food for the corals but also give them their beautiful colours. As the temperature of the ocean rises, the zooxanthallea leave the corals. Being the primary providers of food for the corals, if the zooxanthellae don’t return, the corals turn white and can die.
However, coral reefs are thought to be naturally resilient ecosystems. Not all bleaching events lead to death. If given a chance to recover, sometimes the zooxanthellae can return to corals. However, this depends on the severity of the bleaching and reducing stressors like pollution, overfishing, etc.
It is also important to note that ecological resilience is not always positive. A freshwater lake can get locked in a eutrophic state due to large amounts of nutrients getting added to it from agricultural run-offs. A eutrophic state is a process where, as the population of algae increases due to the additional nutrients, it takes over the lake killing all the other plants in the lake and blocking sunlight from entering the water, thus killing the fish and other life forms in the lake. Such a lake may be resilient but less biodiverse.
Cues for Facilitators
What is ecological resilience?
Can you find more examples of resilient ecosystems?
