What Causes Climate Change?

22 May 2022

Source: Shutterstock. Climate Change Illustration

Climate change is a global phenomenon of climate transformation that is characterized by changes in the regular climate of the planet (regarding temperature, precipitation, and wind), which are thought to have occurred since the 1800s as a result of human activities. The term “climate change” refers to shifts in weather patterns as well as the corresponding transformations in oceans, land surfaces, and ice sheets. In the last few decades, climate change has emerged as a major worldwide concern due to the widespread belief that it has had a variety of effects on life on earth.

Indonesia’s climate change has received a great deal of attention as Indonesia is currently the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases,  the leading cause of global climate change.  Indonesia is blessed with natural resources, but the deterioration of the environment is rapid, and unlike most developed countries, Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions are mainly the result of wildfire and environmental deterioration. As a country extremely vulnerable to climate change, Indonesia needs to adapt to these various environmental stresses. Indonesia is also receiving international attention due to its national ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 26% (World Bank, 2010).

The main cause of climate change is the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect happens when the heat from the sun is trapped inside the earth’s atmosphere. The sun’s heat is trapped inside by gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. These greenhouse gases happen naturally, but humans increased the amount of these gases, which resulted in an increase in the greenhouse effect and also global warming. Human activities increase greenhouse gases in a lot of ways, such as coal usage, deforestation, transportation, industry, agriculture, etc. Some of these human activities are beneficial for humans, but they also have an effect on the natural environment. Stopping these activities to cure climate change can be a hard decision. Some “harmful” activities are crucial for human lives. Coal usage is one example. Coal is used for producing energy that is crucial and beneficial. On the other hand, it creates pollution that leads to climate change. There are a lot of dilemmas to be considered.

Source: Photo by Markus Spiske. Pexels. Climate People Street Crowd

The effects of climate change are getting worse these days. Extreme weather happens more frequently; melting of ice glaciers, increase in sea level, change of ecosystems, increase in temperatures, and many more. If climate change keeps happening, it will cause a lot of harm to all living things, including humans. Climate change needs to be slowed down, or stopped if possible. Everyone needs to take part in this for it to work. Earth is the only place that we have, and we don’t have a substitute for it.

There are diverse climate and each of them are important whereas climate is a part of our world’s ecosystem, NASA stated that there are several ways on how to sustain it, namely, use the energy efficiently by turning off switches when not using electronic devices, waste reduction by turning food waste into compost, pollution reduction by using public transportation rather than private vehicle, increased recycling by bringing tumbler instead of using plastic cup that is provided by the restaurant, and others. 

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Zahwa Salsabillah, Melvia Rindra Nareswari, Leonardo Nurtanto, Felicia Maureen, Josephine Florencia Chan