The term climate change was a foreign concept about 10 years ago. Global warming is something that most people have learned about in their childhood in science textbooks. However, in the media, it would be presented as a significant threat to mankind which we would need to deal with in the years to come. People would casually switch their attention to their daily lives and move on about their business, completely putting aside what they just heard about global warming threatening the earth.
Fast-forward to recent years, climate change has become a bigger threat to humanity than it was anticipated back in the day. Different environmentalists and scientists fear for the future of the world because the times that have to come are going to cause a lot of problems to the inhabitants of the earth. There is an ever-increasing need for circulating information and spreading knowledge among people, educating them about the devastating impact of increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other environmental pollutions. It is a problem that if we continue to ignore, it would risk our survival, especially of the generations coming after us.
There have been many efforts in being engaged regarding the battle against climate change. Let us mention the considerable use of renewable energy in the form of solar panels that several regions across the globe are adapting as a cleaner source of energy. A good example remains the work by Al Etihad Energy Services Company (Etihad ESCO), a subsidiary of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), in Dubai and Hatta, a district near Dubai. Etihad ESCO has successfully installed over 7,756 photovoltaic solar panels in over 600 houses across the region. The project would yield approximately 3.6 million kWh of energy through this project. In addition, an annual reduction in CO2 emissions by 2,159 tons is expected to be achieved as a result of this project, which is under DEWA’s Shams Dubai initiative. Shams Dubai aims to encourage building owners to install solar panels on their rooftops to generate electricity from solar power and link these panels to DEWA’s grid to allow transfer of surplus generation. Both the Hatta project and Shams Dubai are an incredible milestone which must be appreciated.
Here is why it continues to remain a big problem:
Disruption of life – Since average temperatures have dramatically changed, people in different regions are hit with an emergency. Their lifestyles have been challenged, and they are not able to live their lives in the way they used to before. Take for example in South Asia, where annual heat waves cause thousands of casualties of human lives, and normal people’s lifestyles are completely disturbed.
Wildlife threat – The newest David Attenborough documentary on Netflix called Our Planet shows us the distressing impact of climate change on wildlife. Apart from that, the media and environmental agencies have always grabbed our attention regarding the consequences of climate change. Wildlife faces a dire threat, and many species are about to go extinct.
Depletion of resources – Resources which we heavily rely on are gradually running out. Fresh water, oil, gas, and many minerals are getting depleted, and this trend increasingly calls for a regulated approach regarding the usage of renewable energy.