It is estimating that the total weight of greenhouse gas emissions by human activity is between 30 and 40 billion tons a year. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) being the largest single compound emitted. If we keep it up, the earth will continue to heat up and eventually devastate our way of life. Humans, like most animals, are dependant on oxygen for survival; we use it to respire and are food uses it to grow. Increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere reduce the concentration of oxygen in the same environment which can make it harder to breathe, with oxygen being replaced by greenhouse gases, dust and other airborne particles.
So what can we do about it?
Most scientists agree we need a way to capture and remove some of that CO2 from the atmosphere. One simple idea is the plant lots of trees. Tress use CO2 in order to grow, as a by-product of their growth they release oxygen, so it could be a win-win. The first issue with this plan is that we have made the number of trees required exponentially higher than it should have been though deforestation. Cutting down the forests for housing or the Amazon rainforest for mining and farming we have been the need for trees so much higher than it should have been. Studies indicate that we simply can't grow enough trees to capture the necessary amount of CO2 that would help us meet the goals set by the Paris Agreement.
We would have to cover the entirety of Northern America with trees just to capture 10% of the CO2 we emit annually. There simply is not enough room on earth to have the farmland it takes to feed the world plus the space to plant the necessary number of trees. In other words, many of us would starve if we tried using trees to solve our emissions problem.
Carbon capture technologies are a possible solution but we are decades away from any real solution being developed in this field. In truth, the most effective way to stop the damage of greenhouse gases is to stop using them. Many countries are making huge efforts to cut their pollution levels. The United Kingdom, for example, has hit another milestone it has now been Coal Free for a whole month according to the National Grid, who have big ambitions for the country's #zerocarbon electricity system.
There is no argument that the biggest pollution emitters are power stations and good transport (shipping, air, rail and road) but everyday activities also release greenhouse gases like CO2 into the atmosphere. When you drive to work, order goods for delivery online or enjoy a pint from your local which uses bottled gas; these are all too common activities which when added up account for a huge proportion of CO2 emissions. Little changes to our lives, everyone does them, can save a lot of CO2 from being released. Cycle or walk to work where possible, choose the eco delivery option on your Amazon delivers and wait an extra day for the wardrobe organiser you ordered.
And if you are a bar or pub owner pick a more environmentally-friendly option for your gas supplier, all those bottles gas delivers add up. Make the switch to an Apex Cellar Solution and do good by the planet, and in most cases, we are cheaper than your current supplier, what's to lose? That goes for anyone; pub, bar, laboratory, packaging planet or industrial processors if you use bottled gas...think about the impact you're having on the environment and choose the better option, a gas generator could be the perfect solution for you. We are, after all, BETTER THAN BOTTLED.
Sources:
National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/)