GLOBAL WARMING, HOW IT AFFECTS US ALL AND HOW WE AFFECT IT!
People are increasingly influencing the climate and temperature of the planet through the use of fossil fuels, deforestation and livestock farming.
These activities add huge amounts of greenhouse gases to the present gazes in the atmosphere, causing the effect of global warming even further.
Global warming is called the environmental phenomenon in which the Earth is warming to a great extent. This happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, fluorinated gases) trap heat and light from the sun in the Earth’s atmosphere and prevent it from spreading into the air, causing the temperature to rise. Many of these gases are found in nature, but human activity has the effect of dramatically increasing their concentrations in the atmosphere. This particularly affects all living organisms (humans, animal, and plants), while those who can not adapt to the new conditions are dying.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the greenhouse gas most frequently produced by human activities and is responsible for 63% of the global warming. Its concentration in the atmosphere is now 40% higher than at the beginning of industrialization.
Other greenhouse gases are released in smaller quantities but they trap heat much more than CO2, and in some cases, they are much stronger. Methane accounts for 19% of global warming by man-made causes and nitrogen oxide for 6%.
Causes of increased emissions
- Combustion of coal, oil and natural gas produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
- Deforestation: Trees help regulate the climate because they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Therefore, when they are reduced, this positive result is lost and the coal that is stored in them is released into the atmosphere, exacerbating the greenhouse effect.
- Increase livestock: cows, sheep, and goats produce large amounts of methane when digesting their food.
- Nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for nitrous oxide emissions.
- Fluoride gases have a tremendous heating effect, up to 23,000 times greater than CO2. Fortunately, they are released in smaller quantities and phased out in accordance with an EU regulation.
Droughts
The current average earth temperature is 0.85ºC higher than at the end of the 19th century. Each of the last three decades has been warmer since its past and the records kept from the 1850’s.
The most prominent climatologists in the world believe that human activities are almost certainly the leading cause of overheating observed since the mid-20th century.
A 2 ° C rise in temperature relative to the pre-industrial era is considered by scientists as the threshold beyond which there will be a much greater risk of dangerous and possibly devastating changes in the planet’s environment. For this reason, the international community has recognized the need to keep global warming below 2 ° C.
(Source: http://ec.europa.eu/)
How fashion relates to all of the above?
In many, dangerous ways is the answer! Let us not forget that we are talking about a global industry, the negative effects of which vary and leave a huge “carbon footprint” on the planet! (read more on carbon footprint here)
According to the Vogue issue in May 2007, sustainable fashionSustainable fashion, also called eco fashion, is a part of t... (read more on sustainable fashion here), “there seems to be a short-term trend on sustainable fashion, however, this trend must last forever and not just for a while. The word season itself (used in fashion) Is characterized by grappling in a world already affected by the climate. ”
Various questions arise as to what future generations will face if we continue to concentrate only on profit and what we call fast fashionFast fashion is a contemporary term used by fashion retailer.... (Read more on fast fashion here) The Tamsin Lejeune, Founder, and CEO of the Forum of Ethics Fashion states that if we change the way we produce and consume fashion in the future will see even more dire consequences and thus we should absolutely change the way we consume.
Article by Danai Fedra Thomaidou
Phography by Eleni Kokkorou