Environmental Advocacy Program
By Gabriel Andre – Art in Tanzania internship
Welcome to our new four-part blog. In a series of blogs, I will discuss the effects of climate change on our planet and the consequences it will have if we do not take action against climate change.
Climate change
Before discussing the specific case of Tanzania, it is essential to understand the definition of climate change and its consequences on our planet. Firstly, it’s critical to understand the difference between climate and weather. Weather is a local and instantaneous situation of observable phenomena, such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. On the other hand, climate is a statistical description based on the averages and variability of the same variables (such as temperature and wind) over long periods and a global scale. For example, the difference between weather and climate can be compared to the difference between a student’s grade on an exam and their yearly average.
In this report, I will focus on the effects of climate change on our environment. Since the beginning, the climate has undergone natural changes, marked by ice ages. For 11,000 years now, our planet has been in an interglacial era (average temperature has similarly been constant over many years; in summer, the snow melts, and the ice surface slowly shrinks around the globe), i.e., our planet is warming at its own pace. However, climate change is different, and our planet is warming too fast. Previously, losing 5 degrees would have taken thousands of years; nowadays, we have already gained 1 degree in less than a century. Indeed, our greenhouse effect is entirely out of control. The concentration of “greenhouse gases” (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and water vapour (H2O), etc.) in the atmosphere has increased at an unprecedented rate in recent years. The higher the level of CO2, the higher the temperature. For simplicity’s sake, we will give the greenhouse gases the abbreviation GHG. This diagram illustrates the natural evolution of CO2 levels during ice ages and interglacials.
The exponential increase in GHGs over the last century is, therefore, leading to a new and entirely distinct climate disturbance that is making global warming increasingly alarming and necessitating its control.
But what has caused climate change?
From the diagram above, it is clear that the human race has a large share of the responsibility for this phenomenon. Before the 1850s, CO2 in the atmosphere played its natural role as a greenhouse gas at a relatively stable rate. Since then, human activities have significantly contributed to its increase, mainly through economic growth, as the standard of living has increased drastically. As wealth rises, humans continuously need to consume, thus increasing their GHG impact. This phenomenon primarily originated in Europe and then gradually spread to all industrialised countries. Population growth has significantly contributed to climate change, rising from 1.2 billion people to 7.7 billion between 1850 and 2019.
Parallel to these two phenomena, several industrial revolutions (such as the steam, electricity, and nuclear power revolutions) emerged, transforming an increasing number of natural resources into energy or materials. Population growth, coupled with an increase in GDP per capita, has led to an upheaval in energy consumption on our planet, and now, 80% of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels or hydrocarbons (oil, gas, coal). Fossil fuels constitute a stock formed over hundreds of millions of years by the slow decomposition of the remains of living organisms. However, humans exploit these fossil resources. A substantial quantity of carbon, usually buried underground for millions of years, is suddenly released into the atmosphere as CO₂. Changes in land use also significantly impact the balance of natural carbon stocks, including deforestation, agriculture, the draining of swamps, and peat bogs. Therefore, human activities have a significant impact on the carbon cycle and can no longer regulate it effectively. The Earth can no longer regulate this unnatural flow through its physical and biological mechanisms. Unfortunately, the situation is worsening as human activity continuously disrupts the carbon cycle, and its consequences are becoming increasingly severe each year.
This diagram illustrates that we previously required 130 years to emit 1000 gigatons (Gt) of CO2 equivalent, but now we can achieve the same amount in just 30 years. At this rate, we will only need 20 years to produce another 1000 Gt.
