The Zero Carbon Footprint Ultimatum

by: Wiam Nasr

27-02-2021

It might have been COVID that showed us how bad we've been hurting our planet and by extension ourselves, but make no mistake, those are deep, ancient battle wounds.

A battle to pay the price of progress and evolution, started because we need, and cannot but move forward.

Make no mistake, it is not between us and our planet, this has always been our own battle of accepting our collective responsibility to right what we wronged.

Now the whole planet shifted because of COVID, showing us just how bad it needed to take a breather from its inhabitants. Waters are cleaner than ever, the air is more oxygenated and the Dolphins are returning to their homes! All because the level of pollution dropped, reciprocating the considerable Carbon footprint drop the past year.

But that is still far from enough!

As long as the green house gases continue to accumulate in our atmosphere, slowly but surely raising our Earth's temperature, we cannot but be like sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Any Carbon footprint of any kind would only prolong the devastating repercussions. Zero is the magic number here, if its not Zero then we are condemning ourselves to a fate of being sitting ducks in front of our own rifles. But why Zero? What does that even mean in practice? Can we reach this target? and When?

If anyone was paying attention in their Chemistry class, greenhouse gases are named as such because they are similar to the gases in a greenhouse. Inside a greenhouse, energy is absorbed and kept inside, creating a more humid, warmer climate. Same happens when we burn fossil fuel, gases released are filled with Carbon Dioxide, they condense in our atmosphere and stay there for a really long time, much longer than one lifetime or two. These gases allow the sun rays to pass through them coming to earth un-intercepted, but as we all know, the earth releases energy as well in return, this energy being emitted is a heat energy. Due to the nature of the gases in our atmosphere, when hit by that energy, they start moving really fast, similar to that of boiling water in a kettle.

The rapid movement of these persistent gases is causing our Earth to heat up in a manner so much faster than anything witnessed before.

We are currently in a pandemic, caused by this very same thing!

Ever since humans picked up pace because of technology made possible by fossil fuel, the repercussions of messing with our planet's temperature has been so severe, yet, so far reversible.

The thing with our carbon footprint is that it stays there for a very long time and any addition to it, no matter how tiny, will move us miles closer to raising the temperature of our planet, thus facing a point of no return, which is not more than 10 years away. If the temperature continues to heat up like it is now, even for a tiny fraction, it would mean more sea level rising, more ice melting, irreversible damage to migration patterns, pandemics every 5 or so years and these are just few of what we are already experiencing in regards to climate change and its severe repercussions on the weather. Floods, droughts and rain intensity if any, all leading to losses, beyond inferring to a later stage to take action on.

All of this will take time and will not be easy. Almost all aspects of our lives are going to change, even the things that might not come to mind when thinking of climate change. Fabrication, construction and production materials for instance, add to them everything else that releases at any phase in its conception, production and distribution any Carbon foot print.

While diving into matters of our daily lives that are creating any Carbon footprint, we, as a species need to start where it hurts most. Deeply dis-infect the big wounds, stitch them up for good and leave no place for chance.

Enter our current status. People are cut off from each other, dreaming, hoping of a near future where they can go back to normality.

Lets' be clear, "normality" was the result of stepping on ourselves, our livelihood and our continuance. The "old normality" is gone, we need to gesture in a new normal that will take some getting used to, but will undoubtedly be worth our every effort.

Personally, I view this as the harshest transition phase for Mankind. Everything we want to do and be is there, but conventional methods will do us no good, not if we want to live to discover another day.

No, COVID did not come as a gateway to gesture in people towards this path. It has always been a highly predicted and feared result in today's day and age. If you are having any doubts about this, I would suggest reading any climate change report pre-COVID. Our expansion and modernization come at a cost, at least for now with our current methods.

On the positive side, all the attention by the big players is turned and focused on raising awareness, funding major reform projects and setting a very ambitious target of reaching zero emissions by 2050. Big countries, who are the major contributors to our Carbon footprint anyways, are leading the way to Zero emissions already.

Technologies to remove carbon from our air are already in place and resources to replace our current source of power are available and abundant. Wind, Water, Solar and Nuclear power production are at the center of an open end conversation to get to Zero.

Whoever can, is paying for their carbon emissions and is making the switch to renewables. This reality is no longer an option, we cannot postpone dealing with the issue to a later time, not if we want to close the door once and for all on any future catastrophes.

One might argue that this current situation has to gesture in the reality of things, whether we like them or not. Protecting ourselves and each other should never be an option.