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Introduction
Recent years have seen drastic changes in climate and terms such as global warming and greenhouse gases are common even to the children in primary schools. The earth’s temperature is increasing steadily and this process is termed as global warming. It is also the major contributor for global climate change. The greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming and include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides. These gases are responsible to trap heat that has been reflected from the earth’s surface making the earth warmer and warmer. There are several studies that specifically point out the global temperature increase of 0.5°C over the last century.
However, it is also suggest that there is a rapid increase in temperature in the past one or two decades and has resulted in drastic changes in climate. A controversy triggered in the scientific community, when it was studied that plants contribute to the methane content in the atmosphere. Methane gas (CH4) is one of the major contributors for global warming. The study estimated that about 60 million to 240 million metric tons of methane is released annually from the vegetations around the world (Keppler and Röckmann, 2007). This paper intends to give a brief account of the links between methane, plants and climate change.
Main body
As we all know that the climate is changing and the earth is warming up. Today, it is proven beyond doubt that the major cause for the climate change is human-induced. The increase in global temperature is directly having an impact on the species and the ecosystems. Besides, it is beyond any doubts that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing the planet. Man’s rising needs have concurrently amplified the load of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The burning of fossil fuels releases several harmful pollutants and is a major contributor for the greenhouse gases. Increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases the earth’s temperature and results in malting of glaciers and ice sheets (Meehl et al., 2005). Scientists estimate that global average air temperature near Earth’s surface raised 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.3 ± 0.32 °F) in the past century. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is the anthropogenic activities that has increased the load of greenhouse gases since the mid-20th century that has resulted in global warming (IPCC, 2007).
The study by Frank Keppler and Thomas Röckmann (2007) surprised the scientific community about the production of methane from the plant sources. Sooner they realized that vegetation is a part of the planet earth for several millions of years and it is only in the recent years that climate change is drastic.
Therefore, the amount of methane from the vegetation cannot be a sole reason for the rapid climatic change. Besides the green vegetation is the green lung of the planet earth. In fact, the existence of life on earth is the result of the precious oxygen that is released from the plantation. It is only the anthropogenic activities since industrialization that has been the major culprit of greenhouse gases and global warming. Additionally, since the forests and the ocean forms the major sinks for the greenhouse gases especially the carbon dioxide, it is essential to preserve them (Keppler and Röckmann, 2007).
In yet another study by Dutch scientists Tom Dueck and colleagues suggest that methane emissions from plants are insignificant and are not a contributing factor to rapid global climate change. They used the atmospheric CO2 solely with a heavy form of carbon (13C) to grow different species of plants and 13C-methane emission was measured with the help of photo-acoustic laser technique. From the results it was clear that the measured emission rates was minimal and was not significantly different from zero. Therefore, it can be concluded that vegetation play an important role in maintaining the proper balance as it mainly acts as a sink for major greenhouse gas (Blackwell Publishing, 2007).
The Industrial Revolution has triggered the use of energy in the form of fossil fuels. The increasing number of vehicles also added to the burning of fossil fuels. Besides, electricity that is generated from fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil has increased the concentrations of dangerous greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has in turn led to problems such as ozone depletion and global warming (TERI, 2006). In fact, the use of fossil fuels to generate energy has been a convenient and low-cost issue that has triggered its use during the industrialization. Unfortunately, fossil fuels are linked with several environmental problems including noise, dust, and groundwater pollution and their extensive usage releases greenhouse gases and other harmful particulates into the atmosphere causing global warming and acid rains.
Conclusion
Though it is found that forests are a source of methane, it is not the only source of methane. It is important to understand that it is the vegetative cover that helps the atmosphere to be free from the toxic gases, as it is a sink for most of the dangerous gases. Priority need to be given to the reduction of harmful pollutant emissions and carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles. Therefore it becomes important that the automotive industry need to improve fuel economy, both in terms of conservation of natural resources and to limit pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions (Harrison, 1999). Global warming is a major challenge for the entire global community.
Governments need to emphasize improvements at the local, community, regional, and global levels through the concept of sustainable development in all major fields. It is therefore necessary that governments formulate policies that will benefit in long term and reduce the burden on environment by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and protect the planet earth along with its life.
References
Baliunas, S. (1996) Uncertainties in Climate Modeling: Solar Variability and Other Factors, The Marshall Institute. Web.
Blackwell Publishing (2007). Don’t Blame Climate Change On Plants, Methane Emission Study Says. ScienceDaily. Web.
Harrison, R.M. (1999), Understanding Our Environment, 3rd ed, Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.
IPCC, (2007) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Web.
Keppler, F. and Röckmann, T. (2007) Methane, Plants and Climate Change, Scientific American, PP: 53-57. Web.
Meehl, G.A. et al. (2005) How Much More Global Warming and Sea Level Rise? Science: Vol. 307. no. 5716, pp. 1769 – 1772.
TERI, (2006) Energy. EduGreen. Web.
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