Can We Save Planet Earth?
Likely Changes in the Environment
Sir David Frederick Attenborough is a naturalist who has done many environmental programs specializing in climate change. He began a programme titled "Climate Chaos" by looking at potential future events and went on to warn that what will happen over the next few years is crucial. Attenborough predicted changing weather for the year 2050 in which summer temperatures in the United Kingdom are expected to rise as high as 38°C, and that this will be "par for the course."
Attenborough reported that temperatures will rise at the rate of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C over the next century and that this will produce catastrophic results. Just a 2°C rise plus increased rain and intense storms will increase the frequency of destructive flooding in low lying areas like south England and New Orleans. This situation will become worse by inadequate preparations to defend against deadly storms. Attenborough used Hurricane Katrina as a reference of one of these kinds of events that shows the incompetence of the defenses, poorly built levies, worn down concrete dams, and no place for people to find safety.
Other environmental problems include fire, rain forests, and ice. Australia needs to design new ways to deal with brush fires. As temperatures rise, more and more fires are expected to occur. Tropical rain forest in the Amazon provides the air conditioning for the earth and the iron lung for the atmosphere. The destruction of the rain forests especially in the Amazon region would be the death of all the ecosystems living there. Melting glaciers threaten entire land masses and their ecosystems.
Attenborough reports in this documentary that an increase of only 2°C is going to happen because of human meddling with nature's recycling process over the last 25 years. What we can change is whether or not the increase in temperature will end up at 6°C.
Domestic Pollution
Increased carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans, their domestic activities including their cars, and industrial activities causes an increase in greenhouse gases and thus causes global warming.
Attenborough uses a fictional suburban family to show how much the typical family adds to the increase of CO2.
- The family has needs for electricity supplied by fossil fuels in every room.
- They have two cars, each emitting 10 tons of CO2 a year.
- Their food is transported from great distances by sources which also add to the CO2.
- Their trash which goes to landfills gives off CO2 as it decomposes.
- The father travels by airplane, a hugely adding to the release of greenhouse gases.
- In all this family will produce 45 tons yearly to air pollution.
Finally, Attenborough points out that although China has not been a major contributor to pollution in the past; they are industrializing at a very fast pace and will soon be a major contributor to the deadly greenhouse gases.
