Climate warming refers to the global increase in the temperature of the oceans and near-surface air, which is causing ecosystem destruction, increased natural disasters, and water shortages. To prevent global warming, we need both technological solutions, such as developing renewable energy and using electric vehicles, and national solutions, such as signing international agreements.
News about Korea’s changing climate has become a regular feature of the changing seasons. Although it has become more extreme in recent years, climate warming is a familiar and representative environmental problem that has been around for a long time and has emerged as a global problem, not limited to Korea. In this article, we’ll take a look at what it is, why it has become such a problem, and what solutions are being proposed to address it.
Climate change is now having a major impact on our daily lives. We’re seeing longer winters, hotter summers, and more intense heat waves than ever before. This isn’t just a fluctuation in the weather, but a shift in long-term climate patterns. These changes are having economic impacts across agriculture, fisheries, and industry, and they are also having serious implications for our health and safety. For example, more frequent heat waves and cold spells threaten the health of the elderly and children, and they also have a significant impact on crop yields.
First formally recognized in the 1972 Rome Club report, climate warming, or global warming, refers to the global increase in the temperature of the oceans and near-surface air that began in the late 19th century. It wasn’t until 1988 that NASA testified before the U.S. Congress about global warming. In 1985, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme declared that carbon dioxide was the main culprit in the warming, but the cause was not yet clearly defined. The most likely candidate is the greenhouse effect, but other factors that environmentalists believe are responsible include changes in the Earth’s surface cover, the decline of coral reefs, and the intervention of solar radiation.
The effect of climate warming is to increase the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. In recent years, we have witnessed unprecedented heavy rains and floods, droughts and wildfires. These natural disasters are not only costly in terms of human lives, but also in terms of property damage. For example, the massive bushfires in Australia in 2020 burned millions of hectares of forest and destroyed the habitat of countless species of plants and animals. These are not just temporary disasters, but are likely to become more frequent and intense due to climate change.
In October 2023, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) announced in its latest report that the average global temperature is now about 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The report warns that if carbon dioxide emissions are not cut in half by 2030, the average global temperature rise will be more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. This exceeds the Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5 degrees and is a stark reminder of the seriousness of climate change.
First, there’s a clear scientific consensus on the most influential cause: the greenhouse effect, which is the increasingly warming of the Earth’s air by absorbing sunlight and preventing it from diffusing outward. If the greenhouse effect didn’t exist, the Earth would radiate all the energy it receives from the sun, causing the average temperature to drop by as much as -15 degrees Celsius. Ironically, the greenhouse effect causes global warming, but it’s also essential. However, the problem is that the greenhouse effect is getting bigger and bigger because of the increase in greenhouse gases. GHGs are literally gases that cause the greenhouse effect, and they include carbon dioxide, methane, freon gas, and water vapor.
Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor, not only to the greenhouse effect, but to climate warming as a whole. In fact, the effect of a single carbon dioxide molecule on the greenhouse effect is much smaller than that of freon gas or methane, but because the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is so much larger than those two, it contributes the most to warming. It is most commonly produced when fossil fuels such as oil and coal are burned, so it is also emitted in everyday life, such as when heating homes and driving cars. Fire, especially when tropical forests are burned, also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, but the loss of forests that convert carbon dioxide to oxygen increases the actual amount of carbon dioxide emitted.
Methane, another greenhouse gas, is produced by forest fires and fossil fuels, as well as by the decomposition of organic matter in humid environments. Wetlands, rice farming, and the burps and farts of cows and sheep produce methane. While methane and carbon dioxide directly absorb and re-radiate energy back to the earth, causing a greenhouse effect, the ozone layer, which blocks ultraviolet radiation from the sun, has the opposite mechanism. Freon gas is not technically a greenhouse gas because it contributes to global warming by destroying this ozone layer. However, like greenhouse gases, it is considered a greenhouse gas in the sense that it causes global warming. And it’s not just the warming that makes it a greenhouse gas, but also the destruction of ecosystems due to the influx of ultraviolet radiation that makes it a global problem.
There are two main changes in the Earth’s surface cover: the building of cities and the melting of glaciers. Both are largely related to albedo, which is the degree to which something emits light after absorbing it. Cities, with their mostly black and gray buildings and roads, have a lower albedo than green forests, which means they are warmer than they were in the past, when they emitted less sunlight. The melting of glaciers is a similar story: when white, high-albedo glaciers melt into water, the decrease in albedo causes warming. Other theories include the disappearance of coral reefs, which synthesize oxygen, and solar radiation.
The most frightening aspect of global warming is that it will continue to accelerate, due to the trigger effect, which is the natural continuation of warming as it occurs. The melting of glaciers, described above, is a prime example of this: the faster the warming accelerates, the faster the glaciers melt, which accelerates the warming even more. Not only that, but as the warming progresses, it melts the permafrost that buried so many animals 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. The permafrost contains large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane from the decomposing bodies of these animals, and as it melts, these greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, further fueling warming. In addition, as the average annual temperature rises, ocean water warms, which in turn releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The reason why climate warming has become an environmental issue is because of the damage it causes. We can categorize it into two main types: ecosystem pollution and natural disasters. Many animals that live in the Arctic are losing their habitat due to the melting of glaciers and the rise in temperatures in many other parts of the world. The loss of habitat can lead directly to the extinction of an individual, which in turn jeopardizes the higher-level species that feed on it. This process is currently underway, and if current trends continue, about 1 million species will disappear in 20 years.
Increased climate also accelerates desertification because it helps evaporate ocean water, which brings rain, but before that cycle, it evaporates the moisture in the soil. Dry land, such as deserts, presents many problems, including significantly lower food productivity, making it uninhabitable for life, and a higher risk of fire. It is also argued that warming will evaporate moisture from some soils, causing flooding in other areas through torrential rains. From 1990 to 2004, seven major floods occurred globally, a sharp increase from the past, with global warming being the main culprit. According to the Korea Maritime Research Institute, El Niño, an extreme weather event that occurs about once every four years in South America that causes water temperatures to spike and precipitation to increase, is becoming more frequent as the climate warms. These El Niño events have a devastating effect on fisheries ecosystems because of the decline in plankton, which disrupts the food chain.
Warming temperatures are also causing water scarcity. As temperatures rise, the amount and rate of evaporation of surface water increases. Not to mention the seriousness of the problem, as it comes at a time when the need for agricultural water to feed a growing population and industrial water due to industrialization is increasing. Conversely, glacier melt causes sea levels to rise, which is devastating for humanity, given that more than 40% of the world’s population currently lives within 100 kilometers of the coast, and 100 million people live within 1 meter of sea level, with predictions of up to 90 centimeters of sea level rise by 2100.
There are two broad categories of solutions being proposed or implemented to combat this warming: technological solutions and national solutions. There are many possible causes of warming, but most of the solutions are related to greenhouse gases, as none of them are clearly proven, and their effectiveness is minimal. In terms of technical solutions, renewable energy is being developed to minimize carbon dioxide emissions by reducing the use of fossil fuels, and eco-friendly products such as electric vehicles are also being developed. In addition to reduction, there is also the option of storing carbon dioxide in underground formations or groundwater, which makes it easier to extract the remaining coal and oil from the ground, thus reducing the cost of extraction.
National solutions include negotiated agreements between countries, such as the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1995 and calls for a 5.2% reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 compared to 1990 levels. This agreement led to the current Paris Agreement, which sets a goal of halving carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 to limit global temperature rise to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It also includes a commitment to support countries to explore the technological solutions described above. In addition, Korea should emphasize the importance of a green environment and encourage its citizens to plant trees.
Climate warming is more than just an environmental issue, it is a critical issue that is directly related to the survival of humanity. Solving it will require global cooperation and effort, and small actions by each individual can make a big difference. Let’s remember that our small actions can add up to a big difference and work towards a sustainable future.
