Silent Killers of Earth
Silent killers steadily and at an alarming speed killing our planet Earth. Who are these killers? We the modern Homo Sapiens. Among all the creatures on our planet, human beings are the only ones who are destroying the earth due to selfish greed. We have become like the stupid man in the story, who out of his greed killed his hen which was giving him one golden egg per day, or like the idiot who was cutting the branch of a tree that was supporting him.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an autonomous research institute in the USA. It has more than 18,000 employees including scientists, engineers, IT specialists and other skilled staff.
In 1988, NASA scientist James E. Hansen testified to Congress about climate change, specifically referring to global warming. Hansen stated, “Global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and the observed warming”.
While Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years.
The current warming trend is different because it is the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia. It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun’s energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.
Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate.
The ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.
NASA applies ingenuity and expertise gained from decades of planetary and deep-space exploration to the study of our home planet. The Earth Science Division operates more than 20 satellites in orbit, sponsors hundreds of research programs and studies, and funds opportunities to put data to use for societal needs.
NASA reports and data consistently demonstrate that the Earth’s climate is changing, with the planet warming due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from human activities. This warming is causing a range of observable effects, including rising global temperatures, melting glaciers and ice sheets, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
Causes of Global Warming:
1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
Human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels, release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and other gases from heavy industries that trap heat in the atmosphere.
2. Deforestation and cutting down trees.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so deforestation releases this stored carbon and reduces the planet’s ability to absorb greenhouse gases.
3. Fossil Fuel Use:
Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, petrol, diesel, and natural gas) by vehicles is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Industrial Processes:
Industrial activities like manufacturing and cement production release greenhouse gases and contribute to air pollution.
5. Testing of nuclear missiles and other arms and ammunition. Use of heavy arms in wars.
6. Burning of plastics and other materials.
7. Use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
8. Pollution of seas and oceans due to industrial and domestic waste and oil spills. Oceans produce more than 50% of the total oxygen available on the earth. Due to pollution, the production of oxygen is decreasing.
Evidence of Global Warming and Climate Change according to NASA:
1. Rising Global Temperatures:
The planet’s average surface temperature has increased by about 1.47°C since the late 19th century, a trend largely attributed to greenhouse gas emissions. Earth’s average surface temperature in 2024 was the highest on record since record-keeping began in 1880. Models predict that Earth’s average surface temperature will continue to rise, potentially by 2°C to 6°C by the end of the 21st century, NASA notes.
2. Ocean Warming:
Oceans are warming due to which sea levels are rising and impacting marine ecosystems.
3. Shrinking Ice Sheets and Retreating Glaciers:
Both Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass, and glaciers are retreating worldwide.
4. Decreasing Snow Cover:
Satellite data shows a decline in spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere, with snow melting earlier. Polar bears, seals, penguins, and other animals that live there will be extinct or diminished.
5. Rising Sea Levels:
Sea levels will continue to rise, threatening coastal communities and ecosystems. Global sea level has risen by about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century. Due to the possibility of 2 mts of sea level rising, the coastal areas of India and all over the world, and areas near the sea will be submerged by the end of this century or by 2100. In Goa, most of the beaches will disappear. This will be true also along the western and eastern coast of India. Many small islands in the oceans will disappear.
6. Declining Arctic Sea Ice:
Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice have decreased rapidly in recent decades.
7. Increased Extreme Weather Events:
The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are expected to increase, leading to more extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts, wildfires, cloud bursting, heavy rainfall, floods, landslides, severe and prolonged summers and winters, and intense storms are increasing.
8. Ocean Acidification:
The ocean is becoming more acidic due to the absorption of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, NASA notes.
9. Effect on flora and fauna. Some will survive and others will be extinct.
10. Displacement, migration, and poverty will increase.
11. Emergence of new diseases and epidemic diseases.
12. Changes in Ecosystems:
Many ecosystems are already being impacted by climate change, and these impacts are expected to worsen, potentially leading to species extinctions and shifts in biodiversity.
What can we do?
We cannot leave everything in the hands of governments to do. Instead of preserving the planet Earth, they are destroying it day by day. We have a great and important role to play.
1. Join hands with NGOs and activists who are working tirelessly to save the planet. In Goa, we have a few of them. We have to strengthen their hands by joining them.
2. Promote solar energy for home and institutional use. This will reduce your electric bills and stop erratic power supply. Goa Province Jesuits houses now have solar energy.
3. Replace your two-wheelers and four-wheelers with electric vehicles which are non-polluting. If I was a rich man I would have immediately bought one electric scooter for my use.
4. Plant more local trees and plants with large leaves to produce oxygen and to give shade. I promoted this culture at Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr, Porvorim.
5. Stop using single-use plastic bags. Carry your own cloth bags for marketing and shopping. I have been doing this since my youth.
6. Stop using plastic plates, cups, spoons, and other cutlery. Instead either use ceramic or steel material. To serve food and snacks for functions use eco-friendly plates and cups prepared by areca nut leaves. They are available in Goa markets.
7. Stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Use organic manure. If you have a little space you can prepare compost at home. I did it at Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr, Porvorim, and am doing it now at Loyola Hall, Miramar.
8. Stop burning plastics and other materials.
All the above-mentioned efforts may be a few drops in the vast ocean, but they are needed. Drop by drop fills a bucket.
It is our sacred duty to preserve the earth. If it blooms we will bloom, otherwise we are doomed. Let us become prophets of hope to save the earth through our positive concrete actions.
Compiled and edited:
Pratapananda Naik, sj
15th May 2025
