Climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, clean energy: what do these terms mean?

Feb 02, 2025 Consumer Concerns, Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

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CONSUMER CONCERNS…

 By Pat Dial 

Kaieteur News- From time to time, consumers and other members of the public have suggested to us that we explain the terms “Climate Change“, “Global Warming”, “Greenhouse Gases” and “Clean Energy” and the relationships between them.  We are asked to do such explanations because, though the terms are widely and regularly used in the media, their precise meaning remains vague and confusing to wide sections of the public.

“Climate” and “weather” are not the same.  Weather describes a short-term happening in the Environment, as for example, “It was rainy yesterday but today it will be sunny”.  “Climate”, on the other hand, describes a long term characteristic of the Environment as for example, “At some periods of the Planet’s history, freezing cold enveloped the Earth while at others, there were much higher temperatures than we ever experience today”. The Climate the Earth is experiencing today has been with us for several hundreds of years and the Seasons, rainfall, dry-periods, floods, wind currents, hurricanes, tsunamis and so on are predictable and human beings have been able to structure their lives on this predictability.  For instance, farmers would know when to plough their fields for planting without expecting sudden droughts or floods or Islands in the Caribbean would know what months to look out for hurricanes.

The planet is enveloped in an Atmosphere of gases, mainly hydrogen and oxygen and smaller amounts of carbon dioxide (C02)which blankets  the Earth  from the full force of the rays of the Sun so that by the time they actually penetrate the Atmosphere and reach the Earth,  they  have become benign and life-sustaining.  The gas which faces the planet Earth is CO2 or Carbon Dioxide and absorbs the heat and ultraviolet rays of the Sun. If more Carbon were to be added to the  present layer more heat is absorbed and the temperature of the Earth would become hotter and more erratic with some regions  which were hot becoming cooler and some areas which were very dry or deserts being subject to floods.  Carbon Dioxide is called a Greenhouse Gas because it retains heat like the greenhouses used in Agriculture which receives the heat of the Sun’s rays but does not let out the heat.  Other Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere are Methayne, Water Vapour and Nitrooxide.

Up to the beginning of the 18th century, the blanket of CO2 in the Earth’s Atmosphere was stable but with the Industrial Revolution which started about 1750, vast amounts of coal and fossil fuels were burnt to produce power releasing millions of tons of Carbon Dioxide into the Atmosphere thickening the layer of Carbon Dioxide  and trapping more of the heat of the Sun’s  rays, causing the temperature of the Earth to rise thus resulting in the Climate of the Earth to change and become hotter and erratic.  It is this process which is termed “Climate Change”.  This quickened Climate Change of the Earth is therefore the result of human activity.

Climate Change  which the Earth is beginning to experience has already had marked damaging  effects on human life and the Environment: It has led to the polar ice caps melting causing the seas to rise overwhelming low coastal regions and threatening to inundate and destroy small island states such as the Maldives;  changes in the sea movements resulting in phenomena like El Nino and  La Nina producing unexpected floods and droughts negatively affecting farming and minimizing food production resulting  in food shortages;  then  there are forest fires which not only release large quantities of Carbon Dioxide into the Atmosphere but destroy thousands of trees which had absorbed CO2 and released oxygen;  it has also led to the disruption and even destruction of human communities and  migration;  it has also affected animal species in the wild causing many  to die off and forcing survivors to try to migrate to far less suitable habitats.

The countries of the world, 195 of them, have all understood the dangers of Climate Change to themselves and the Planet but since these dangers are often not as pressing as immediate concerns, actions to confront Climate Change have been dilatory.  Eventually, in 2015, the Paris Agreement was arrived at where it was agreed that nations should strive to limit Global Warming to 1.5% below pre-Industrial levels and this is achievable by replacing some of the carbon emitters in use, as for example, using electric powered motor cars instead of the fossil fuel cars and most important, replacing fossil fuels with clean renewable fuels and the most important of the Clean Renewable fuels are ‘Solar’, ‘Hydro’ and ‘Wind’ which produce cheaper power.  These are termed “clean” fuels because they leave no footprints as compared with fossil fuels which emit Carbon Dioxide which is responsible for Global Warming. 

(Climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, clean energy: what do these terms mean?)

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• ‘global warming’, ‘greenhouse gases’, clean energy, CONSUMER CONCERNS

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