Carbon dioxide: The world’s biggest nightmare

CO2, (commonly known as carbon dioxide), is an immense problem on this planet. Many animals are losing their habitats every day, as well as people. In the future, people around the world will be breathing carbon dioxide. This gas is harmful to the respiratory system and have a variety of health effects such as headaches, dizziness, and difficulty of breath.

How does CO2 affect the planet? What is carbon dioxide? How is it produced? These are common thoughts for questioning. I am about to answer all these questions in one article.

What is carbon dioxide?

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, along with methane, nitrous oxide, and Fluorinated gases. These gases contribute to the heat and temperature of our planet. But we have too many of these, our world will overheat. In this case, we have the exact problem.

This leads us to our second questions, how do we spread CO2?

How do we spread CO2?

Carbon dioxide is spread in many different ways. The biggest contributor to CO2 is fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are natural fuels that are formed from the remains of living organisms. The most destructive fossil fuel is coal.

We burn fossil fuels to heat our homes, run our vehicles, and power our industry and manufacturing. More carbon dioxide is produced by natural disasters, like fires.

How does carbon dioxide affect the planet?

Carbon dioxide affects the planet drastically. First comes the rise in H2O. Bodies of water like oceans expand to the exposure of the heat. (When heat hits water, the water expands.) The heated temperature, like I said, is caused by the rising levels of CO2.

With the increase of water, a decrease of icebergs and chunks of water follows. This is a big problem, for many animals rely on the ice chunks to live.

The increase of water causes floods, which destroys many homes and buildings. There have been over 258 weather and climate disasters caused by CO2. One disaster costed 1 billion dollars. In total, 1.75 billion dollars worth of homes and buildings were in debt.

Now you might be wondering if this gas is causing us all this harm, how do we stop this gas from spreading?

How do we stop carbon dioxide from spreading?

Carbon dioxide is mostly spread by generating electricity. It would be simple to say, “Stop using electricity.” But this is easier said than done.

Electricity is a big part of the environment today and we rely on it every day. Without it, we would not be able to use lights or drive cars that fuel on gas. Luckily, there are some inventions that can help us reduce carbon.

Hydropower, geothermal, wind, and solar energy all are renewable and carbon-free ways of producing electricity.

Hydro energy

Hydro energy is produced by its first word, water. The liquid pushes a turbine that produces mechanical energy, thanks to the push of the rapid waters. A hydroelectric generator converts the energy into electricity.

Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is produced by the heat from the Earth’s core. The heat rises and turns into steam. The steam winds a turbine, that injects cooled water back into the ground. The turbine also cools the steam and passes the cooler steam into an electrical generator. This winds the generator. Then, it is connected to wires and passed on to us.

Wind energy

Wind energy is produced by its name, wind. One type of wind energy is windmills. You are probably familiar with the name, for they are sprinkled every hundred acres or so. Wind pushes the blades, that are controlled by a computer system. A generator converts the mechanical energy produced by the turning of the blades into electricity. A cable carries the electricity to a transmission line, which you probably have seen before.

Solar energy

Solar energy is produced by the heat of the Sun. A product of solar energy is solar panels. These are located on the roof, exposed to the Sun. The tiles transform the heat into electricity. The electricity is powered into items by a control device. The electricity then passes through a breaker box to outlets into the house or house.

Graphic visual on how solar energy works (Bottom Right)

All these energy sources can help us reduce carbon dioxide, but aside from their great work, things are costly. Luckily, we can find ways to conserve energy on our own, will no cost involved. It is a win win situation, you can save money and help the environment.

Ways to conserve electricity at home:

-take shorter showers

-unplug fully charged devices

-turn off lights in unused rooms

-turn off wired, electrical devices such as televisions when not in use

-recycle, reuse, and reduce trash and leftovers

-do laundry in one go, not in parts

-switch to LED lightbulbs (these light bulbs use less energy)

Conclusion

Time is running out. Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing day by day. We have increased the usage by 20 percent in less than 40 years.

Tress help suck carbon dioxide and transform the gas into oxygen, but thousands are cut down everyday, used for products and land. These cause thousands of animals to lose their homes.

We are causing these things to happen. Can we help the environment? Well, that’s up to you.

Warning: This article has not been edited nor credited. (Coming soon)