Human activity and climate change are mutually affecting each other.

On 9 August 2021, the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report ‘Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Base’ was released. The state of the climate in the report includes:

1. For at least the past 2,000 years, human activity has warmed the climate at an unprecedented rate. And the scale of change in the climate system is unprecedented in centuries, if not millennia.

2. The observed warming is driven by emissions from human activities.

3. Human-induced climate change is already affecting extremes of climate and weather in all regions of the globe.

In the face of the severe challenge of climate change, the low-carbon School pilot project team joined hands with CYCAN to hold the "Climate change Action Workshop" in Kunming Metallurgy Higher Vocational High School on October 22.

What do you think of when you think of climate change?

Drought, flood, hail, snow and other extreme weather, such as heavy rain in Xi 'an and Zhengzhou; Melting glaciers, typhoons, mudslides, rising sea levels, global warming...... 

Do you know what climate change is?

Climate change refers to changes in climate conditions over long periods of time, and to mitigate it, is one of the 17 Goals of the United Nations for sustainable development. At present, the global climate is gradually warming, and human activities emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases is unexpectedly the main cause.

Water vapor (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), Freon, methane (CH₄), among others, are major greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Among them: carbon dioxide accounts for 75%, methane accounts for 14%.

Image from the Internet

Because these greenhouse gases have a high degree of transmittance to the visible light from solar radiation, and have a high degree of absorption of the long-wave radiation reflected from the Earth, they can strongly absorb the infrared radiation in the ground radiation, which is often said to be the "greenhouse effect", leading to global warming.

In the past 100 years, the global average temperature has experienced two fluctuations of cold, warm, cold and warm, with an overall upward trend.

As the climate changes, extreme weather and climate disasters follow.

Ø 2020 In January, a volcano erupts in the Philippines. Ash was thrown 14,000 meters into the air!

Ø 2020 In January, the Antarctic temperature breaks 20 ℃  for the first time: 20.75 ℃, breaking the highest temperature ever record in the Antarctic.

Ø February in 2020: a locust plague occurs in East Africa in February. There are 400 billion locusts.

(An adult grasshopper consumes 2 grams of grain per day. A swarm of grasshoppers can eat 350,000 people's food rations per square kilometer, and 400 billion locusts can eat 8,000 kilograms of grain per day.)

Ø 2020 July, an Australian bushfire that finally burns out completely after 210 days.

Ø 2021 July, severe floods occur successively in Zhengzhou, Henan and Xiangfen, Shanxi. Within an hour, the water mass of about 150 West Lakes poured into Zhengzhou.

At present, more and more natural disasters happen, the impact it brings is extremely bad, it not only destroys the environment we rely on for survival, but also seriously affects the normal production and living activities, disasters and losses are countless.

Climate change has been a hot topic for years.

"To limit the rise in global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times and to work to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius." This is the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement.

China acceded to the Paris Agreement in 2016, and in 2021, The State Council issued China's Policies and Actions on Climate Change.

Green, low carbon, carbon sink, carbon neutrality, carbon peak...... In recent years, buzzwords related to dealing with climate change have flooded into our lives.

”Do your part to fight climate change." No one wants it just becomes an empty slogan.

Such small actions as double-sided printing, planting trees in Alibaba’s ‘Ant forests’, taking public transportation, not wasting food, and recycling - are all examples of "climate action" being put into practice.

Photo of Metallurgical College Workshop

Project introduction:

Yunnan Low-carbon Schools Pilot Project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the People to People Foundation (Spanish member of HPP) in cooperation with FAIHPP (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative Office, Yunnan Academy for Science and Technical Information, Southwest Forestry University, Chinese Youth Climate Action Network, Green Kunming (Kunming Environmental Popular Science Association) and  Kunming Good Deed Public Welfare Community Development Service Center with a project cycle from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023. The project begins by increasing partners’ awareness and advocacy on climate change mitigation and environmental protection, by raising climate change awareness among 600 schools, 70,000 students and teachers, determine the emission benchmark through basic calculation, and then implement emission reduction work in 50 Carbon Compliant Pioneer Schools. Use science, technology, innovation and other means to respond to “climate action” to accelerate environmental sustainability and promote the transition from green campuses to low-carbon and carbon-neutral campuses.

The project is funded by European Union.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the donor.