Time up! Plantation won’t help the planet anymore

Time up! Planting won’t help the planet anymore

200,000 year of human civilization couldn’t do the damage that we have done in the last 100 years.  The industrial revolution, WWI, WWII, Atomic attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Nuclear power plant explosions, an exponential increase in usage of fossil fuels all phenomena collectively damaged the planet earth at a drastic rate.

A report published by the United States Department of Agriculture: National Resources Conservation Services warned that we have crossed the threshold. Annual carbon Dioxide emission rate on the planet is 30-40 billion tons, and the amount of damaging green gases in the environment has piled up beyond repair.

Growing up the trees was the most suggested solution by environmental scientists until 2017. This study made a horrible discovery. The amount of trees on the planet earth is not stuffiest enough to absorb Carbon Dioxide. Not even if the surface of the entire landmass is covered in trees. Covering the entire USA will hardly absorb 10% of what we emit annually. If followed, this option might slow down the procedure but that means harvesting of no other crops. Which will lead us to global hunger?

“Our work shows that carbon removal via the biosphere cannot be used as a late-regret option to tackle climate change,” said Tim Lenton, a researcher at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom and co-author of the new study. “Instead we have to act now, using all possible measures instead of waiting for first-best solutions. Reducing fossil fuel use is a precondition for stabilizing the climate, but we also need to make use of a range of options from reforestation on degraded land to low-till agriculture and from efficient irrigation systems to limiting food waste.”

It’s high time that we quit on greenhouse gases and Carbon Dioxide. An exponential decline in the emission can limit the temperature rise below 2 degree Celsius. In otherwise case, Africa will be nearly inhabitable till 2090 and natural calamities will be as normal as rising of the sun.

I am a writer and critic with a passion for Politics and International relations. Being a business graduate, I work in one of the fastest growing IT companies in Pakistan. I am also the co-founder and have remained editor-in-chief of IU Gazette. I consider learning as vital as breathing and love to inspire and be inspired.