How do carbon emissions affect the environment?

Climate change is altering our planet, causing extreme weather events. These include tropical storms, forest fires, severe droughts and heat waves, negatively affecting agricultural production, disrupting natural animal habitats.

Carbon emissions and their causes

Perhaps you remember the greenhouse effect from school. Let's start there: the greenhouse effect is the natural process by which the sun warms the Earth's surface. When greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere. These include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and water vapor - and trap the sun's heat, warming the average global temperature, making it rise. This is known as global warming. Carbon emissions are a type of greenhouse gas emission that occurs when carbon dioxide enters the air after a human activity or process. In 2017, carbon emissions accounted for 82% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Find out more about his website.

Environmental effects of emissions

Air pollutants are substances that harm the environment by interfering with the climate, the physiology of plants, animal species, entire ecosystems, as well as human property. We place climate at the top of the list to reflect the fact that global climate change has been recognised as one of the most important environmental challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. In this context, some climate forcing agents - the most important being carbon dioxide - which do not otherwise cause any harm to living organisms, should be added to the list of "conventional" pollutants, as well as compounds such as nitrogen or sulphur oxides. On the other hand, climate research has linked certain compounds long recognised as air pollutants (e.g. black carbon) to climate warming, thus providing yet another reason for their control. The issues related to the protection of our environment remain a permanent challenge for the whole of humanity. For this reason, many institutions and laboratories are working to provide innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions.