What are Carbon Emissions?
Carbon emissions are at the center of many environmental problems such as climate change and global warming. Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of human activities causes the balance in nature to deteriorate. This situation brings serious ecological problems. Let us examine in detail what you need to know about carbon emissions, one of the most important environmental issues for several decades.
Carbon as a Natural Element and Carbon Emission
Carbon is a naturally occurring element on the planet and is vital for life. Found everywhere from the structure of organisms to the air we breathe and the food we consume, carbon is one of the basic building blocks of life on Earth.
Carbon emission refers to the release of carbon in nature into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide, which is present in nature at a certain level, often accumulates in the atmosphere because of human activities and can cause dangerous situations.
What are the Environmental Impacts of Carbon Emissions?
Among the greenhouse gases that cause many negative environmental conditions, carbon dioxide has the largest share with 74.4%. Methane gas follows with 17.3%. The rest are gases such as nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbon, and perfluorocarbon. All these gases create a greenhouse effect and cause environmental damage worldwide. The negative impact of carbon emissions should be evaluated separately under different headings.
Global Warming and Climate Change
Carbon emissions evolve to dangerous levels as various greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas in carbon emissions and accumulates in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect refers to the trapping of rays coming from the Sun to the Earth by greenhouse gases. This causes the atmosphere to warm up in the future. As a result, environmental problems such as global warming and climate change occur.
Heat Waves
Carbon emissions, which cause the planet to warm, lead to more frequent heat waves and severe storms. Heat waves cause negative impacts in many areas, from agriculture to ecosystems, from human health to forest fires.
Sea Level
An increase in the planet’s temperature causes the melting of glaciers and the warming of ocean waters. This causes sea levels to rise. The rise of sea levels causes natural disasters such as erosion and flooding.
Ecosystem Change
As a result of warming caused by carbon emissions, vegetation, ecosystems, and natural habitats begin to change. This leads to species migrating to different regions and even to the extinction of some species.
Ocean Release
Carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere and is absorbed by the oceans. This leads to the formation of carbonic acid in the oceans. This process leads to acidification of the oceans, disrupting underwater ecosystems. Acidification threatens the lives of many aquatic species and endangers the biodiversity of the oceans.
Health Problems
Carbon emissions cause air, water, and soil pollution, putting the lives of many living things at risk. It causes respiratory diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and cardiovascular diseases to occur more frequently, especially in humans. This environmental pollution causes many health problems and significantly reduces the quality of life.
What are the Causes of Carbon Emissions?
The environmental damage of carbon emissions occurs because of modern life and human activities. The situations that trigger carbon emissions can be categorized under different headings.
Fossil Fuel Use
Fossil fuels consisting of carbon compounds such as natural gas, coal, and petroleum, whose use has increased since the industrial revolution, increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. For example, coal meets about 37% of the planet’s electricity needs.
Population Growth
Due to uncontrolled population growth, the need for energy starts to increase. With increasing population, energy resources such as fossil fuels are consumed increased carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. At the same time, the amount of carbon dioxide released because of organismal activities increases with the population, causing the natural balance to deteriorate.
Industrial Activities
Production facilities and factories emit greenhouse gases intensively due to the fossil fuels they use to meet their energy needs. Especially cement and plastic production are among the activities that can cause great damage to this process.
Transportation
After electricity generation, the sector that emits the most greenhouse gases are transportation. Motor vehicles, which require the use of fossil fuels, emit elevated levels of carbon dioxide into the environment. The increasing number of cars in both public transportation and individual use continues to increase carbon emissions day by day.
Deforestation
Forests help maintain the balance in nature by absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, cutting down forests for industrial activities, destroying them to expand agricultural areas, or forest fires caused by carelessness cause acute damage to this balance.
Agriculture Practices
Agricultural practices account for 25% of greenhouse gases released into the environment. Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide released from the soil due to unconscious irrigation and soil treatments. Livestock farming, rice cultivation, and paddy fields in particular cause important levels of methane gas to be released into the atmosphere.
Wastes
Places like landfills and incinerators release copious amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere.
Which Countries Emit the Most Carbon Emissions?
According to the Global Carbon Project (GCP) data, the total carbon emission in the world in 2020 is 34 billion 810 million tons. Half of this carbon emission to the atmosphere belongs to China, America, and India. These countries emit prominent levels of greenhouse gases in their energy consumption and industrial activities due to their growing economies and rapidly developing industrialization.
What Can Be Done to Prevent Carbon Emissions?
According to research, a 130% increase in carbon emissions is expected by 2050. For this reason, it is especially important to take the necessary measures quickly to reduce the negative environmental impacts of carbon emissions. To reduce carbon emissions, several steps need to be taken both individually, socially, locally, and globally.
Transition to Sustainable Energy
Increasing renewable energy capacity by reducing dependence on fossil fuels is one of the biggest steps that can be taken to reduce carbon emissions. Raising global awareness about the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydroelectricity, and geothermal can help to spread these energy sources and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to this, clean energy sources can be supported by promoting solar panels suitable for homes and household wind turbines through individual initiatives.
Conscious Afforestation
Activities such as protecting forested areas and supporting afforestation projects can help reduce carbon emissions. Afforestation works must be conducted by the natural vegetation of the regions.
Recycling
Investments and various efforts to improve waste management processes can help reduce greenhouse gases. Training can be organized for individuals, institutions, and governments to be more sensitive to recycling. Incentives can be provided to recycle reusable waste such as paper, glass, bottles, and metal. This can contribute to sustainability by reducing the need for raw materials and the amount of energy consumed in the production of these products.
Public Transportation and Hybrid Vehicles
Transportation is among the activities that cause the highest carbon emissions. Preferring public transportation alternatives to road transportation and reducing the number of individual vehicles in traffic allows energy consumption to be saved. In addition, individuals can contribute to energy savings by choosing to use electric or hybrid vehicles instead of motorized vehicles. Electric vehicles help reduce carbon emissions as they can renew their energy without the need for fossil fuels.
Passenger Transportation
The 2020 Transport and Environment Report (TERM) states that rail transport is one of the most environmentally responsible travel alternatives. Rail transportation emits much lower amounts of carbon emissions than air transportation. For more sustainable transportation, individuals need to prefer traveling by trains instead of airplanes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Local Food Consumption
Preferring seasonal and locally produced food products allows for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels required for international transportation. In this way, carbon emissions can also be reduced significantly.
Insulated Buildings
Thermal insulation of buildings with the right methods and environmentally friendly materials is another step that can be taken to reduce carbon emissions. In this way, the heat level in homes and workplaces is maintained and less energy is needed for heating.
Carbon Tax
The carbon tax, which has been implemented at distinct levels in various countries since the early 2000s, is a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Taxation is based on the proportion of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases that factories and production facilities release into the atmosphere using fossil fuels. By increasing the cost of carbon emissions, a carbon tax encourages individuals to switch to sustainable energy sources.
Dietary Habits
The livestock sector generates excessive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions due to activities such as deforestation, energy consumption, and waste generation. In this sector, stages such as feed production, meat processing, and their transportation require copious amounts of fossil fuel use. At the same time, the digestive and excretory systems of animals release copious amounts of methane gas.
These situations cause acute damage to the environment. Animal manure also causes the emission of different greenhouse gases such as methane gas and nitrous oxide. Greenhouse gas emissions from the fertilizers used make up about 7% of the atmosphere. These gases stay in the atmosphere for a long time, causing the earth to heat up more. According to a study by researchers at Oxford University, everyone can reduce their carbon footprint by 73% by switching to a vegetarian diet.
As QuickCarbon, we are aware of the damage caused by carbon emissions to our planet. For this reason, we calculate and report the Corporate Carbon Footprints of institutions according to the ISO 14064-1:2018 Standard and GHG Protocol without the need for any consultancy services. If you want to take a step toward a sustainable and healthier future, you can start by learning about your corporate carbon footprint.