This article examines the impact of climate change and global warming on daily life and the resulting problems, presenting various solutions to address them.
News about our country’s changing climate now appears as regularly as the changing seasons. While it has intensified recently, climate warming—a familiar and representative environmental issue—has been a problem for a long time, not limited to Korea but emerging as a global concern. This article examines the definition of climate warming, the reasons this problem has arisen, and explores the solutions being proposed to address it.
Climate change is now significantly impacting our daily lives. Phenomena such as longer winters and more severe heatwaves during summer are occurring. This is not merely capricious weather variation but can be seen as a shift in long-term climate patterns. These changes have economic repercussions across agriculture, fisheries, and industry as a whole, and further, they are having serious impacts on our health and safety. For example, more frequent heatwaves and cold snaps threaten the health of the elderly and children while also severely damaging crop yields.
First formally identified in the 1972 Club of Rome report, climate warming, or global warming, refers to the worldwide rise in sea and near-surface air temperatures that began in the late 19th century. This phenomenon became widely known to the general public after NASA testified before the U.S. Congress on climate warming in 1988. Although the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme declared carbon dioxide the primary culprit in 1985, the exact cause remains not yet clearly defined. The most plausible candidate among the causes proposed by environmental scientists is the greenhouse effect. Other factors include changes in Earth’s surface cover, coral reef decline, and solar radiation interference.
The impacts of climate warming result in increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters. In recent years, we have witnessed unprecedented torrential rains, floods, droughts, and wildfires. These natural disasters cause not only loss of life but also massive property damage. For example, the massive wildfires in Australia in 2020 burned millions of hectares of forest and destroyed the habitats of countless plants and animals. Such phenomena are not merely temporary disasters; they can occur more frequently and with greater intensity due to climate change.
In October 2023, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released its latest report, stating that the global average temperature has risen by approximately 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. This report warns that unless carbon dioxide emissions are halved by 2030, the Earth’s average temperature will rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. This exceeds the Paris Agreement’s target of a 1.5-degree rise, once again highlighting the severity of climate change.
First, there is clear scientific consensus that the greenhouse effect—the primary cause of the most significant impact—is a phenomenon where the Earth’s air, heated by absorbing sunlight, traps heat and prevents it from escaping, leading to a gradual increase in temperature. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would simply radiate all the energy it receives from the sun, causing the average global temperature to plummet to -15 degrees Celsius. Ironically, while the greenhouse effect causes global warming, it is also essential. However, the warming problem arises because the greenhouse effect is intensifying, driven by the increase in greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are, as the name suggests, gases that cause the greenhouse effect. They include carbon dioxide, methane, freon gases, and water vapor.
Among these, carbon dioxide is considered the most significant factor, not only in the greenhouse effect but also in global warming as a whole. While a single carbon dioxide molecule has a significantly smaller impact on the greenhouse effect compared to freon gases or methane, the sheer volume of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is vastly greater than these others, making it the most influential factor in warming. It is produced most abundantly when fossil fuels like oil and coal are burned, meaning large amounts of carbon dioxide are also emitted in daily life, such as during home heating and driving. Particularly when tropical forests are burned, large amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted during the burning process itself. However, the loss of forests—which convert carbon dioxide into oxygen—actually increases the net amount of carbon dioxide released.
Methane, another greenhouse gas, is produced not only by wildfires and fossil fuels but also during the decomposition of organic matter in humid environments. Methane is produced in wetlands, rice farming, and from the belching and flatulence of cattle and sheep. While methane and carbon dioxide cause the greenhouse effect by directly absorbing Earth’s radiant energy and re-emitting it back to the planet, the ozone layer, which blocks ultraviolet rays from the sun, operates on the opposite mechanism. Freon gases contribute to global warming by destroying this ozone layer and are therefore not strictly greenhouse gases. However, some view them as greenhouse gases because they also cause global warming. Furthermore, freon gases have become a major global problem not only due to warming but also because of ecosystem destruction caused by increased ultraviolet radiation.
Changes in Earth’s surface coverage can be broadly categorized into two main factors: urban development and glacial melting. Both are significantly related to albedo, which indicates how much absorbed light is reflected back. Urban areas, composed primarily of dark-colored buildings and roads, have lower albedo compared to green forests. This means less sunlight is reflected, leading to the theory that temperatures have risen compared to the past. Glacial melting follows a similar principle: when white glaciers with high albedo melt into water, the resulting decrease in albedo contributes to warming. Additionally, as environmental problems persist, the disappearance of oxygen-producing coral reefs and solar radiation are hypotheses proposed by several scholars.
The most frightening aspect of warming is its accelerating nature, driven by a trigger effect where warming itself continuously provides natural causes for further warming. The melting of glaciers described above is a prime example of this. As warming accelerates, the rate of glacial melting increases, further intensifying the warming process. Moreover, as warming progresses, the permafrost—which buried countless animals from the end of the last ice age ten thousand years ago—begins to thaw. Within this permafrost, decomposing animal carcasses have seeped large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane gas. As the permafrost melts, these greenhouse gases diffuse into the atmosphere, further accelerating warming. Additionally, the rise in average annual temperatures warms seawater, causing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide dissolved in the water to escape into the atmosphere.
Climate warming has emerged as an environmental problem due to the damage it causes. This damage can be broadly categorized into ecological pollution and natural disasters. First, let’s examine ecological pollution. The melting of glaciers is causing many animals living in the Arctic to lose their habitats. Beyond the Arctic, rising temperatures in various regions are causing the habitats of numerous animals to disappear. Habitat loss can directly lead to the extinction of those species, and in such cases, the higher-level species that prey on them also face crisis. This situation is currently ongoing, and if the current trend continues, it is estimated that approximately one million species could disappear within 20 years.
While increased evaporation aids rainfall, it also accelerates desertification by depleting soil moisture before the water cycle can replenish it. Arid lands like deserts suffer significantly reduced food productivity, becoming inhospitable to life and posing high fire risks, among other problems. Furthermore, there are claims that warming evaporates moisture from some soils, leading to flood damage in other regions through concentrated heavy rainfall. Seven major floods occurred globally between 1990 and 2004, a sharp increase compared to the past, with global warming identified as the primary culprit. Additionally, research by the Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute indicates that El Niño, an abnormal climate phenomenon where sea temperatures in South America surge and precipitation increases roughly every four years, is occurring more frequently due to climate warming. This El Niño phenomenon leads to a decline in plankton, causing the collapse of the food chain structure and having a devastating impact on fish ecosystems.
Water scarcity is also worsening due to warming. As temperatures rise, the amount and rate of evaporation of surface water increase. This problem is particularly severe given the growing demand for agricultural water to feed the rapidly expanding population and for industrial water due to industrialization. Conversely, melting glaciers cause sea levels to rise. Considering that over 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the coastline, and nearly 100 million people reside within 1 meter of current sea level, the predicted rise of up to 90 cm by 2100 poses an extremely critical threat to humanity.
To combat this warming, two main solutions are proposed or implemented: technological solutions and national solutions. While several factors contribute to warming, aside from the greenhouse effect, none are clearly verified causes, and their effects are minimal. Consequently, most solutions focus on greenhouse gases. First, technological solutions involve developing renewable energy to minimize carbon dioxide emissions by reducing fossil fuel use. The development of eco-friendly products like electric vehicles is also aligned with this goal. Additionally, beyond reduction, methods exist to store carbon dioxide in underground strata or aquifers. Utilizing this storage can also facilitate easier extraction of coal and oil remaining in those locations, thereby helping to reduce mining costs.
A key national solution involves international agreements. The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1995, aimed to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. This agreement has now evolved into the Paris Agreement, which sets the goal of halving carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It also includes provisions requiring national support to explore the technical solutions described above. Furthermore, prioritizing green environments within each country and encouraging citizens to plant trees are also solutions at the national level.
The issue of global warming transcends a mere environmental problem; it is a critical matter directly linked to human survival. Solving it requires global cooperation and effort, and even small actions by each individual can bring about significant change. Remembering that our small actions can collectively create major change, we must strive for a sustainable future.
