{"id":29315,"date":"2022-04-21T00:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T00:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=29315"},"modified":"2022-04-23T14:34:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T14:34:45","slug":"is-it-possible-to-heal-the-damage-we-have-already-done-to-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/is-it-possible-to-heal-the-damage-we-have-already-done-to-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it possible to heal the damage we have already done to the Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scott Denning<\/a>, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curious Kids<\/a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is it possible to heal the damage we have already done to the Earth? \u2013 Anthony, age 13<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Sometimes it may seem that humans have altered the Earth beyond repair. But our planet is an incredible system in which energy, water, carbon and so much else flows and nurtures life. It is about 4.5 billion years old<\/a> and has been through enormous changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some points in Earth\u2019s history, fires burned over large areas<\/a>. At others, much of it was covered with ice<\/a>. There also have been mass extinctions<\/a> that wiped out nearly every living thing on its surface. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I4EZCy14te0?wmode=transparent&start=0 Earth\u2019s climate has varied from extremely warm periods with no polar ice caps to phases when much of the planet was frozen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our living planet is incredibly resilient and can heal itself over time. The problem is that its self-healing systems are very, very slow. The Earth will be fine, but humans\u2019 problems are more immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People have damaged the systems that sustain us<\/a> in many ways. We have polluted air<\/a> and water<\/a>, strewn plastic<\/a> and other trash<\/a> on land and in oceans and rivers, and destroyed habitats<\/a> for plants and animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we know how to help natural processes<\/a> clean up many of these messes. And there has been a lot of progress<\/a> since people started waking up to these problems 50 years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graph<\/a>
Since 1970, the U.S. has greatly reduced air pollution even as its economy has grown dramatically. USEPA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There still are problems to solve. Some pollutants, like plastic, last for thousands of years<\/a>, so it\u2019s much better to stop releasing them than to try to collect them later. And extinction<\/a> is permanent, so the only effective way to reduce it is to be more careful about protecting animals, plants and other species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reversing climate change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most serious damage humans are doing to the Earth comes mainly from burning coal, oil and gas, which is dramatically warming its climate<\/a>. Burning these carbon-based fuels is changing the fundamental chemistry and physics of the air and oceans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every lump of coal or gallon of gasoline that\u2019s burned releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. There it heats the Earth\u2019s surface<\/a>, causing floods, fires and droughts. Some of this added carbon dioxide dissolves into the oceans and makes them more acidic<\/a>, which threatens ocean food webs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is a problem that will get worse until humans stop making it worse \u2013 and then it will take many centuries for the climate to return to what it was like before the Industrial Revolution<\/a>, when human actions started altering it on a large scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only way to avoid making things worse is to stop setting carbon on fire. That means societies need to work hard to build an energy system that can help everyone live well without the need to burn carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that we know how to make energy without releasing carbon dioxide and other pollution. Electricity made from solar, wind and geothermal power is now the cheapest energy in history<\/a>. Cleaning up the global electricity supply and then electrifying everything<\/a> can very quickly stop carbon pollution from getting worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will require electric cars and trains, electric heating and cooking, and electric factories. We\u2019ll also need new kinds of transmission and storage systems to get all that clean electricity from where it\u2019s made to where it\u2019s used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the carbon mess can be cleaned up through better farm and forest management<\/a> that stores carbon in land and plants instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. This is also a problem that scientists know how to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Earth will certainly heal, but it may take a very long time. The best way to start is with everyone doing their part to avoid making the damage any worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com<\/a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since curiosity has no age limit \u2013 adults, let us know what you\u2019re wondering, too. We won\u2019t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Denning<\/a>, Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Denning, Colorado State University Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Is it possible to heal the damage we have already done to the Earth? \u2013 Anthony, age 13 Sometimes it may seem that humans have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1862,3410],"tags":[8474,5936,139,6689,6786,188,11697,192,144,4335,6864,6300,11698,2800,236],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29327,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29315\/revisions\/29327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}