Sustainability pills - After all, what is the Greenhouse Effect?

Sustainability pills - After all, what is the Greenhouse Effect?

We are used to hearing about the Greenhouse Effect as something bad or harmful to our health in general, but in fact, the Greenhouse Effect is a natural and crucial phenomenon for life on planet Earth! It is the Greenhouse Effect that keeps average global temperatures, preventing great temperature rises and enabling the survival of living beings.

It goes as follows: The Sun emits light and heat to the Earth; the oceans and the Earth’s surface absorb part of this heat, while the other part is reflected into the atmosphere. Thanks to the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, part of the sun radiation that would be reflected and released back into space is trapped, keeping the Earth warm and habitable.

The major problem is that human action is aggravating the Greenhouse Effect, especially after the industrial revolution, with the indiscriminate increase in the emissions of gases, such as Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Fluorinated Gases, which cause irreversible changes in the climate dynamics of the planet.

The more Greenhouse Effect gases are released into the atmosphere, the lower the amount of sun-radiated heat dissipated into space, generating an abnormal increase in temperatures on the Earth, reaffirming the Global Warming Theory*.

What can we do to minimize greenhouse gas emissions?

The high concentration of these gases in the atmosphere is caused by industrial activities that use the burning of fossil fuels for their production process, such as for plastic production, the human deforestation actions and the increased use of fossil-fuel powered transport (such as diesel and gasoline). 

The objective is to minimize such emissions on a global level, but we must start considering what we can do, individually. After all, we are all responsible for the environment that surrounds us!

Reducing the use of motor transport to travel short distances, using bicycles or public transport when feasible, encouraging selective collection and prioritizing the use of biodegradable products (such as PCR resin plastics) are simple actions that generate highly positive results!

Have you started doing your part, yet?