First off, let me give you some background information about the studied

document. It is a video and more precisely an interview of the german

scientist : Professor Schellnuber. It might be worth mentioning that the
document is taken from the YouTube channel “EU climate action”. We
may as well mention that the author’s intention is to make us aware of
global warming and what are within our grasp to act on the latter. First
and foremost this interview is about the causes and the consequences
of global warming. Professor Schellnhuber addresses the impact of this
environnemental crisis and he criticizes human actions that create a big
amount of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change and global
warming. Last but not least he answers the following issue: how can we
fight climate change in implementing different economic systems?.

Earth has known ice age and warmer phases during this century, our
planet has warmed up and it is quite easy to figure it out only by looking
at the rise of Earth’s temperatures. This phenomenon has been
happening much faster than ever over the last million of years. This
change in Earth’s climate is induced by all of the human’s interferences
and activities. That is what we call a man-made climate
change. Furthermore, human industrial activity has played a great part
in the man-made climate change. By burning fossil fuels, a bigger rate of
greenhouse gases have been released in the atmosphere, and so
intensified the greenhouse effect. More examples can be given, like
intensive farming. To go further, human actions, such as deforestation,
has caused the alteration of the Earth’s albedo. This altered albedo
deeply affects the quantity of U.V rays reflected in the atmosphere,
which consequently increases. This leads us to a temperature rise and a
climate change.
What one has to bear in mind is the greenhouse gases effect process on
the planet. A greenhouse gas is a gas composed of molecules that has
the property to absorb a lot of infrared rays, which are emitted by the
earth. Indeed, because our planet is warm due to radiations coming
from the sun, it will release some of its heat by the process of emitting
infrared rays into the freezing cold outer space. Because of the
presence of a thick atmosphere on earth, which contains a significant
amount of greenhouse gases such as steam (H2O), methane (CH4) and
the most common, carbon dioxide (CO2), lots of those rays are
absorbed by the latter which converts their energy into kinetic energy,
releasing heat in the process. Without this natural phenomenon that is
the greenhouse effect, the planet would be cold and inhospitable, at a
mere average temperature of minus 18°C instead of the current +15°C.
Moreover, we can point out that the earth’s albedo that represents
roughly 30%, meaning that over all the sun rays, mostly ultraviolet and
visible rays that the earth receive, approximatively 70% of them are
absorbed by lands and oceans, hence the current 15°C average
temperature of the planet, and the other 30% are reflected back to
space, because of the greenhouse gases being unable to absorb these
wavelengths of electromagnetic radiations.

The problem that occurs in oceans is deeply intertwined with the

aforementioned data. Nowadays, it cannot be denied that the rise in
temperature of Earth’s atmosphere leads to an increase of the sea
temperature, implying a dilatation of water and therefore an increase in
the volume of the oceans. Indeed, the molecules, more agitated, take up
more space than before. This increase results in a rise in sea level. This
will eventually cause a problem for the population living close to the
coasts, who will have to migrate for their survival and this could result in
major geopolitical problems.
Another problem resulting from the increase of greenhouse gases at the
origin of global warming is the acidification of the oceans. Indeed,
among the greenhouse gases, one of the most important is carbon
dioxide (CO2), and a part of this gas dissolves water. Thus, the increase
of CO2 in the atmosphere is accompanied by an increase of CO2 in the
hydrosphere. The problem is that the carbon dioxide molecules react
with those of water to form hydrogen ions, as shown in the following
equation: C02+ H20= HC03- + H+
Hydrogen ions have a significant acidity, which causes an increase in
the acidity of the oceans. This is not insignificant, because it disturbs the
marine ecosystem as a whole which is very sensitive to these
variations.
Thus, it triggers a stress process in corals, making them more
vulnerable to diseases and leading to their death in the long term.
Corals are the habitat of many fish, causing imbalances in the food
chain resulting in the reduction of fish populations. This impacts us
directly, as 12 percent of the world's population lives and survives from
fishing.
Professor Schellnuber says at one point that “you have an ocean
soaring by one meter”. Let me shed light on that statement as it is a
well-known fact that Earth warms up and as a result glaciers thaw. This
process increases the water in oceans and because of the average
atmosphere’s temperature rises, the water is dilated which means that
the volume of water is bigger. Moreover, oceans absorb a great quantity
of sun energy (90%), so it increases the albedo. Needless to say that if
the albedo intensifies, the Earth’s surface warms up and oceans
temperatures will still increase. To some extent for the population who
live nearby the coasts, the tiny expansion can be transformed in an
ocean soaring by one meter, it could become pretty tricky in the
foreseeable future.

Furthermore, as far as are the other consequences that Professor

Schellnuber identifies, we can first emphasize on the fact that nature
has changed and it has become a real issue for the living conditions of
so many.
At first sight, climate change has dire consequences on meteorological
phenomena. Because of the surface temperature rising, there are
extreme weather patterns like in Australia. The temperature of Earth’s
surface rises. Villages and cities already show signs of damages. Let us
take the case of natural disasters. Heat dries out forests and makes
them more likely to catch fire. Other scourges are tsunamis, hurricanes
and the most important, countless flooding. Food security is also an
important challenge to face. We have to produce more food because
population grows bigger (perhaps about 12 billions). Climate change is
linked to an economical challenge.
Back to natural consequences, the pH level of seas rises. The result is
the acidification of oceans and a decrease in oxygen production.
Moreover, due to the high temperature, the ice floes are melting (or
thawing) and hence the uncountable floods that we have to face.Finally,
palm trees can grow in Europe for instance.
To cut a long story short, climate change is at the origin of many
challenges that humankind has to deal with. They can involve the planet
or just a part of the population.
However, let’s not depict a bleak, foreboding and ominous future, our
planet we live on may seem doomed but there are feasible solutions that
are within our grasp and that can, without a shadow of a doubt, actually
stymie the current trend.
Therefore, I’m convinced that feasible solutions are within our grasps to
counteract global warming. To my mind, the first one is to commit
ourselves. As a matter of fact we play a significant role in this situation
because our consumption of energies, clothes and food is far too great.
There are several possibilities to have an impact on air or plastic
pollution. First of all we can start by purchasing second-hand clothes,
choose less plastic packaging. In the second place, we could plant more
trees, plants and grass that could trap carbon dioxide. Then I must point
out that we have to radically change the way we get from A to B
because our vehicles are the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions.
We must use less oil-fired cars using electrical and hydrogen vehicles or
promote bicycle and car sharing systems. We may as well mention the
fact that it’s fully within our grasps to use our bikes or public transport
rather than individual vehicles when we live in cities. In this respect, we
need to switch our energy system because we always still use too many
nonrenewable energies to power cars, building or just to warm up our
houses. Thenceforth we must tip over those polluting sources of
energies by opting for green energy. For instance we could promote
hydropower, solar and wind energies. Consequently, I believe that we
must increase the part of nuclear power in order to keep a sustained
source of electricity. Last but not least, reduce our carbon footprint by
stopping the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is the only way
to decarbonize the world and curb global warming.

Our economic system can be the key factor that Professor Schellnhuber
mentions and defends. He enlightens us by saying that the economic
system we are currently in stems from a political will as there is an
economic competition based on fossil fuels and overconsumption. In this
respect Mr schellnhuber would like to make people aware of the use of
fossil fuels and overconsumption therefore he said that we need to
switch our energy system to sustainable energy system. Nevertheless, it
will be a big challenge ahead. Besides, he explains in another part that
we must keep food security for everybody on the planet. Consequently,
all these changes will create new opportunities in scientific innovation by
investing bigger sums.
It must be acknowledged that economy and ecology are closely linked.

The document we listen to was riveting because, it has given us many

striking elements to gnaw at. First of all, we learn that humankind was
affected by the pollution in terms of food. Indeed, we can observe a
deterioration of food, for example the fish are less tasty than before due
to their ingestion of plastics. And even in the production of food, we can
find a diminution also due to our pollution whether it is in the form of
plastic or in the air. As it's well known that this pollution also leads to the
atmosphere’s warming up which has serious consequences on our
planet. Indeed, in the last decade we have seen the melting of ice
sheets which has led to the rise of the sea level. These consequences
are very hazardous because 1 meter is very dangerous for animals and
humans living near the seas and can destroy the environment and it
also may increase the pH of the oceans, and so many species will die.
We can notice that nowadays birds aren't going as far as before and the
trees are blossoming earlier than before. For instance, in August 2022
some vines were ready to be harvested. More directly the pollution is
affecting humankind because nowadays there are more pollen allergies
than ever, people are more sensitive. What's more cancer cases are
also increasing in our latter-day societies. One last thing that really
affects us is that it's only due to our will and not to the technologies
today we are capable to reduce all these problems but we don’t act, or
not as fast as we could. Political will and economic systems depend on
fossil fuels. The environment is evolving at a fast pace, that's why we
have all these problems and we as humans aren't doing enough to
tackle this fast evolution.

The Euro Physics class first gave us a great insight of the fast-evolving
world. We express our opinion on daily subjects and latter-day problems
or issues. My keen interest in both physics and chemistry won't falter but
certainly grow even bigger as it has also allowed us to learn about
science history but also on different science subjects like physics,
chemistry and astronomy. To some extent and all things considered, it
definitively not only deepened and broadened our knowledge in those
particular fields but also had started to quench this voracious learning
thirst of ours.
I certainly deeply enjoyed the task that we had to perform related to
catalysts, it triggered the creativity that everyone has and it was fun
doing it. The topics about space, nuclear fusion and neutron stars were
riveting and it is worth mentioning that working in groups can be very
challenging but it also allows us to be innovative and productive. It also
let us understand how our world is working and it feeds our bottomless
and infinitive curiosity.
In short there are no boring tasks except climate change that can be
redundant.