Why Is Producing Plastic So Dangerous For Climate

Producing Plastic So Dangerous For Climate

 

Garbage patches in the oceans, polluted beaches, animals that eat plastics and die from it in agony – the devastating consequences of plastics are well known. However, what often goes unnoticed when looking at plastics is its impact on the climate. Producing-PlasticS So Dangerous For-Climate contributes significantly to climate change. We explain how greenhouse gases are produced during plastics production and what makes them so dangerous.

Table of Contents
Climate change: A brief explanation
causes of climate change
The Paris Climate Agreement
Plastics and its impact on climate change
Plastics contributes to climate change as it decomposes
Climate change and its consequences
Climate change: A brief explanation

Before we delve into the impact of plastics on climate change, we should first define what exactly climate change means. Climate change is what we talk about nowadays when we refer to man-made global warming. Global warming is basically a completely natural effect: The sun sends short-wave radiation to the earth, where it is converted into long-wave radiation and re-radiated.

The earth’s atmosphere, which also contains a natural layer of carbon dioxide, reflects part of the long-wave radiation back and thus ensures that life on earth is possible at all. Without this natural greenhouse effect, the average temperature on earth would be -18 °C.

If the content of these gases increases, the atmosphere heats up too much. This has been happening since the beginning of industrialization. One therefore also speaks of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide and methane are particularly responsible for the man-made greenhouse effect. While around 63% of the man-made greenhouse effect is due to CO 2, methane is known to be a particularly aggressive greenhouse gas. It influences climate change about 25 times more than CO 2 and is responsible for 19% of anthropogenic global warming.

In addition to the natural causes of climate change, there are also many man-made reasons. In connection with global warming, the following causes are mentioned in particular:

Combustion of coal, oil and natural gas produces carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides
Deforestation: The CO 2 stored in the trees is released during deforestation and enters the earth’s atmosphere.
Increasing cattle breeding: Ruminants emit large amounts of methane during digestion.

 

The Paris Climate Agreement

Politicians have now also recognized that something needs to be done to combat climate change. This was probably expressed most clearly in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, in which 196 countries committed to keeping global warming well below two degrees relative to pre-industrial levels. In order for this to succeed, Germany has set itself interim targets for the years 2020, 2030 and 2040.

However, it is already clear that Germany will not achieve its short-term climate targets for 2020. Instead of the targeted reduction of 40 percent, only about 32 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions will be emitted in Germany compared to 1990. In order to be able to limit global warming to below two degrees, strict climate protection concepts are required that do not ignore the dangers of polyethylene

The enormous demand for plastics contributes to global warming to a not inconsiderable extent. Plastics emits greenhouse gases at every stage of its life. This starts with the production, when the fossil raw materials are extracted, refined and processed. The production of a polyethylene bag alone produces 120 grams of CO 2. The problem with this is that the demand for plastics is constantly growing.

In the last 20 years alone, plastics production has more than doubled, and this trend is continuing. According to estimates, plastics production will quadruple again by 2050. According to the Center for International Environmental Law(CIEL), polyethylene production is expected to cause CO 2 emissions of 52.2 gigatons by 2050 at the forecast growth rates.

The emissions caused by the incineration of plastics make matters worse. Despite strict waste separation procedures, we in Germany recycle far less plastics than politicians would have us believe. The majority of plastics waste ends up in incinerators, where burning emits harmful greenhouse gases. The CIEL assumes that total greenhouse gas emissions from the incineration of plastics waste increase to more than 56 gigatons. This is particularly annoying, since plastics is in most cases a very short-lived product that often ends up in the garbage after just one use.

Greenhouse Gases Contributes To Climate Change

 

Researchers at the University of Hawaii have now found that plastics continuously releases greenhouse gases even during its decomposition process. In one study, they irradiated various types of plastics with UV light for 212 days. The result: all plastics gave off methane, polyethylene the most. This is the plastics that is produced the most around the world – and therefore ends up in the environment the most. The plastics emitted a particularly large number of gases when salt water was added.

In addition, the amount increased as the decomposition proceeded. A particularly great danger therefore emanates from plastics in the form of microplastics get into the oceans. How big the effect of the greenhouse gases produced in this way on climate change really has not yet been researched. However, since plastics takes hundreds of years to decompose and production continues to increase, plastics degradation should also be considered a serious global warming hazard.

Climate change and its consequences

 

Plastics has devastating consequences for our environment and our social coexistence. Unless we stop climate change, extreme weather conditions and natural disasters will become more frequent. Sea levels continue to rise and glaciers are melting, not only destroying the habitats of endangered species, but also robbing people of their homes as whole islands soon sink under the sea.

Crop failures and scarcity of drinking water will present developing countries with major challenges and cause health problems such as infectious diseases and famine. It should therefore be important to each of us to make a contribution to ending climate change. In the plastics alternative guide, you will find numerous tips and suggestions on how you can make your life a little bit more sustainable.

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