ESG ACADEMY – FUTURE OF OUR BUSINESS

Climate change and the “green” competences of employees 👇👇👇

In the 19th century, the discovery of the ice ages led scientists to the conclusion that climate could change on a global scale.

Joseph Fourier concluded that the atmosphere keeps our planet warmer than if it were exposed directly to space. In 1860, John Tyndall , a physicist, discovered that the key to understanding this phenomenon lay in the proportion of gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide (What goes up 2019).

Svante Arrhenius, a chemist who was far ahead of his time in formulating various theories, pondered how human activity contributes to climate change. In the same century it became clear that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas – in 1850 Eunice Foote showed that the rate at which a sealed jar of air heats up in sunlight depends on the level of carbon dioxide in that air. Since then, various scientists have begun to wonder about the harmful effects of CO2 on our environment (Computing climate change 2020).

The industrial revolution made the use of coal commonplace. In 1900, coal burning provided 2 billion tons of CO2, in 1950 this number tripled and in 2019 it was 20 times higher.

However, until the middle of the 20th century, politicians were not convinced that we were facing climate catastrophe.

Moreover, it was thought that all the carbon dioxide could be absorbed by the oceans. And it wasn’t until 1950 that Roger Revelle , an American oceanographer, showed that this was not the case.

It was he who convinced politicians to measure changes in the atmosphere every year. In 1965, after the publication of a report prepared by America’s Presidential Science Advisory has made it clear that CO2 levels are increasing every year (What goes up 2019; Revelle and Suess, 1957).

However, much controversy and discussion was caused by Eigil ‘s theory Friis -Christensen and Knud Lassen . Scientists tried to show that they came to a surprising conclusion – they believe that there is a correlation between the lengths of solar cycles and the temperature level in the northern hemisphere (Friis -Christensen and Lassen , 1991)

Various warnings formulated by scientists are becoming a fact. In 2018, two hurricanes appeared almost simultaneously – Hurricane Florence in America and Typhoon Manghut in East Asia. Scientists have linked these phenomena to rising greenhouse gas emissions, ocean warming and climate change. A measurement taken at a depth of 2,000 meters showed that ocean temperatures are rising, and various climate models indicate that this will cause perpetual storms ( Thirsty planet 2029).

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