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Every Human Costs the Environment Over 85 Tons of CO2 | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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China’s air pollution, which is drifting as far as California
and beyond, has become a growing issue abroad as it makes it more
difficult for countries to keep improving their air quality. Photo:
Reuters


Every Human Costs the Environment Over 85 Tons of CO2

by | Jul 24, 2017 | Lifestyle & Culture |

Every Human Costs the Environment Over 85 Tons of CO2

Cologne, Germany- Some assume that cows are the main polluting creatures, while others think that cars and industries are the top sources of pollution. However, without a doubt, humans are the major ones.

A new US-Canadian study revealed that humans are the biggest source of pollution, suggesting that a baby pollutes the environment more than a car. Scientists admit that children-related examples could be provocative, but they relied on them to point out that the human-growth is a serious threat to the environment.

Kimberly Nicholas and her colleague made their claims on pollution by measuring the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted by a child, a car, and a cow. They concluded that having one less baby each year saves over 58.6 tons of CO2 while eliminating one car means saving over 2.4 tons of it per year.

Based on these results, one less flight through the Atlantic Ocean by each human in one year saves 1.6 tons of carbon dioxide, while the vegetarian diet for each human saves 0.82 ton of it a year.

Cem Özdemir, head of the Green Party in Germany said: “comparing a child to a car is ridiculous, and encouraging humans to stop reproduction makes no sense, especially that Germany has the lowest birth rate.”

Özdemir added that it’s illogical to have fewer children, instead, logic says we should reduce the usage of diesel and fuel cars and build less CO2-emitting industries.

The German PM considered that most importantly, people should have better awareness regarding the environment, energy conservation, and the exploitation of natural resources.

A source in the Swedish ministry of environment said a new study accuses electric cars of causing pollution because producing the new batteries used to power these cars have the same damaging impact of diesel and fuel.

Cows were also found guilty because they emit methane gas from their guts while eating herbs on daily basis.

Scientists estimate that methane is 25 times more dangerous than CO2 for the environment.

Of note, the environment needs 12 whole years to get rid of methane.