Q1.
What actions can be taken to reduce such changes?
Answer
The chapter answers its own question in the next line: tackling this issue requires collective efforts — reducing carbon footprints, using renewable energy, protecting forests, and adopting sustainable lifestyles. Each of those attacks one of the causes it has just named.
| Cause named in the chapter | The action that answers it | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Burning of fossil fuels | Use renewable energy — solar, wind — and cut wasteful energy use | Burning coal, oil and gas is what releases carbon dioxide in the first place; renewable sources release none while generating |
| Deforestation | Protect forests and plant trees | Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, so a standing forest is a store of carbon; cutting it releases that store |
| Industrial pollution | Cleaner industrial processes; buy less, reuse and recycle more | Every manufactured object carries the greenhouse gases released in making it — the chapter counts 'the production of goods and services' inside the carbon footprint |
| Our own daily habits | Reduce the carbon footprint — walk or cycle, switch off appliances, save water, refuse single-use plastic | These are the choices a student actually controls, and they are exactly what the LET'S EXPLORE scorecard measures |
Why the word 'collective' is doing real work in that sentence: the greenhouse gases mix through the whole atmosphere, so it makes no difference where they were released — a tonne of carbon dioxide from any country warms the same planet. That is why no single person, city or country can solve it alone, and also why no one is excused from acting. The chapter puts both halves together: 'Every small step counts, and every human being plays a vital role.'
Do not lose sight of who is hit hardest. The chapter says climate change 'has great impact on almost all sections of the population including women and children', and that it threatens 'human health, agriculture, and livelihoods' — not only ecosystems. The reason to act is not abstract.