On June 21, 2022, I participated in the Mie Prefecture Global Warming Prevention Activity Promoters Training Program.
It has been a year since I started working as a Mie Prefecture Global Warming Prevention Activity Promoter in April 2021, promoting activities and measures to prevent global warming in Mie Prefecture, including educational activities on the current situation of global warming and the importance of global warming countermeasures.
Although it has not been easy, I would like to gradually participate in environmental learning opportunities and delivery of lectures.
The problem of global warming is caused by the increase in the concentration of gases in the atmosphere due to human activities, which would normally be maintained at a constant level by the absorption of heat from greenhouse gases as the earth's surface is heated by energy from the sun.
The average annual temperature in Japan has been increasing at a rate of about 1.15°C per century over the long term, resulting in a heat wave every year, which affects both native trees and planted trees in Japan. In Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, the maximum temperature has increased by 1.7°C per century, and the number of midsummer days has increased by 9.2 days in 50 years.
Every year in some garden, trees have died because of this heat. The heat is also affecting the biological season, as flowers that did not bloom in this season before are now in bloom. This year, too, the cherry blossoms in Mie Prefecture bloomed three days earlier than usual, but it seems to be five or five days earlier per 50 years.
Also, at first glance, the increase in carbon dioxide concentration may be good for plants. However, there is a limit to the concentration of carbon dioxide that plants can absorb, and up to a certain level, plants grow well, but beyond that level, their growth stagnates.
I hear that plants are adapting to the heat and rising carbon dioxide concentrations and that rice varieties have been bred to withstand the summer heat, but I wonder if we humans ourselves will not be able to adapt, and if there is anything we can do to help, even if only a little, in the near future we will be like goldfish in a pond with a mouth full of acid. Maybe I just want to do something useful for others to maintain my self-esteem.
We will do what we can do, starting with what we like to do.