Xie Jiazhi, Class 7, Senior 2, Shenzhen Foreign Languages School Instructed by Tang Hong Recently, dwellers in Henan Province have been suffering from massive flooding, which as of August 2 has killed 302 people. It is said that the flood was caused by extreme rainfall that only happens once in a thousand years. Meanwhile, extreme rainfall has also shown up in Germany, leading to 180 deaths. Not only is extreme weather creating heavy rainfall, it also creates drought, heavy snowfall, heat waves and so on. All the above is arousing public concern about the Earth’s future and the eagerness of solving the weather problem. But first and foremost, who has “contributed” to the frequent extreme weather? There are a huge bunch of factors. However, the major one is the tremendous emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and CH4, which intensifies global warming. They indirectly influence the stability of our climate by creating higher temperatures and greater evaporation from the plants. The former brings drought and wildfires like the ones in California while the latter brings extreme rainfall and gives rise to floods. It’s no exaggeration to say that global warming is fueling this generation of frequent extreme weather. Now we all know that global warming is a non-ignorable factor in charge of the extreme weather. What should we humans do? The answer is to reduce the use of fossil fuels, but we should replace it with new energy resources gradually, just as what our motherland is doing: Encourage the use of new energy vehicles and develop new energy sources, for instance, the exploitation of combustible ice and the expansion of solar energy. These are all magnificent methods. However, as one of the 7.6 billion residents on the Earth, it seems that one can only do very little for the whole environment. Here I want to tell you: Your power is much greater than you think! You may easily plant a tree. When your tree eventually grows up, it can absorb nearly 5 kilograms of CO2 every day! What if all of us plant a tree today? Perhaps the tragedy in Henan won’t happen again in the future. So let’s take action, not only for our descendants, but also for the Earth. | 