WHY CARBON MATTERS

Article by Michael Wegman

At $BEACH Token, our “Climate Strategy” declared on the front page of our website is simple: $BEACH contributes 1.5% of all transactions towards clean ocean projects and carbon free initiatives around the world making the $BEACH ecosystem carbon free and green investor friendly. To achieve results and render credibility to an otherwise great idea wrapped in a strategy statement, we routinely highlight the many actions of our dedicated paid and volunteer teams around the world who clean up beaches & waterways, properly dispose of plastics and other garbage, and replant Mangrove forests, just to name a few of our many climate-related activities. Those are our HOW TO pieces, and they are tangible and easy to photograph. But when it comes to the “carbon free” piece in our climate strategy, a bit more explanation is needed to ensure a full understanding of the WHY behind that strategy. So here goes…

We are a Carbon-based planet. Carbon has been with us from the beginning and remans a vital part of how global ecosystems are inextricably laced together in a way that allows mutual collaboration. Life needs Carbon. And to survive & function properly, Carbon needs life. So what’s the rub? Well, ironically too much of a good thing is usually never actually good — which is the case now with rapidly rising Carbon Dioxide (CO2) levels around our world. Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas produced when humans exhale and when fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are burned. The industrial revolution introduced vastly efficient mechanized ways for mankind to accomplish work that involved burning ever increasing amounts of energy and a steady increase of CO2 into our atmosphere. CO2 is our planet’s most prevalent atmospheric “greenhouse” gas, and the characteristic most worrisome about greenhouse gases is their HEAT absorption

How fast is our world warming? Using solid ice samples that represent a glimpse in time dating back 20,000 years to the last known ice age, scientists can read actual frozen carbon levels that clearly show how the world went from 200ppm (parts per million) to 280ppm Carbon Dioxide levels over a 6000-year period. Roll the clocks forward to modern times and those same ice samples show a rapid change that started 200 years ago when CO2 began climbing from 280ppm to over 400ppm today. Compared with the 80ppm rise over 6000-years, our 200ppm self-induced rise in CO2 since the 1820’s is virtually instantaneous in the spectrum of historical time. As global CO2 levels continue to rise, trapped greenhouse gases thicken the atmosphere and the world holds in more heat.

What’s the effect? The alarming rate at which our world is heating up is melting glaciers, negatively affecting human, animal, and plant health, and directly affecting the supply and quality of clean water and clean air. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), respiratory allergies, asthma, Lyme disease, mental health issues, and many more maladies can be traced back to the harmful effects of increased CO2 levels in our world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “7 MILLION premature deaths are caused by air pollution every year and 250,000 additional deaths are projected to result from climate-sensitive diseases (heat stress, malnutrition, dengue, and malaria) from 2030 onward.”

What’s the cure? In a nutshell, mankind MUST emit less CO2 into the atmosphere while removing (scrubbing out) the harmful excess CO2 causing our planet such problems. To do that, education is needed FIRST so citizens of every nation may recognize sources of CO2, ways to mitigate emitting excess CO2, and begin understanding Carbon terminology such as Carbon footprint, Carbon neutral, and Carbon leadership. Education is almost ALWAYS the first step to changing mindsets that recognize how CO2 plays a role in our lives and the lives of the future generations to whom present generations are tasked to leave the planet BETTER than we found it. In some small but ever-increasing way here at $BEACH Token, this mindset also remains a vital part of our Climate Strategy!

$BEACH Actively Engaged in Carbon Projects Around the World

1 Architecture 2030: https://architecture2030.org/2030_challenges/2030-challenge/

2 Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases

3 NASA. The Relentless Rise of Carbon Dioxide: https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the-relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/

4 Spencer Weart, August 2012. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/discovery-of-global-warming/

5 World Health Organization: Climate Change and Health. Published February, 2018: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health

6 Interface video: FYI | Carbon. Released January, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mumgbxLdz_E&feature=youtu.be

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