Candle produces more CO2  than a single firecracker

More than 95% human activities over the past 4-5 decades are responsible for inching ‘mother-earth’ towards getting warmer year after year, eclipsing our life-system. Stephen Hawking had unequivocally predicted (‘a veiled threat’) that our planet will gradually rise its temperature and will become a ‘hot-fireball’ in next six centuries; and to protect it - “we need to act now before it’s too late”. The human’s lust for deriving more power from fossil fuels for our vehicles and industry is having a serious cause of concerns of scientists and environmental experts; warrants to have adequate notice of active derivative - “The Wax” - we use very frequently in our daily life.  We burn every-year more than three ‘billion-candles’ on cultural and religious occasions. They significantly increase the level of ‘greenhouse gases’, inviting new threats to human health. Most of the candles are made from ‘Paraffin wax’ - derivative of petroleum - which have common carcinogenic toxins released by burning of diesel in IC engines. For instance, each 50 gm household candle burns for about four hours. That produces about 39 gm of carbon dioxide. A single candle thus produces nearly 30 times more carbon dioxide than a single fire-cracker which produces a mere 0.4 gm.    The ‘collective flames of earth’s gradual burning’ are reaching to the coldest region Antarctica opening-up the gate-ways of destruction of humanity from multiple fronts ranging from North and South poles of Antarctica to the ecologically vulnerable and fragile-points known as ‘third pole of earth’ -  the Himalayan range - melting the precious ‘snowy regions’. These snowy regions are solid water (ice) which act to play a significant role of our “life-line on earth” - cooling down the earth’s temperature compatible to our living conditions. Is the sun to blame for rising temperature on earth? No. The earth’s climate is influenced by the sun and acts as giver of life. However, the scorching heat touching new records is not attributable to the sun’s activities. The most abundant ‘greenhouse gases’ physically or chemically are responsible. “It will continue to get more-hotter and fiercer until humans stop burning of fossil fuels” climatologists from Oxford University contend. 
An analytical data from the satellites have observed that the sun’s energy output has changed less than 0.1% in the last 40 years whereas earth’s warming has increased by at least 1.1° Celsius (1.9° Fahrenheit) in 142 years. The warming has increased, since 1975, at the rate of roughly by 0.15 to 0.20°C per decade. Planets like Venus have carbon dioxide content that is 1,54,000 times more than on earth (about 19000 times on Mars). It produces such Green House Gases impact that the surface temperature is over 475 degree Celsius, sufficient to melt lead. The alerts of Stephen Hawking warrant serious measures to bridle this spiral at any cost. Some studies at University of North Carolina predict that five lakh lives can be saved by the year 2030 if the GHG are controlled.  For mitigating the impact of the lurking shadow of climatic dangers, all the countries should unanimously step-up their priorities and revisit the whole issue of ‘using fossil fuels and its derivatives’ to meet our ‘bare-minimum needs’ only.  Accordingly, India being more vulnerable in respect of pollution-related issues, it is high time the regulatory authorities framed more stringent guidelines and launched massive public-awareness campaigns across the nation for the betterment of our future generations.  
(The writer retired from the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun and is now an educator and analyst. The views expressed are personal.)