In a stroke of sheer brilliance, The journal of unlikely science, weird science Null Hypothesis has cracked the climate change problem. Less than a month into Richard Branson’s five-year competition, Null Hypothesis will take its winning idea to Virgin Earth and walk away with a cool $25 million.

The solution to Branson’s problem (not to mention our, global, problem) is closer to hand than we could ever have imagined. It is, quite simply, stop breathing; or at least breathe less.

The average person takes 24,000 breaths a day, breathing in approximately 6g of carbon dioxide, but breathing out around 800g during the same time. Over a year, you personally will add a net 290kg of CO2 to the atmosphere, just by exhaling. Multiply that by a global population of 6.5 billion and it adds up to a criminal 1.88 gigatonnes.

If we each merely cut out one breath in three, we could decrease the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere each year by a staggering 0.63 gigatonnes. That’s 0.63 billion tonnes – the same effect as saving 5 million acres of land (an area the size of Wales) from deforestation, or recycling 192 million tonnes of waste instead of trashing it.

But we don’t want to stop there. Let’s get really ruthless.

Perhaps the most carbon efficient solution would be to eliminate those members of the population taking the most breaths and therefore expelling the most carbon dioxide.

Intuitively, you might expect these to be the sorts of idle layabouts who wouldn’t know what a treadmill was if it hit them in the face. With their high resting heart rates and shallow, wheezing breaths, they must be the least environmentally sound.

But that’s not the case. Being as there is no obvious difference between the metabolic rates of the honed and toned, and the squashy and sluggish, we all burn about the same amount of carbon whilst resting. However, all that time that the super-fitties among us spend exercising, they’re guzzling extra oxygen and belching out tonnes of CO2.

When we undertake strenuous exercise our metabolic rate tends to increase by at least 50%. So during a 30-minute bout, we could be expelling an extra 8.3g of carbon dioxide.

Perhaps that doesn’t seem like much, but by our calculations, if we exercised as we were supposed to – about 30 minutes, five times a week – this would add up to another 1.3kg a year. Across the world population, that’s a lung-busting 14 million tonnes of extra CO2 every year.

And just to make matters worse, your body continues to metabolise at a higher rate long after you cease exercising, pumping out increased levels of carbon dioxide for anything up to 36 hours.

Doctors Impey and Steer prepare to win the big prize in the Virgin Earth Challenge.

Doctors Impey and Steer get into training to receive their big winnings

So the key to reversing climate change and saving the planet is simple: do nothing. Absolutely nothing. In an ideal world, we’d all just sit around keeping our breathing rates as low as possible, skipping the odd breath here and there just to help matters along. That way we’d all be minimizing our carbon output.

And there’s an extra benefit to the global atmosphere.

As our enforced lethargy leads us to pile on the pounds, we’ll act as carbon sinks – tying up potentially dangerous atmospheric carbon (via plants and hopefully an animal or two) as ever-so-becoming fat deposits.

But, before you revel in the excuse to leave your trainers to gather dust, the amount of carbon dioxide you would save by not exercising is nothing compared to what you’d save by running somewhere instead of driving.

And one final thought: even if CO2 levels were to be stabilised quickly, global temperatures would continue to soar for years to come. So, even though we’ve helped solve Branson’s challenge, in terms of seeing an effect on rising global temperatures – don’t hold your breath.

Now-a-days we hear about Climate Change more often than before. Climate change is a global phenomenon and the term “Climate Change” is indeed a straightforward expression for such a complex subject. In fact, it has more than we can comprehend from this phrase and that is why it is quite essential to go at defining climate change in today’s scenario.

In the present glossary of researchers and scientists, climate modification as a term is no longer in use and effect. The reason behind this is that we have come to realize the effect of the changes we make to our environment will eventually increase the temperature in many parts of the world, but at the same time will also be decrease in temperature for few parts of the planet. This however, creates a general imbalance in the climate of the world which in turn leads us to the phrase, “Climate Change.”

While wondering the effects of this phenomenon, the things you know of as climate modification is actually referred to as global a global phenomenon of climate change. However, with all the details and statistics we have in hand at present, we can definitely conclude that the world is unquestionably warming with the temperatures rising like never before.

This is a global problem with many natural disasters started taking shape; the general awareness of this factor is really low. For the better understanding of the issues associated with this phenomenon, we require a simple definition in relation to the warming of the planet. And this definition needs to be the one that brings us the essence of this problem without compromising the simplicities.

However, the easiest and most precise definition is that it is the effect greenhouse gases have on the earth’s overall climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide and methane, but are not limited to these two.

While learning more about this issue, we need to understand few important facts associated with it. The first fact is that it is both a natural phenomena and one catalyzed by us. For instance, greenhouse gases are a natural part of the biosphere and would exist if man did not. In fact, these gases are a vital component to the existence of life on this planet.

It is due to the existence of the greenhouse gases, the temperature on planet earth does not average zero degrees! These naturally occurring gases help to keep the temperature at a desirable 59 degrees. But, the climate change, which is due to the greenhouse gases, is not indeed natural. In fact, the problem we are facing is the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

These gases act as thermal blankets for the atmosphere. The more gas in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket and the less heat escapes from earth. In the last 80years, we have been releasing these gases into our atmosphere and thus helping them to form a blanket.

On the other hand, we are reducing forests around the planet, which are the natural plant collection that absorb greenhouse gases. This double whammy is starting to show negative results, the increased heating of our world, and thus the beginning of the dreaded climate change.

Climate Change

Now-a-days we listen Climate Change more often than before. Climate change is a global phenomenon and the term “Climate Change” is indeed a straightforward expression for such a complex subject. In fact, climate change has more than we can comprehend from this phrase and that is why it is quite essential to go at defining climate change in today’s scenario. In the present glossary of researchers and scientists, climate modification as a term is no longer in use and effect. The reason behind this is that we have come to realize the effect of the changes we make to our environment will eventually increase the temperature in many parts of the world, but at the same time will also be decrease in temperature for few parts of the planet. This however, creates a general imbalance in the climate of the world which in turn leads us to the phrase, “Climate Change.”

While wondering the effects of the climate change, the things you know of as climate modification is actually referred to as global a global phenomenon of climate change. However, with all the details and statistics we have in hand at present, we can definitely conclude that the world is unquestionably warming with the temperatures rising like never before. Climate change is a global problem with many natural disasters started taking shape; the general awareness of this factor is really low. For the better understanding of the issues associated with the climate change, we require a simple definition for climate change in relation to the warming of the planet. And this definition needs to be the one that brings us the essence of this problem without compromising the simplicities. However, the easiest and most precise definition is that climate change is the effect greenhouse gases have on the earth’s overall climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide and methane, but are not limited to these two.

While learning more about climate change, we need to understand few important facts associated with it. The first fact is that climate change is both a natural phenomena and one catalyzed by us. For instance, greenhouse gases are a natural part of the biosphere and would exist if man did not. In fact, these gases are a vital component to the existence of life on this planet. It is due to the existence of the greenhouse gases, the temperature on planet earth does not average zero degrees! These naturally occurring gases help to keep the temperature at a desirable 59 degrees. But, the climate change, which is due to the greenhouse gases, is not indeed natural. In fact, the problem we are facing is the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases act as thermal blankets for the atmosphere. The more gas in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket and the less heat escapes from earth. In the last 80years, we have been releasing this gases into our atmosphere and thus helping them to form a blanket. On the other hand, we are reducing forests around the planet, which are the natural plant collection that absorb greenhouse gases. This double whammy is starting to show negative results, the increased heating of our world, and thus the beginning of the dreaded climate change.