Climate Change — Facts You Should Know
Climate change oh, Climate change. We hear about it all the time, but is it really a big deal? Let’s be clear, the SCIENCE backing climate change is far from controversial. It most certainly reliable. Climate change, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced using fossil fuels. Now this begs the question, why does this matter? The effects of climate change are currently being felt and create a wide range of very serious issues that will only intensify as time goes on.
- Increased health risks — Climate change exposes people to things such as poor air quality, reduced water/food quality, and extreme heat. These cause a domino effect. All of these things expose us to situations and things that cause heart-related illness, cardiopulmonary illness, food and water born disease, asthma, malaria , and lyme disease.
- Poverty and displacement — Climate change is going to highlight issues around the world that already exist. One of those specifically being poverty. By 2030 there will be an estimated 100 million more people forced under the poverty line. The impact of extreme weather will push an additional 26 million under the poverty line.
- Loss of species and biodiversity — The world already has lots of species deemed in danger. As of 2021 the IUCN (International Union for Conservation Nature) determined there are 41,415 threatened species and 16,306 endangered species. As weather drastically changes and extreme weather patterns continue to happen this put more pressure on the already threatened species and will result in loss of biodiversity.
- Warming ocean — As greenhouse gases result in oceans retain more heat there will be an increase e in the oceans temperature and rising sea levels. As the ocean warms we will experience decrease oxygen levels, more species dying and melting of glaciers.
- Increased drought — Increased drought directly relates to hotter temperatures. When temperatures rise the water on the surface will dry out resulting in loss of plants and food supply.
Now, how does this happen? What causes climate change to even begin?
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), green house gas emissions are the man made cause for all of this.
To summarize this, climate change is due to gas emissions. There are quite a few different types and different things that contribute to greenhouse gases covering the earth. Some of these include…
Overconsumption — Overusing on everyday items does not allow the planet to keep up, especially if everyone is over consuming. It also increases air pollution which , as we know, causes a wide variety y of illnesses.
Powering Buildings — Electricity used to power buildings is often used from burning coal. This has a negative effect on the world and drastically contributed to air pollution
Transportation — Using transportation, specifically cars that run on gas, contribute greatly to the gas emissions that come from the gasoline
Manufacturing goods-According to the Environmental Protection Agency manufacturing goods attributes 23% to gas emissions in the United States.
Climate change is a topic that is much more complex than meets the eye. The causes and effects are forever evolving. While it certainly is an important topic it is most certainly one that brings up feelings of stress. We do need to be educated about the accurate start of our world and the current reality we will face should nothing change. We do still have time to turn this around. A study done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021 concluded that we have 11 years to reduce emissions before climate change is irreversible. The IPCC also notes a few uplifting facts including that while still bad emissions have decreased over the past 10 years in over 20 countries.
All of this information needs to be noted, understood, and acted upon. While it is great that we have 11 years to get our act together, globally that is, we still need to get the ball rolling. In a major way. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmental activist, has a very similar mindset.
““If I live to be 100, I will be alive in the year 2103. When you think about the future today, you don’t think beyond the year 2050. By then I will, in the best case, not even have lived half of my life. What happens next? In the year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children or grandchildren, maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you, the people who were around back in 2018. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there still was time to act. What we do or don’t do right now, will affect my entire life and the lives of my children and grandchildren. What we do or don’t do right now, me and my generation can’t undo in the future.” — Greta Thunberg
Her quote says it all.
