Climate change is a serious problem that oftentimes gets overlooked. As the Earth gets warmer and ice caps begin to melt we must figure out a solution to this problem. Some may say that climate change is a hoax, but if it is not addressed, then we put the future of our planet at risk.
What is climate change? Climate change refers to a change in the Earth’s climate due to an increase in temperature. It is a complex topic, but it is real and it is happening. According to NASA, sixteen out of seventeen of Earth’s warmest years have occurred since 2001. Part of the reason climate change is occurring today is due to an increase in human activity. Unfortunately, our current presidential administration has yet to address the issue of climate change. At one point, President Trump called climate change a “hoax.”
To address climate change we must first address why it is happening. There is a 95 percent chance that human activity has contributed to climate change in the past 50 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The emissions of carbon dioxide from cars contribute to climate change. However, according to epa.gov, 29 percent of the greenhouse gases come from electricity. A few more causes of climate change include the burning of coal, deforestation and agriculture production.
Climate change may also be contributing to an increase in natural disasters that we are starting to experience. A few effects of climate change are increased heat waves and more intense hurricanes like we saw a couple months ago with Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria. Both hurricanes caused a serious amount of devastation and damage. It is also possible that the sea levels will begin to rise even more. The oceans absorb the heat from the atmosphere, therefore, melting the ice caps. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2100 the sea levels could rise anywhere from 11-38 inches. This could put some cities along the coast of many countries underwater.
Those who choose to ignore the facts of climate change believe that it is not real and is just a fluctuation in the Earth’s temperature. However, it has been established by scientists that climate change is not caused by any natural factors but instead by human activity. In a report by Public Religion Research Institute, it revealed that 33 percent of the people who don’t believe in climate change said so because they had not noticed a change in their local weather patterns. Another 18 percent of those Americans said that they believed the Earth’s temperature normally fluctuates. While both of those reasons may seem valid to some, climate change is much more complex than local weather patterns.
While everyone celebrates different religions and share different political views, we must come together as a human race to come up with an efficient solution to combat climate change. Just because our government is not doing all they can to solve climate change does not mean we as American citizens cannot. Whether you believe it or not climate change is real and if left unsolved will have an effect on our future generations. The first step in combating climate change is awareness and understanding how it will affect everyone. Another way to help is to transition to renewable energy and electric cars that help the environment. Climate change is real and we need to find a solution.
