Climate Change: Science, Impact, and Action
Climate change is probably one of the biggest—if not indeed among—the greatest challenges thrown at human civilization.
According to the IPCC, climate change is defined as “long-term average of weather, usually calculated over a period of 30 years for temperature, precipitation and other climatic elements at a particular location.” More concisely, climate change can be defined as a change in the usual long-term average condition of the atmosphere with respect to the mean state and variation in those averages over timescales of decades to millions of years.
The effects of global warming have already been realized, from the rise in sea levels to the extremes in weather and changes in flora and fauna; much more severe levels are projected if the emissions of greenhouse gases are not cut back.
- Greenhouse gases: These gases unite themselves with carbon dioxide and methane to form something like a blanket on the outer side, covering the surface of Earth and keeping it warm from the sun. Examples of human activities are the burning of fossil fuel, deforestation, and industrial processes.
- Global warming: The temperature of the earth’s surface has risen more in this last century, and increase in temperature is because of an increased amount of greenhouse gases available in an atmosphere.
a) Effects of climatic change: Climatic change is already causing a diversity of other effects on our planet with which
RISING SEA LEVEL: With the earth warming up, ice caps and glaciers warm up too and start melting, raising the level of seas. This rise threatens to submerge communities and coastal ecosystems.
BANAL EXTREME: Climate change is making the extreme extreme and it involves aspects like heat waves, floods, drought, wildfires, and many more. - Flora and fauna changes: Because of the ever-increasing temperature, most of the flora and fauna finds its habitat odd everywhere on the planet. This leads to extinctions and habitat/biome changes.
How can we be part of the solution on climate change?
Inividual or collective contributions that we can make in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen the impacts of climate change are as follows: Probably, among the things implementable are:
- Renewable: We need to wean the planet off fossil fuels by investments in renewable sources of energy.
- Energy efficiency: Energy efficiency, whether in homes or business enterprise, could take the need away from the energy demand.
- Forests: Protection of existing forests, planting new trees, as forests are huge absorbers of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Change the way we live: Change the way we live in most aspects of our lifestyles. Examples are consume less stuff, recycle more, and consume less meat.
This question about the climate has been inextricably linked, and probably is singular, with how we can be able to fully resolve it. Just so, how the work of making a more sustainable future will be ironed out for us and generations that remain ahead.
* The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): https://www.ipcc.ch/
* The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): https://unfccc.int/
* The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/
* The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): https://www.epa.gov/climate-change
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