The Role Of Climate Change In Texas

We've all heard about global warming as well as climate change. Climate Change is the buildup of massive amounts of man made greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Causing the Earth's temperature to slowly rise over a long period of time.The amount of carbon dioxide in the air has increased rapidly over the years. Climate Change is a global problem and recently an issue more and more people are paying attention to.

Climate change is not a new concept. It has been mostly referred to as global warming in the past. As much as people would like to file this issue away as something to deal with at a later date, it simply cannot wait. This problem we face is costing us billions of dollars, forests and wildlife are being eliminated, and people are dying. Starting to sound like a big deal, right? Future generations will be affected the most. People who do not even exist will have to pay for what we, all people, have done to this earth. To begin to make changes, one must realize the severity of the issue. Bill Mckibben, author of “Recalculating the Climate Math,” conveys that “We’ve already raised the world’s temperature by one degree—enough to melt almost half the ice in the Arctic, kill off huge swaths of the world’s coral, and unleash lethal floods and drought. July and August tied for the hottest months ever recorded on our planet, and scientists think they were almost certainly the hottest in the history of human civilization” (Page 3 of 5). Global climate change is a serious problem because it increases natural disasters and is the cause of extreme weather.

As a kid who has cared about nature his entire life, and an avid modern environmentalist for four years and counting, this issue has been at the center of my psyche for quite some time. I have seen public perspective on this issue change before my eyes. From the original rejection of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth movie on “global warming” to personally marching alongside 300,000 people in our nation's capital to raise awareness on climate change. However, despite all of these avenues the issue is still spoken about as this distant idea that eventually will be a disaster. Many politicians and news networks speak of the need for slow implementation of policies and programs to right our environmental wrongs. The best way to paraphrase the common narrative of this issue would be to say, climate change is going to happen down the road, it will probably be bad and trying to fix it in the near future would be a good idea. That weak call to action shoves climate change onto the long to-do list of the leaders of our world. Not only does it not create the urgency needed to actually curb the effects of our environmental ignorance, but it does not accurately describe the threat of a changing climate. Treating this like a political issue will not allow for the rigorous changes needed to address such a problem in the timely manner that is required.

Climate change has been a subject of discussion in the media for many years, supported with the use of arguments against oil polluting the environment and extreme scare tactics of Polar ice caps flooding civilians backyards. The issue has been ignored by the majority of lay people as seeming too complicated, and with all the conflicting information in the media in the past, who can blame them? However, scientifically, climate change and what perpetrates it is fairly simple to understand and society as a whole is beginning to come to a clear consensus on climate change. Thanks in part to more readily available forms of media and information, people have become cognizant of the fact that climate change is a legitimate problem which requires immediate amelioration. While this may seem melodramatic, society is realizing that climate change is an issue which can no longer be denied if the human race wishes to continue.

Over the past decade, the floods have been striking a lot more frequently than they used to. The state of Florida is predicted to soon be completely underwater and if nothing is done to help this issue, then it will only spread and soon the entire world will be under water. Climate change has been drowned out in the US presidential primary elections (Plester). Since many Americans are aware about the issue of Climate Change, many of them also refuse to believe that it 's happening. They tend to push it away which is why it 's not the most discussed topic at presidential campaigns or debates. Climate Change, otherwise known as Global Warming, has been a growing factor in Florida and should be taken into accountability. My research proposes that the state of Florida should cut down on fossil fuels, invest in an infrastructure upgrade, and residents unplug their electronic devices whether they’re on/being used or not.

Imagine your hometown underwater; the places you once hoped to show your grandchildren lost completely and swept away into an abyss. It doesn’t sound great, does it? Unfortunately, this could very well become reality. Maybe not during this generation, but eventually. Climate change is a severe issue that affects us all. Icecaps are melting, sea levels are rising, and many Americans are either unaware of the issue or have listened to major politicians dismissing the issue without much knowledge of it.

The Unites States of America is currently working to combat climate change in order to protect people from its effects. By combatting climate change, the USA hopes to prevent its effects from becoming worse in the future because the USA cares for its citizens and doesn’t want them to keep experiencing the consequences of climate change. The USA is putting great effort into dealing with climate change and also hopes that other businesses, organization, and individuals will join them in their effort (Environmental News Service). One concern the USA has towards climate change is its cause of natural disasters. Climate change is bringing more natural disasters by making weather patterns stronger, and weather patterns are becoming stronger as climate change grows which is bringing more natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and drought to the USA (Rice). One example of a natural disaster that occurred in the USA as a result of climate change is the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. In this event, a tornado rated 5 on the Enhanced Fuijta scale hit Oklahoma and had a negative impact on this city by destroying many of its houses and buildings also resulting in the destruction of businesses such as schools (Cable News Network). Another major concern of the USA towards climate change is that it will cause a rise in the global sea level which will result in many of its coastal cities to be submerged underwater. There will be a permanent 4 feet rise in the global sea level

In 2011 Texas entered into a drought that was the worst the state had seen since modern record keeping began 1895. During the driest months of this drought, the water level of two of the largest water resources for two-thirds of the state were measured at 28 percent less than the average water level. In summer of 2013 central Texas received numerous rains, and many people believed it was a sign that the drought had eased, Unfortunately Texas was far from out of the drought. Today Texas water levels barley sit above one-third full. This is a big problem for Texans everywhere because, Texas uses water for everything from its drinking water, to its agriculture, to its recreational activities. According to the TWDB by 2060 the drought will have cost Texas $116 billion dollars in income loses, 1.1 million job losses, and a decrease in population of about 1.4 million people.

With the rise of calamitous news regarding extremists groups taking over certain states, countries threatening to go to war, and viruses spreading throughout the world; the outlook of humanity does not look good. In addition to these dire headlines is the matter of climate change, which, unfortunately, is not as alarming to the public eye. Nonetheless, climate change is a pressing matter as it will impact every facet of society from economy to even human survival. Perhaps the general public find climate change as a vapid subject because of its nature to react belatedly to human activity, and how it is often represented with numbers, graphs, and projections; things that are not compelling to those that do not understand its importance. Even

Economic Impacts of the Climate Change in the Southeastern Region of the U.S. and Texas

When I polled a few of my friends about “what is the single most critical problem facing us today?” I got a frequent response that’s not so shocking, climate change. So why climate change? Why not obesity, or population control, or education? While all of those are problems that deserve discussion, no single topic is so fundamental to us as humans as climate change. In 2007 Al Gore stated in his person of the year interview that “Today we 're dumping 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the environment, and tomorrow we will dump more, and there is no effective worldwide response. Until we start sharply reducing global-warming pollution, I will feel that I have failed.” (Walsh) Perhaps the paradigm has changed. Climate change is now talked about at every level of government, in large and small businesses, and communities across the globe. It’s a topic that functions to affect our economy and our environment. Moving forward, it’s important to understand why our way of life will be affected by the way we tackle these issues surrounding climate change. Climate change is the single most important issue affecting the human race today due to its widespread impact on our survival; impacting food sources, transportation, weather, geography and other life forms on the earth.

Michael E Mann, publish a story in the Guardian questioning whether climate change made the recent storms deadlier. He did not claim Hurricane Harvey primarily caused by global warming but certainly made an already bad and difficult situation even more so. Mann explains climate change-related factors will have at least some impact on hurricane season activity, say worsened the flooding. One thing that causes Hurricane Harvey to increase into an intense storm is because of the storm surge was higher, which means the sea level is higher. Anthropogenic impacts, such as oil drilling play a role in Sea level rise – is more than half a foot (15cm) over the past few decades. To understand

An article on Newsela, “PRO/CON: Did Hurricane Harvey Show the Reality of Climate Change?,” was just recently written pertaining to the massive Hurricane Harvey that happened only a few weeks ago. Wayne Madsen, the writer of “PRO: Yes, Harvey Shows Climate Change is Real,” argues that Hurricane Harvey proves global warming exists. On the opposition, “CON: No, Hurricanes Have Plagued Texas For a Long Time,” Whitt Flora believes that global warming had no effect on this disastrous hurricane. However, logos from the supporting article reveal that there has been reportedly more severe storms in these past few years: “With drastic climate change, the world is experiencing historic

This article discusses how catastrophic storms were very extreme this year, in line with climate change predictions. It mentions an article from Lancet Magazine that states" the volume of rain and flooding occurring over the past few weeks is "unprecedented and difficult to comprehend". Hurricane Harvey was Huston’s third 500-year flood in the last three years. Even though this is happening the odds of a hurricane hitting the east coast are still the same as 100 years ago. There is still disagreement in their scientific community whether or not global warming has contributed directly to these recent catastrophic weather events. It’s really impossible to say, but one thing is for sure, “the planet will be fine no matter what we human do". Theirs

Climate change otherwise known as global warming has been an ongoing issue for decades. Beginning in the 19th century, climate change has increasingly affected Earth and its atmosphere. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are warming the Earth’s atmosphere, causing rising sea-levels, melting snow and ice, extreme fires and droughts, and intense rainfall and floods. Climate change has and will continue to affect food production, availability of water, and can add to many health risks in humans and animals. In fact, in an article by Justin Gillis titled, “Scientists Warn of Perilous Climate Shift Within Decades, Not Centuries” he focuses on a paper written by a former NASA climate scientist, James E. Hansen, explaining the effects of climate change on Earth today. Although many believe Hansen’s theories in the paper are quite far-fetched, the author mentions, “Despite any reservations they might have about the new paper, virtually all climate scientists agree with Dr. Hansen’s group that society is not moving fast enough to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, posing grave risks” (Gillis). Gillis validates the fact that climate change has been rapidly expanding throughout Earth and society has not been able to reduce it fast enough. Many negative risks are being posed and will continue to mount if the issue of climate change is not taken seriously. Although climate change negatively affects nearly all aspects of Earth, it poses a big