We Cannot Breathe Money

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.

Climate change is the most serious issue humankind is facing in the 21th century. Future generations depend on our ability to make the necessary social changes, before reaching the tipping point of irreversibility, which will lead the planet into a catastrophe incompatible with life.

As Earths average temperature increases every year, the discussion of climate change has become a significant topic in the scientific community. Human activities such as powering factories, running automobiles or something as simple as burning wood for heat, emit dangerous greenhouse gases. What makes these greenhouse gases so detrimental is that they absorb the heat radiating off of Earth and keep it in the lower atmosphere creating a “blanket” of warmth around the Earth’s surface. This causes a drastic increase in the Earths average temperature. Due to the rise in temperature, the polar caps have been melting faster than ever, this is dangerous not only because of the risk of floods and sea level increase but ocean water will become less saline and ecosystems will be destroyed, impacting humans just as much as marine life. In the article, Understand faulty thinking to tackle climate change by George Marshall, Marshall states that most people in our world today do not care about climate change because it will not affect them, “Which points to the real problem: climate change is exceptionally amorphous, … no deadlines, no geographic location, no single cause or solution.” (Marshall 2014). Because the author makes it clear that climate change is indeed a great plight, and fails to be acknowledged by people, it is a significant matter that should be discussed

Why should we care is a question that many people end up asking. Earth’s average temperature has increased by at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century and scientists expect it to go up to about 12 degrees Fahrenheit in the next. To us, those numbers seem quite small, but the average temperature a couple centuries ago was 4 degrees lower than it is today, allowing ice caps to stay ice caps. As the temperature increases, ice caps start to melt resulting in the rising of sea levels. With the sea rising, storms are becoming more and more frequent and stronger. High sea levels also cause torrential rains and flooding which threatens us as humans, wildlife and nature.

Global climate change is an issue being debated all over the world from the recent presidential debates late last year to documentaries being created on either side of the global warming debate. Currently, the world is experiencing many tremendous changes including warming or the earth and rising of our oceans. “The heat extremes were especially pervasive in the Arctic, with temperatures in the fall running 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal across large stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Sea ice in that region has been in precipitous decline for years, and Arctic communities are already wrestling with enormous problems, such as rapid coastal erosion, caused by the changing climate” ”(Gillis, 2). Some believe that global warming exists while

“Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority,” genius businessman and billionaire Bill Gates, once said (Brainy Quote). Although many doubt the severity and even possibility of climate change, there is no evidence contradicting the fact that the national average temperature has increased by more than 1.4 degrees over the last century (EPA). Additionally, record-breaking temperatures appear yearly, and the weather has become much more drastic and tumultuous in all regions across the globe. Sadly, the land is not the only part of Earth experiencing these changes. The planet’s oceans and glaciers are experiencing changes as well. For example, ice caps are melting, sea levels are

According to scientific research, the average temperature of the earth has risen by between ten and twenty degrees Celsius (M.L. Weitzman, 2008). These high temperatures could well be described as a ‘recipe for disaster’, and could produce results that would be catastrophic on a global scale. What is more alarming however, is that there is already a lot of evidence of predicted results of climate change, for instance, in Australia especially, severe draughts have been common in farming areas in the last few decades, there has been an increase of intense and extreme weather events, for example floods, flash floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and tornados, almost all of the natural disasters listed have occurred for ‘unknown’ reasons in the past few years. Rises in sea water level and temperature due to higher acid levels caused by global warming, threaten the existence of species and in some areas, entire eco-systems resulting in the loss of natural biodiversity. ‘Climate change is pushing the world to the verge of environmental and economic collapse, whether global deniers want to believe it or not’ (N. Klein, 2011).

floods, and droughts. All of these relate to climate change and how the world’s atmosphere is heating up. Some floods happen when sea levels rise. When sea levels rise it’s usually caused by the melting ice caps. The reason ice caps melt is because of the heating up of the atmosphere.The main reason the atmosphere heats up is because of the greenhouse effect is caused by the use of coal, oil, and other unusable energies. When these energies are used, they emit greenhouse gases which heat up the atmosphere thus melting the icecaps. In turn, multiple cities near the coast would “disappear” getting submerged in water.

Rising sea levels, polar bears falling through ice, huge monsoons evaporated by blistering sunlight , it sounds like a nightmare, but all of these things are happening on Earth. Earth's temperature is rising, the average temperature is expected to rise a little over 8 degrees fahrenheit over the next couple centuries. These changes in our climate can result in bigger problems than just warmer weather. Climate change happens to everyone and it will affect all living things on Earth, through the use of our resources, such as: agriculture, water, resources, ecosystems, and health.

The scientific community has evidence for climate change and it’s effects on the planet thus far. It is clear given the fact that “…the year 2016 was the warmest on record — a remarkable 1.1 degrees Celsius [1.98 degrees Fahrenheit] above the pre-industrial period, which is 0.06 C [0.1 F] above the previous record set in 2015” (Geggel). The average global temperature is rising and the rate of increase is rising as well. The slower we are to address the issue, the more consequences we will

As the Earth keeps warming, the Arctic's summer sea ice is vanishing at a stunning pace. This rapid melt is expected to have significant environmental and health consequences for the entire world, including sea level rise, affecting agriculture, endangering water and food security, erosion of coastal habitats, increasing intensity of natural disasters, and species extinction. Countries have since responded to climate change by adapting to its impacts and acceding to various international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol to mitigate green house gas emissions, thereby reducing the rate and magnitude of change.

It’s quite alarming how global warming affects the world. Imagine the world’s coolest places, the Arctic and Antarctica with its ice melting and pouring significant amount of water to the sea. The sea levels are rising fast, weather conditions change rapidly and sometimes getting more unpredictable.

As oceans are warming, the planet’s ocean and glaciers have also experienced changes. Glaciers, and Ice caps are melting, thus with the melting of the glaciers and ice caps, the sea levels are rising. Large bodies of water, like rivers and lakes are also drying up and disappearing. Scientists predict that these and other changes are going to become more pronounced in the coming decades.

Climate change effects the planet on many different levels. However, the focus when it comes to climate change prevention, is preventing a two-degree Celsius temperature increase. Richard Kerr, author of How Urgent Is Climate Change stated, “Humans are messing with climate and will, eventually, get burned if they keep it up” (1230). This implies the severity of climate change. Climate change will cause irreversible damage to the planet and the it’s ecosystem. The current focus of world is to prevent a two-degree Celsius temperature increase. This has been reported as the point of no return. This means that if we ever reach this point, it would be difficult to recover from the damages that climate change would cause. Alley states “If you want to be able to head off a few trillions of [dollars of climate] damages per year a few decades out, you need to start now" (qtd. in Kerr 1230). If we ever reach the two degree Celsius temperature increase, we might be at the point of no return.

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