What is climate change? Climate change is the term used to refer to long-term changes in temperature and in things like the weather. Everyone has some idea of what climate change is but most people do not actively try to help the issue or do not know enough about it to realize how dire the situation really is. As the Earth grows warmer, everything that lives on Earth will have drastic changes. With only a 2°C increase in the Earth’s temperature, thirteen percent of Earth’s land would undergo transformations from one type of ecosystem to another. There would be droughts, insect infestations and increased snowmelts. We are already seeing these effects: ten percent of the famous Giant Sequoia trees died in wildfires in the Sierra Nevada in 2020.
Climate change has a way of spreading its influence in all kinds of matters. Going back to the 2°C point, if the increase were to happen then the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in the summer every ten years. Melting ice in the Arctic puts cold water into the Atlantic south of Greenland which changes the circulation of the ocean. The Arctic Ocean circulation, which includes the Gulf Stream that brings warm weather to the Northeastern U.S and to Europe, is at its weakest in the last thousand years. Also, a two degree increase, coral reefs in the oceans would decline by more than ninety percent, causing irreversible damage to numerous marine and coastal ecosystems around the world. This in turn leads to less fish, as the U.N. projects, 3 million tonnes less. More than thirty-five percent of the Earth’s population rely on food from the sea and this huge loss would mean that there would be mass poverty, which opens different kinds of problems in a modern civilization. Climate change, as I said, has a way to spread to all corners of the world and our lives.
Some Statistics:
– Within the next 2 decades, global temperatures are likely to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius
– The last 7 years have been the warmest on record
– More than 1 million species are at risk of extinction by climate change
