What is climate change? According to the United Nations, “Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.” Driving to school, leaving the light on in your bedroom, and even littering can cause climate change.
Why would people want to care about climate change? Well, climate change affects lives. Record-breaking heat waves and severe floods are only some of its effects.
Many things depend on the climate, especially the food web. Producers start off the food chain, and these producers are affected by the drastic changes in the environment. “The photosynthesis decreases when there are changes in the temperature.” States Mrs. Garces. “If we don’t have a good number of producers, we barely can eat, and there is going to be the point where we are going to be starving.”
Places such as factories produce fossil fuels, which harm our environment, they pollute the air and the water, which changes how the animals live. 23% of the U.S. greenhouse gases are caused by factories.
“The Ozone has been disrupted in many ways,” states Mrs. Garces, “It’s like the insulation for the entire Earth,” she is talking about the Ozone layer, “As soon as the Ozone layer starts disappearing, a lot of heat would come into the Earth.”
This issue has been dangerous since 1988, and that danger grows every year. The effects include severe flooding, dangerous wildfires, heavy rain, and long drought.
In Hilo, Hawaii, they average 18 floods per year, way more than it should be. Wildfires in Canada that happened in 2023 burned 7.8 million hectares of trees, which was 6 times the average for the country. (Hectares is a measure equal to 100 acres.) The Southwest of the United States is expected to have more frequent, long-lasting, intense droughts.
Who is responsible for this drastic change in the climate? Us! We contribute to this climate change just from small things. Things like burning fossil fuels, transportation, cutting down forests, and pollution affect us dramatically.
When asked about how climate change has affected her life, Kelly Suero states, “I feel like it is rising, it gets hotter, and then it randomly starts raining, you can’t even predict it.”
Even if we don’t notice the consequences of climate change, future generations will. Things such as increased temperatures, changes in the amount of precipitation, less ice coverage, an increase of acidity in the ocean, and raised sea levels are only some of the things that will happen if climate change continues.
Organizations like The Nature Conservancy and NRDC both focus on helping the environment. The Nature Conservancy wants to help people in climate-related emergencies. They also want to conserve 650 million hectares of land and 4 billion hectares of marine habitat. NRDC combines 3 million activists, 700 scientists, lawyers, and other specialists to confront the climate crisis and protect wildlife.
Climate change is here and it is dangerous.
