[dropcap]I[/dropcap]magine your house burnt down.

Completely obliterating everything you love and own just because of a mistake you did not even notice you were making. Alison is a single mom who lives in Colorado and one mistake made her whole world literally burn down. Alison tells how harmlessly doing laundry caused her house fire; “I pulled my massage sheets out of the dryer and put them in a laundry basket, intending to fold them when I returned.” Upon returning to her house after work she was met with shock and her home’s windows unveiling menacing clouds of smoke. The family lost ninety percent of their belongings. Without her home Alison felt, “the unknown was so horrifying and unsettling and I just did not know what was ahead for me.”

Now imagine your whole world ‘burning down.’

Everyday we make mistakes that seem as miniscule as putting warm clothes in a laundry basket without thinking of the possible consequences on our environment. Just like a fire can ruin someone’s home climate change can leave everyone horrified about the future of the planet. If we continue making careless choices, even small unintentional ones and disregard that climate change is present all together, it is likely our own house (the Earth) will be in jeopardy.

What is Climate Change?

Climate change or global warming simply refers to the evident rise in surface temperature throughout the Earth. This change causes a variety of effects on the ecosystem including severe weather, rising sea levels, and droughts. 

Debunking Arguments Against Global Warming

Climate change is often considered a ridiculous conspiracy theory that will not happen or impact us. A common argument is that scientists are not 100% certain about global warming so we should not be worried about it. Nothing is ever 100% definite and everyday  we make choices without certainty. IFL Science puts into perspective the belief that we do not need to act unless we are completely sure there is a problem; “if 97 (or even nine) doctors told you that you had life-threatening but treatable cancer, would you act? Or would you keep looking until you found one doctor who told you not to worry about it, that the cancer isn’t serious, and that it’s all just a medical conspiracy to sell you chemotherapy?” Obviously even without a 100% guarantee we should still take action.

Other skeptics of global warming look to our president for insight.

Donald Trump tweets in 2012, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” and since than 105 more tweets have been written containing the words global warming all in skepticism about the occurrence. Trump’s supporters will agree with him, even without knowing anything about the issue.

Climate change should not be a political matter. Climate scientist Gavin Schmidt states, “Gases don’t care whether you are a Republican or a Democrat – left wing, right wing – libertarian, or conservative. None of those things matter when you are talking about the science.” No matter what your political stance is Carbon dioxide is still a greenhouse gas and your opinion of climate change should be based on universal facts not political opinions.

Scientific Proof of Climate Change

A multitude of scientists have concluded climate change is definitely present. Stephen Hawking believes global warming is becoming irreversible and the Earth could eventually resemble Venus with boiling Oceans and sulfuric rain if no action is taken to stop it. Jane Goodall, expert conservationist and primate specialist feels the planet is seeing climate change effects, but things will get better because of environmental advocates being more connected than ever. Even science educator and Engineer Bill Nye criticizes the current political leaders denial of climate change and states, “Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” These well renowned scientists are all very active in their fields and have reliable opinions that should be trusted. 

At Least 97% of climate scientists have agreed, “Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.”[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.”[/perfectpullquote]

Weather patterns also confirm the existence of global warming. 2016 has been the Earth’s hottest year since 1880, when modern record keeping began. Initially 2014 was the hottest year since the first recordings, but Nasa reveals that the title was lost by a landslide to 2015 and then later 2016.

The Greenhouse Effect and Why it’s Important

The primary cause of global warming is humans adding to the natural greenhouse effect by releasing emissions of carbon dioxide. The greenhouse effect is the process where the Earth’s atmosphere traps some of the sun’s energy to warm the planet.

Image by: pixabay

A common misconception is that the greenhouse effect itself is something terrible. When in actuality, this natural process is a blessing in disguise that keeps the Earth from becoming too hot or cold for anything to survive. Without the greenhouse effect the Earth could start resembling the moon with temperatures of -243 F or Venus with temperatures at about 846 F.

The greenhouse effect becomes a problem when humans are added to the equation.

The burning of fossil fuels and cutting down forests are common ways humans add to the natural effect negatively. 

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Without the greenhouse effect the Earth could start resembling the moon[/perfectpullquote]

Think of the greenhouse effect like making a cake. Like a pinch of salt is added to the batter small amounts of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are needed in the atmosphere for a successful and stable end product. However adding too much salt or CO2 will be disgusting in both situations. Atmospheric CO2 levels have increased by 40% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and deforestation is not helping reduce Carbon Dioxide levels. Too much CO2 and other greenhouse gases trap more of the sun’s radiation than necessary causing global warming.

Effects on the World’s Environment

Over the past one hundred years the Earth’s average surface temperature has increased by about 1.4 degrees fahrenheit. One degree of this temperature raise was within the last thirty years.

But one degree can’t matter right? Wrong.

A study in Science Advances reveals that in India the likelihood of heat related mortality increased by 146% because of a temperature change of less than 1 degree fahrenheit.

Image by: Jaymantri

With temperature rising ice is shrinking. Arctic sea ice is becoming ocean instead of the habitat needed for marine animals. Without ice, animals including polar bears have little success when hunting for food and are left with dangerous swimming conditions. The polar bear population is quite literally ‘on thin ice’  due to a US Geological Survey that projects ⅔ of the population will die by 2050 solely because of global warming.

More water is being added to the Earth’s already rising oceans from glaciers. The greenland ice sheet is the second largest ice body in the world, it has experienced rapid melting in recent year and if it all melts the glacier will raise sea levels by 6 meters.

Fox News tells, “[C]limate scientists agree that future storms will dump much more rain than the same size storms did in the past.” For every degree fahrenheit in the atmosphere it can rain an additional 4% water. The warmer the air the more water can be expelled.

The water from the changing climate intensifies the effects of hurricanes which have become increasingly relevant in current years. Hurricanes feed off of warm water and global warming has created lots of it. In the past century sea levels have risen by seven inches and are projected to continue rising to upwards of four feet in the future. Irma became the longest category five hurricane with wind speeds of 185 mph largely because of these rising oceans.

A study in the journal, Nature Climate Change reveals that by 2100 the sea level rise is projected to put up to thirteen million people in danger that live along the US coast. This will cause large shifts in population that resemble when millions of Americans moved North in the Great Migration. This movement will be very costly for everyone involved.

Coastal cities are on the track to becoming inhabitable.

New Jersey’s Atlantic City will become more like Atlantis city in thirty years, by the year 2045 there is a projection of one flood every three days on the mid-Atlantic coast and more than doubled the flooding in the Southeast and Gulf Coast due to rising water levels from melting glaciers and expanding hot water.

What Can We Do to Prevent Further Destruction?

Although climate change may never be fully reversed there are many actions that can be taken to stop it from getting worse.

Buying organic and local as much as possible helps minimize transportation pollution and CO2. A meal typically travels 1,200 miles to get to your dinner table. This long journey emits harmful emissions that can be avoided by buying locally. Organically grown foods use soil that catches carbon dioxide. By just growing soybeans and corns organically 580 billion pounds of CO2 is removed from the atmosphere.

Moving your thermostat two degrees down in the winter and two degrees up in the summer saves up to 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling.

Simply reusing shopping bags can make a difference. Plastic bags not only pollute the atmosphere, but also the air, groundwater, and soil.

Although humans may have caused climate change we are equally capable of preventing it from getting worse. There are many small things anyone can do that helps counteract mistakes others make. It is important to be aware of the impacts we are making on the world, both good and bad and what we can do to fix the damage done.

Featured image by: Jeremy Ricketts

Video by: wonderingmind42