In the summer of 1988, centuries old records were shattered when America saw intense heat and country-wide droughts. In the attempts to blame human activity for such severe climatic conditions, the scientists dragged the fossil fuel industry into the spotlight. Right now, most of the news of climate change reach us through the media, but the problem is that this media has turned the issue into a debate about fact versus fiction. In reality, there is no room for debate when the world’s ninety-seven percent scientists present mutual consensus that human activity is to blame for climate change.
The 1988 droughts and heat waves were just a part of the bigger catastrophe that we are to an extent witnessing; certain effects of which we may even see further in the near future if we do not take any action against the problem. One of the consequences of climate change includes the rise in sea levels, and this consequence is bad news for all of the humankind. Research tells us that the sea levels could rise between 4 and 36 inches over the course of the next 100 years. Why is the news troublesome? Because 36 inches is a lot and the same research also says that a rise of 36 inches in sea level could wash over every city on the American East coast in between Miami and Boston. The shocking discovery comes from the news which tells us that around 100 million people reside within three feet of the sea level. This means that climate change resulting in the sea level rising up to our best case scenario could displace all of these people. People who reside in small island countries have already started evacuating; giving us the very start of what may be a lot of climate change refugees in the future.
Before we can propose a solution to the problem, it is worthwhile to understand how climate change could contribute to increasing in seas levels in the first place. The reason involves the understanding of a scientific term ‘thermal expansion’. The concept suggests that because warmer water takes up more space when compared to cooler water, the volume of the water increases and resultantly takes up more space. This thermal expansion is because of increase in the global temperatures. The melting of ice and glaciers adds further to the problem of all the water from these glaciers and ice flows into the oceans and takes up even more space.
The fossil fuels that we burn and the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the same, account for around one-third of the US global warming emissions and changing our methods of electricity generation could, therefore, make a significant difference in these emissions. One very feasible alternative for the burning of these fossil fuels could include the using of renewable energy for the purpose. This is because the use of these renewable energy sources like the sunlight and the wind power produce close to no emissions of greenhouse gases, and for this reason, could greatly improve the heating of the planet the cause of which could be too much carbon dioxide in the air.
Climate change is a problem of our own creation, and we are purely responsible for how the trend has been progressing as of late. This makes us responsible for taking action and conserving the planet in its present state. If not, then we should make efforts towards an improvement for the future generations to come. The likely future where climatic disasters are a norm, the disease is every person’s problem and a situation where the natural environment is close to non-existent are all motivations enough to compel us to action concerning the matter. We will be better off if we start picking up the warning signs in good time.
Works Cited
The Natural Conservancy. Climate Change Impacts. n.d. 16 March 2016 <http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-warming-climate-change/threats-impacts/rising-seas.xml>.
Union of Concerned Scientists. Benefits of Renewable Energy Use. n.d. 16 March 2016 <http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/public-benefits-of-renewable.html#.Vuj8Mo9OLmQ>.
Weather Underground. The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change. 16 March 2016. <https://www.wunderground.com/resources/climate/928.asp?MR=1>.
