Understanding Climate Change and its Effect on Our Planet
Even though the global climate rising by two or three degrees may not seem like an immediate reason to worry, the environment can easily be disrupted by an incremental change over time. According to NASA, a report on water availability suggests that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees could potentially reduce climate change-induced water stress for up to 50 percent fewer people on Earth. Considering water is a natural resource, this raises some cause for concern as issues like this find themselves repeating not only within the United States but across the United Nations.
In 2022, it was brought to my attention the challenges some European countries were facing in maintaining freshwater circulation. According to Reuters, Italy’s water resources had hit “rock bottom”, due to a combination of rising temperatures and decreased rainfall cutting fresh supplies in half. Prior to 2022, a drought in 2021 had disrupted Italy’s olive oil output, as Italy is the second-largest global supplier, following Spain.
Breaking: Hornets Take Over the Americas!
With an increase in climate, we also face the issue of species extinction. For animals and insects that are not adept at handling the subtle - yet overly changing environment, we encounter risks from forest fires, extreme weather events, and invasive species (and I am sure America does NOT want a repeat of the Asian Giant Hornet migration we all discovered during the pandemic in 2020 - I still have nightmares. Good news: An article from 2022 states the hornets seem to be extinct from North America since their finding - Crisis Averted!)
Marine life within Australia's Barrier Reefs are particularly vulnerable and shares a devastating part in the chaos. According to NASA, ocean warming, acidification, and more intense storms could lead to a decline of 70 to 90 percent in coral reefs at 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, rendering them nearly non-existent at 2 degrees warming. Such a drastic decline would have devastating consequences for the entire ecosystem of the reefs. Thankfully, there are efforts to help the burden these ecosystems are facing. However, progress in one area seems to be outweighed by the damage in other areas of the reef. Determined by examining coral, the goal of helping the Australian Barrier Reefs continues to present a difficult and complex issue due to the heat from climate change.
Cities will feel the heat the most as heatwaves worsen, thanks to the urban heat island effect. This effect keeps cities warmer than the surrounding countryside. At the same time, food shortages and droughts are making soil less fertile. For nations like Haiti, where soil conditions are already precarious, the combination poses a severe threat to agriculture and food security. If countries cannot grow enough food, it puts countries at risk of not having enough to eat, making the need for global solutions even more urgent.
The urgency to address climate change becomes crystal clear. It's not just about polar ice caps or distant landscapes; it's about the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the cities we call home. It seems there is strong evidence that the planet is ready to have crossed 1.5 degrees since 2023, and to completely rid Earth’s fever, we cannot rely on disregarding electricity, banning oil, beginning to walk everywhere, and boycotting airplanes for travel. Not only would humans have to become inherently selfless which is highly unlikely due to our inherent nature for survival, but we would regress into a past life where humans lacked in technological advancement. This notion creates, in an ironic term, unsustainability. Not only would humankind suffer, but so would our ability to create a better future for the planet. We are just one planet in the solar system, and there is an entire world we have yet to have explored. By denying technology’s advancement, we deny ourselves the opportunity to cultivate a fruitful and explorative journey to understanding our planet - and one day in the distant future - the planets that live within our galaxy. Hence, we may never have the pleasure of discovering if we don’t focus on creating a sustainable future on the planet we live on now.
Maybe you can’t give up insta-carting your groceries, but you can choose to biodegrade your food waste in a garden outside. Perhaps you decide to spend most of your time online shopping and shipping 20 boxes to the convenience of your front door, but you donate clothing to those in need and recycle the packaging. The pathway to a more sustainable future is not just one - but multiple, working congruently simultaneously.
For example, the entire world could never become completely vegetarian. By becoming vegetarian, it would prove difficult to build a sustainable future. Pesticides would create an influx of new diseases, and cancer, and have the capability to soak into the soil to further infect future agriculture. Animals that tend to eat these plants will also fall victim to the chemicals that are sprayed to assist the process of mass-produced farm-to-table and forests would have to be cut down to create more of a landscape to supply everyone’s meals. Therefore, for the entire world to reach vegetarianism, it would be quite simply “Non-Sustainable”. But, invoking the proper balance is the key to ensuring an environment of sustainability.
In the words of a song that resonates across America and its neighboring nations…
“ We are the world. We are the children. We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving. There’s a choice we’re making. We’re saving our own lives. It’s true we’ll make a better day, just you and me.”
Similarly, change may initiate gradually. Consider this: would you prefer a million dollars upfront or a penny doubled every day for 30 days, resulting in over 5.3 million dollars in a month? Much like the power of compounding, even small, consistent changes can yield remarkable progress sooner than expected.
So let's work towards making the world better, even if all we've got are a few pennies in our pockets. Those little changes we keep making? They can bring about some pretty amazing progress sooner than we think.
