The Threat Of A Warming Planet
We live on a continually warming planet. Heat is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and it’s not just our imagination. We can feel it happening all around us and it arrived earlier than scientists previously anticipated. All over the world, scientists continue to document climate-related changes that are fuelled by global warming and it is messing up our lives on a daily basis. Although we don’t always see it, major changes are happening all over the globe and they are more prominent in the face of natural disasters.
As if having to endure extreme weather changes isn’t enough to shaken things up, the cryosphere (frozen water or the ice found in water) is also melting that causes the sea level to rise and submerge small islands that can’t keep the rising water out. Aside from it rising, seawater also became more acidic that is detrimental to all sea life especially the ones with shell on it. And we mentioned about weather systems acting up, right? Year after year, natural disasters have levelled up and keep on claiming countless human lives aside from destroying millions to even billions worth of properties.
All round the world, farmers, city authorities and scientists have observed changing patterns of rainfall, temperature rises and floods. Fifteen of the 16 hottest years have been recorded since 2000. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions steadily climb. Oceans are warming and glaciers, ice caps and sea ice are melting faster than expected. Meanwhile, heat and rainfall records tumble.
The evidence for the onset of climate change is compelling. But who and where is it hitting the hardest? How fast will it come to Africa, or the US? What will be its impact on tropical cities, forests or farming? On the poor, or the old? When it comes to details, much is uncertain.
Mapping the world’s climate hotspots and identifying where the impacts will be the greatest is increasingly important for governments, advocacy groups and others who need to prioritise resources, set goals and adapt to a warming world.
Crop growing and distribution becomes increasingly difficult as storms, hurricanes, and even drought ravage agricultural lands that consequently affect the supply and demand of the food chain as well as affect the livelihood of many poor farmers throughout the world. The population keeps on growing, which means there are more mouths to feed in the world. And let us not get started on pollution. The air quality in some major cities is so bad that the people can’t safely go out in the streets without wearing a face mask. But there are other forms of pollution that we also have to deal with.
The fight against global warming is one of humanity’s great moral movements, alongside the abolition of slavery, the defeat of apartheid, votes for women and gay rights, according to the former US vice-president and climate campaigner, Al Gore.
The battle to halt climate change can be won, he said, because the green revolution delivering clean energy is both bigger than the industrial revolution and happening faster than the digital revolution.
Gore has played a major global role in raising awareness of the dangers of climate change since his 2007 film An Inconvenient Truth and made his comments, among his most outspoken to date, in a recent speech in London.
Global warming has been talked about for several decades now but it is staring us straight in the face today. While some try to shrug it off and make themselves believe it isn’t our reality, concerned individuals do their part in slowing down the progression of global warming in their own little ways in an attempt to address the problem. As a result, both plants and animals suffer in the hands of a vengeful Mother Nature.
We are just tiny players here but it is because of us and the many irresponsible human activities that have hastened global warming and make it the mammoth problem that we are facing now. Many species have already gone extinct. Let us not wait for the time to come when it will be our turn to disappear for good. Sustainability is the only way to go. Let’s not give up the fight now and repent by increasing our environmental protection efforts for everybody’s sake.