Climate Change Q & A: What You Should Know

I’m sure you have heard reference to global warming and/or climate change having a future impact on our environment, much different from how we know it today. Some scientists were looking into ways to minimize the impact of this change by potentially pouring freshwater into the oceans or unnaturally releasing fossil fuels and heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere to a believed tolerable level. But on Tuesday, climate scientists came forth, referring to a paper that was released earlier, that the execution of this idea is not ideal; obtaining this “tolerable level” actually provokes more danger for the near future than anything else. And exactly what type of danger are they referencing? Consequences such as more volatile storms than we’ve ever experienced and city drowning caused by sea-rising before the end of the century.

Now and over the last several years, efforts have been made in various parts of the world to try to slow the rapidity of this change but as of yet, nothing has been effective enough to limit global warming to the degree scientists are hoping. As inhabitants of this environment, we should heed the warnings and pay more attention to information regarding climate change because what is not so detrimental now, will be soon. Yielded from an article by Justin Gillis of The New York Times, here are a few questions and answers that you should know about climate change:

  1. How much is the planet actually heating up?
    1. As of October 2015, the Earth warmed 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit. This may seem insignificant so let’s put it into a clearer perspective: the warming of the globe caused by human emissions is roughly equivalent to 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding across the world every day.
  2. What is the worst case scenario?
    1. A default on food production, increased prices and mass starvation
    2. The sixth mass extinction of plants and animals
    3. Unreliability of Asian monsoons which are crucial for watering crops
    4. Fast-rising seas that can flood out many of the world’s greatest cities
    5. Destabilized governments
  3. Are these predictions reliable?
    1. They’re not perfect but they are derived from solid science and supported evidence.
  4. Could anyone benefit from global climate change?
    1. Countries with huge frozen land including Russia and Canada could see potential economic benefits because warming would make agriculture and mining more possible. But the word of their success will spread and their countries may become overpopulated with refugees from less fortunate parts of the world. And of course, too much warming can lead to damage to their natural resources.
  5. Is there anything I can do to help reduce global climate change?
    1. Fly less
    2. Drive less
    3. Waste less
    4. Tell at least 50 friends to do the same
This entry was posted in Environment, Science and Technology. Bookmark the permalink.