Climate Change is Killing Us
The enemy is already at the gates, yet all anyone can talk about is economic growth. The wildfire in Australia, the flooding in Britain and Venice. People are suffering, we are at the beginning of our extinction, and sadly it is clear that the rise in global temperatures and sea levels have failed to generate any sense of urgency around climate change.
There is already a dramatic shift in climate and it has already begun taking a toll on our planet. If you haven’t heard, at global levels, the target of 2050 will be 1.5C of warming or even higher. The destruction that this could bring is unpredictable and the stakes are high, but this guarantees annual heat waves and the disappearance of small islands and nations such as Maldives and Hawaii. Is this really a bet that humanity is willing to make?
You may be thinking that the disappearance of small islands are insignificant and does not concern you, but this is only one out of many devastating effects climate change will have on humanity and the planet
Your own health and even life is at risk here. The emissions that cause climate change include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen and of course other pollutants such as ozone. In fact, they are actually the cause of seven million deaths each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 90% of people living in urban areas are breathing unsafe air with high pollution levels. Children are the ones who are suffering the most as they are still developing making the the most vulnerable. There is an estimate of 600,000 deaths of children under the age of 5 due to pneumonia (due to the pollution caused by climate change damaging the respiratory system). As for adults it could cause asthma, strokes, heart attacksThe list goes on forever. The effects on children and adults were just examples, climate change will affect everyone. It is a known fact that extreme high temperatures directly contribute to deaths due to respiratory disease, especially among elderly people. For example, during the heatwave of 2003 in Europe, over 70 000 deaths were recorded. According to the World Health Organisation, each of the last 3 decades have been much warmer than any decade since 1850. Imagine the human cost if the temperature rose even more.
It is no longer about how we should act, but how quickly we need to and we need to act now. Even the former secretary - general of UN Christiana Figueres states that this is the “decisive decade” to fix global warming. There shouldn’t be a need to “raise awareness” when it is obvious that the world as we know it is dying. Climate change surrounds us. We need to cut down fossil fuel extraction.For example , according to te US EIA (energy information administration) , over 20% of America’s emissions are due to the extraction of oil, natural gas and coal. The government could easily tighten the leasing rules, this would already slow down climate changes. Perhaps this is something that the common people of the public can’t achieve but there is much more that each of us as residents on this planet can do. Recycling and driving more fuel-efficient cars are examples of important behavioral change that will help, yes I’m sure you have heard this about a gazillion times, but it is true, if everyone could just take the time and adapt to this environmental friendly lifestyle, there could still be hope.
It really wouldn’t take much effort, just throwing your rubbish into another bin, taking public transports more, bringing your own bag for shopping. This may seem insignificant or irrelevant to you, but please reconsider, your small effort and contribution could be the difference between our extinction and our salvage.