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Many People do not Believe in Climate Change

Only 71% of Americans Think Climate Change is Real

Only seventy-one percent of Americans think that climate change is real. Nine percent say it’s not real, and nineteen percent are unsure. Out of those 71% that do believe, just 60% believe that human activities are to blame (Is the Public Willing To Pay To Help Fix Climate Change?). Climate Change is something that has been observed for many years. From 1787 to 1987 about 737 billion tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) was put into the atmosphere. From 1987 to 2014 it was more, 745 billion tons (Scharf). The number is almost equal, in only 27 years as opposed to 200.

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Scharf, Caleb A. “The Crazy Scale of Human Carbon Emission.” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 26 Apr. 2017, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/the-crazy-scale-of-human-carbon-emission/.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Is The Public Willing to Pay to Help Fix Climate Change?” The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research,http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/Is-the-Public-Willing-to-Pay-to-Help-Fix-Climate-Change-.aspx.

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Glaciers are Melting

at an unprecedented rate

“These numbers are up at least 80 percent higher than previous estimates…”
— Jessica Merzdorf

Many people do not believe that climate change is a real phenomenon. Recent and previous studies say otherwise. In the 2006 presentation film An Inconvenient Truth: a Global Warning, Al Gore talks about how the glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. This was 13 years ago, and the numbers have increased exponentially. Jessica Merzdorf, a NASA scientist, has been studying the increased glacier melting and states “These numbers are up at least 80 percent higher than previous estimates…”(Merzdorf). With these increased numbers, the sea level could rise at least 230ft and all the ice in world will be gone in 150 years. While this won’t affect you, it will affect future generations of your family.

Image: https://www.4kpapers.com/wallpaper/495/glacier/
Merzdorf, Jessica. “Study Predicts More Long-Term Sea Level Rise from Greenland Ice – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 23 July 2019, https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2883/study-predicts-more-long-term-sea-level-rise-from-greenland-ice/.
Guggenheim, Davis, director. An Inconvenient Truth: a Global Warning. Paramount Classics, 2006. Documentary.

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Is it Hot in Here?

Global Temperatures Will Rise

Global temperature averages will rise due to the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. It is predicted that average temperatures will rise by at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100(Higher Temperatures). This will have a huge impact on human way of life, primarily because of the affect on food production, as Richard S J Tol writes in page 3 of his January 2018 research article,The Economic Impacts of Climate Change“ …crops hit by worsening drought, crops growing faster because of carbon dioxide fertilization, heat stress increasing, cold stress increasing, sea levels rising …”. If it gets harder to grow crops, that we need to survive, not only will diets be affected, but worldwide economies will be affected as well. The more scarce something is, the more expensive it will be to buy. If things grow artificially faster with gases that shouldn’t be there, health will be affected. This is not something impacting us right now, but in the future, it will be.

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“Higher Temperatures.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://archive.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/impacts/signs/temperature.html.
Tol, Richard S J. “Economic Impacts of Climate Change.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 12 Jan. 2018, https://academic.oup.com/reep/article/12/1/4/4804315

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Why is it Important and What Can we do?

Not much but…

Climate change is something that matters because it will affect everyone and everything in the world. While it is not irreversible, it can be delayed. I say it’s irreversible because it would take a worldwide effort to stop it, that means having 7.5 billion people on board. Combine that with world politics and greed, and you can see why it seems to be irreversible. While we can’t have everyone on board, having at least first and second world countries involved in reducing their carbon footprint can majorly slow it down. This can give everyone more time to come up with plans to adapt to the inevitable changes that are coming. Climate change won’t drastically affect anyone that’s alive right now, but it will affect future generations and the progression and survival of mankind as a whole. Although humans aren’t the only ones contributing to climate change, we are the major driving force behind it, and it’s up to us to slow it down.

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