egutierrez0512-blog

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Breaking hearts and my wallet at the casino today 😤

[egutierrez0512-blog]

Me laughing at how difficult university is.

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Climate Change the Great Human Injustice

Climate change is the biggest social injustice in human history. Climate change does not affect one race or one class of people it affects all people. Since industrialization air pollution from humans has created a chain reaction that is changing the climate. Hence the term climate change. The change in the weather is so alarming that other countries have created a climate change summit where they have made accords and agreements to decrease their carbon emissions. Climate is real, and it comes in the form of global temperature rise which leads to desertification of farmlands all over the world, the melting of polar ice caps which leads to the rising of the ocean, and extreme weather events.

Since the industrial revolution developed countries have emitted tons of harmful chemicals and gases into the atmosphere. It has created what is called greenhouse gases, and it is the destruction of the ozone layer in Earth’s atmosphere. After industrialization climate scientists understood that the earth is changing for the worse. “What makes climate scientists worried now is how fast and high it has risen. Global temperatures in 2018 were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean,” according to scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for space studios. Since the general temperature of the globe has risen it has changed the climate in many regions of the world. A consequence of global temperature rising is desertification. Desertification is a process happening because of hotter weather and unsustainable farming practices turns farmable land rich with nutrients into a desert like environment where nothing can grow or sustain themselves. Farmers in third world countries are the poorest in society steadily relying in what they grow to sell to survive from. It is what the Public Health community calls a snowball effect. To elaborate a snowball effect is one incidence that leads to a bigger incidence and so forth. For example, farmers cannot grow food because of desertification, they are not able to make money and in return they are not able to provide for their families. It is called intergenerational poverty where generations of families are stuck in poverty because there is no economic help to get them out of their state of living and climate change is one cause of many that keep the poorest among society at the very bottom.

The rise of the sea level has left the West Coast of the United States scuttled. Glaciers and Ice sheets are melting due to rising global temperatures and that is leading to the rise of the sea level not just only in the West Coast but all around the world. “Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rise in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly every year,” according to NASA vital signs for the planet. Cities like San Francisco are trying to combat climate change, but sea levels are still rising. The rising sea levels can displace hundreds of people from their homes and create billions of dollars in damage. The social injustice of rising sea levels does not just affect the Bay Brea of California, but poorer nations like the Philippines and Vietnam. The sea level rising is a social injustice because it is displacing families and people out of their homes. The psychological and emotional distress caused by the displacement of one’s home can be detrimental to people’s health, wellbeing, and self-esteem. Thousands of people would be displaced with nowhere to go and they would become internally displaced people. Internally displaced people are people that must migrate to another part of their country in order to escape a tragedy in their hometown.

Leaders all over the world are trying to create awareness and educate the public about the dangers of climate change and how it is affecting the poorest among us. An inconvenient truth is an Oscar winning award documentary/movie where ex – Vice President AL ‘Gore speaks about climate change. This movie is directed by ​Davis Guggenheim. He is an American director and producer that has received an Academy Award for best documentary Feature and many more awards. The director uses slides, a stage, and a very important political leader like Al ‘Gore to demand the audience’s attention. The director uses different angles of the center stage to create a different feel to the room for the audience. The slides that are presented are graphs and evidence on how climate change has rapidly progressed over the last thirty years. ​Al ‘Gore speaks with urgency of the problem of global warming and climate change and how governments, businesses, and individual communities need to create change in order to save the planet.

This movie was politicized immediately and created an anti-climate change movement with the Republican Party. Many defenders of anti-climate change argue that humans have no effect on the climate at all and that the climate has always been changing. Scientist after scientist has debunked their arguments, but because it is a political issue it has created a divide in Washington D.C. and the United States of America has pulled out of the climate accords under the Trump administration. The bigotry and ignorance on the findings just to gain some political points is absolutely an abuse of power. It does not benefit anyone and ultimately the United States is part of the demise of the Earth because it has pulled out of the climate accords.

Extreme events are occurring more and more all over the United States. Huge hurricanes have hit the US and areas around it badly. “For the seasonal straight year, extreme weather took a heavy toll on the United States. Weather costs for 2018 are anticipated to top $155 billion, down only slightly from 2017,” according to Ian Livingston from the Washington Post. The effects are not only in monetary value, but also the personal grief that individual families must go through after the extreme event happening. One major event that touched the lives of many was Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Harvey was the deadliest hurricane ever known to Texas. Hurricane Harvey killed 107 confirmed deaths and is costing the United States government 125 billion dollars in repair. Extreme weather events are signs of climate change. Not to mention the thousands of people that were displaced because of the flooding. Extreme events just like Hurricane Harvey are more likely to happen because of climate change. One research team’s results, ​accepted for publication in ​Geophysical Research Letters (GRL),​ found that “In comparison to a typical 1950s hurricane, ​climate change​ likely increased Harvey’s seven-day rainfall by at least 19 percent. A separate study, ​published today in ​Environmental Research Letters (ERL)​, found similar results, showing that climate change boosted Harvey’s three-day rainfall by about 15 percent. Both studies also found that climate change roughly tripled the odds of a Harvey-type storm.” Climate change mostly due to air pollution caused by humans and it is causing demise to planet Earth.

Climate change is happening rather quickly, and the signs are everywhere. Climate change is creating extreme events, the temperature of the globe is steadily rising causing the polar ice caps to melt and in return that creates the sea levels to rise. Climate change is the biggest human injustice in history because of all the displacement of people from their homes, and economic loss of Earth’s natural resources because of desertification. It is all a chain reaction that could be catastrophic to mankind. Action is needed to be taken now by governments, businesses, and individuals in the race to save Planet Earth. Time is of the essence and there is absolutely no time to waste.

Work Cited

Berwyn, Bob, et al. “A Year of Climate Change Evidence: Notes from a Science Reporter's Journal.” ​InsideClimate News,​ 10 Apr. 2019, insideclimatenews.org/news/24122018/climate-change-evidence-reports-2018-year-r eview-ipcc-arctic-emissions-gap-national-assessment.

“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?” ​NASA​, NASA, 26 Mar. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.

“Climate Change Likely Supercharged Hurricane Harvey.” ​National Geographic​, National Geographic Society, 13 Dec. 2017, news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/climate-change-study-hurricane-harvey-flood/ .

“Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” ​NASA,​ NASA, climate.nasa.gov/.

“Climate Science Glossary.” ​Skeptical Science,​ www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-global-warming.htm​.

Gore, Al. “An Inconvenient Truth (Movie).” ​Al Gore,​ www.algore.com/library/an-inconvenient-truth-dvd.

Livingston, Ian. “The Five Most Extreme Weather Events of 2018 in the United States.” The Washington Post,​ WP Company, 31 Dec. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/12/31/five-most-extreme-weather-events-u nited-states/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5188d8b5ddc7.