climatechangeproject

[climatechangeproject]

Climate change. How can we help?

the final post on climate change!! learn here how to help combat climate change!! links: post 1 post 2

It is possible to manage climate change, but we must act fast! Here is a list of management strategies:

Reduce Use of Fossil Fuels

An easier said than done solution, nonetheless effective though.

Turn off the lights when not in use, ride a bike instead of using your car, use public transport instead of your own vehicle, spend less time in the shower, use less technology, or limit use of air conditioning.

This way you may help reduce greenhouse emissions and your carbon footprint!

Low-carbon fuels

If you must use your car or any source of power, consider adopting the use of low carbon fuels!

Some examples of low carbon fuels are ethanol, biodiesel, natural gas, and propane.

Simply switch to using these instead because they do not emit as much carbon as regular fuels.

A popular gas station in the U.S that offers low carbon fuels is Shell! Search near your location to find gas stations that also offer low carbon fuels.

Alternative energy sources

Alternatives to fossil fuels are renewable sources like solar power, wind energy, hydropower, and biomass. These are infinite sources that will never run out, so they make reliable energy sources!

Even waste can be used as a power source which helps limit the stupendous amount of trash in landfills. Waste is converted into energy through combustion.

For instance, installing solar panels for your home could be a sustainable way to get electricity. The panels run on the sun’s energy and can produce electricity for the entire house!

Energy efficient homes

Speaking of solar panels, using them is one way to make your home more energy efficient! What we truly want is to practice sustainability, avoiding the depletion of our natural resources in order to meet the needs of the present without sacrificing the needs of the future.

Consider turning down your thermostat, don’t make your home super hot all the time if unnecessary. Also use more ceiling fans.

Change your light bulbs often and make sure they are LEDs.

Wash your clothes in cold water more often and get a clothesline for your home since dryers waste more energy.

Unplug your chargers when not in use! Unplug everything when not in use.

Conclusion

There are a variety of ways to manage climate change. The Earth is hurting and there’s something we can do about it! There’s no need to be pessimistic about the future, instead help prevent an apocalyptic life your future descendants will have to live through!

Thank you so much if you read up to this point and please self-evaluate if you need to and help make a change.

[climatechangeproject]

Climate change. Why is it happening?

read this post to understand how your actions contribute to climate change, why it’s and why global warming is happening, and how it all connects!! links: post 1 post 3

Use of fossil fuels

Since the industrial revolution, the amount of fossil fuel emissions in the atmosphere have increased drastically over the past two centuries.

Fossil fuels were burnt long before the industrial revolution, however it definitely catalyzed climate change.

Fossil fuels include: oil, coal, natural gas, propane, kerosene, and any other resource considered non-renewable. Non-renewable sources are finite, unlike renewable sources that will never go away e.g solar energy or wind energy.

Humans burn fossil fuels every second of every day, every year. We do this to produce electricity so we can perform our daily routines and jobs.

Carbon footprint

how you contribute to climate change!!

Carbon comes from carbon dioxide. Carbon follows us everywhere we go in our carbon footprint, the amount of carbon we emit.

Carbon is only good up to a certain point and further explanation will be given below. It’s necessary for our survival because plants require carbon to grow and as you read in the last post, without plants we would become food insecure. In other words, we’d starve.

Now, most people don’t realize how much carbon they emit everyday. But trust that we are all guilty of a lengthy amount, unless you live off-grid and practice subsistence farming.

Every time you brush your teeth, take a shower, cook or buy your breakfast, drive to and from school or work, fill your vehicle with gas, microwave leftover dinner, or charge your phone, you add to your carbon footprint.

That sandwich you bought from subway came a long way too and has its own carbon footprint.

The meat came from a farm where livestock are raised and when the cows eat cattle they release carbon through respiration. The cow is killed for its meat, the meat is processed, the meat is transported to restaurants, the meat is cooked, then the meat is placed onto your sub.

Every step listed above has its own carbon footprint and once you buy it, it becomes apart of your footprint.

Why is this bad?

The Greenhouse effect

When fossil fuels are burnt, greenhouse gases (GHGs) are released; they include: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, HCFCs, HCFs, and low atmospheric ozone.

For instance, while you’re driving your car carbon dioxide is released and the carbon goes up to the atmosphere.

The issue is that these greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and essentially “trap” heat on Earth. The heat is supposed to reflect and return to space.

Therefore, GHGs don’t give the sun’s hotness the luxury of escaping into outer space.

Thus, this process is known as the greenhouse effect because it makes our planet warmer by trapping heat and actual greenhouses are warm inside even during cold seasons.

Think of all the greenhouse gases combined together as a blanket wrapped around the Earth.

So, the planet has grown warmer since the industrial revolution and temperatures have continued to increase every time a fossil fuel is burnt.

However, this is not the only reason why climate change/global warming is happening.

Ozone Depletion

Imagine: an invisible belt surrounding the planet Earth. That belt is called the ozone layer and it’s located in the atmosphere in between the troposphere and the stratosphere.

The troposphere is the first layer of the atmosphere and that’s where airplanes usually fly through. The stratosphere follows and the ozone layer is right underneath it.

The ozone layer is extremely important because it blocks out most harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays or, in other words, the sun’s rays. It’s pretty obvious that if we were completely exposed to the sun, we’d all die immediately from the heat.

Fortunately, we have the ozone layer to protect us. UV rays come in three: UVC, UVB, and UVA. 100% of UVC is blocked, most of UVB is blocked, but UVA is not entirely blocked.

We can survive being exposed to UVA, but that’s why it’s important to where sunscreen on a daily basis to reduce risk of sunburn or skin cancer.

Unfortunately, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) exist and they quite literally eat at the ozone; they destroy it, thus ozone depletion.

CFCs are ozone depleting gases found usually in refrigerants and aerosol sprays. For example, they were found in refrigerators, bug sprays, and hair sprays.

The CFCs, once released, would travel up to the atmosphere and be unable to break down in the presence of UV rays. As a result, the CFCs turn into chlorine atoms in a serious of reactions and those atoms then poke holes through the ozone.

This process allows for more UV to reach life on Earth. Which means the more the ozone is depleted, the hotter the planet gets. This plus the greenhouse effect is hurting our planet for the worst.

Luckily, CFC use is banned due to the international Montreal protocol of 1987 signed by almost all countries. The rate of ozone depletion has slowed in the past 20 years, but the ozone is apparently not getting any better and scientists have yet to figure out why.

Conclusion

Climate change is happening because of human activity. We burn fossil fuels on a daily basis, and many don’t even realize how much they contribute to their carbon footprint by simply performing their daily routines.

Human activity has led to the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. Both of which cause global warming, which contributes to climate change.

We do so much to heat up the planet, and in return, we’re only hurting wildlife and ourselves.

Sure, climate change has taken its course already, and changes can be observed around the globe, but we have time to fix our errors.

We can all pitch in to help manage climate change before the planet heats up too quickly. The Earth is naturally expected to get warmer, but at this fast rate, it’s harmful.

That begs the question: what exactly can we do to manage climate change?

[climatechangeproject]

Climate change. What is it?

this is an action project that will be delivered in three posts: the what, the why, and the how.

Please read and educate yourself on climate change in this post; read the second post to understand how you contribute to climate change; and read the third post to learn what you can do to help solve the issue and to understand that you are perfectly capable of helping and that we need to act now!!

links: post 2 post 3

Climate change is the long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns.

Climate change is the largest threat the world is facing right now. It is a global issue.

Climate change does not solely affect the environment or one group of people; everyone has been or will be impacted in some way, shape, or form by climate change’s effects.

More often than not, we tend to not care about issues that do not directly impact us; however, climate change is a problem that does affect you and your relatives. Most likely, your future children or grandchildren.

Increased sea levels

For instance, climate change increases sea levels due to global warming, which means coastal cities will eventually become uninhabitable in the near future. Miami-Dade County is predicted to be 60% underwater by 2060.

The rising temperatures on Earth melt the glaciers and ice sheets in Antarctica. The ice water adds to the seawater, and seawater expands as it warms.

Increased natural disasters

Catastrophic events such as hurricane Katrina and hurricane Ian will occur more frequently and severely due to climate change along with extreme floods, wildfires, and droughts.

Increasing sea levels and increased extreme weather makes the Caribbean region exceptionally vulnerable to climate change. By the next century or so, the islands will not offer suitable living conditions for humans.

North America is not only affected. The 2022 Pakistan floods, the 2022 Bangladesh floods, the 2015-2023 Somalia drought, Brazil’s wildfires, Argentina’s wildfires and unfortunately, tons more.

Forced migration

Those living in Miami-Dade, the Caribbean, or any country affected by natural disaster will ultimately have to move out and find elsewhere to live because of unsuitable living conditions.

In the future, immigration laws will have to change and adapt if nothing is done to prevent climate change from ruining life on planet Earth.

Countries or states may not accept foreigners if they are already low on resources and must prioritize their people first.

Why would you find this important if you don’t live in an area where events like the above do not occur often? I’ll share with you why.

What the heat causes

Climate change means higher rate of heat waves. The scorching summer can already be felt and it’s still Spring. The greenhouse effect and ozone depletion are what is causing the rise in temperature, and this means increased risk of sunburn, cataracts, and skin cancer.

the above will be explained further in our second post

Less food

The heat reduces crop yield (number of crops produced) and makes it difficult for common crops such as corn, wheat, soybeans to grow.

Plants under global warming have less time for photosynthesis as the heat speeds up the plant life cycle, do not receive the amount of nutrients they require, and they plant species may die out because of increased droughts, floods, and wildfires.

The crops are also more susceptible to pest outbreaks because pests and insects move when an area gets too hot making them invasive in a new area because there are no natural predators to control their population growth.

Climate change impacts the food industry; the amount of food we eat, the quality of the food we eat, and the amount of food we get are affected by climate change. More people will have less access to the healthy foods they need in order to live a successful, nutritional life.

Since food would be scarce, prices will rise.

Pollution

Air pollution and acid deposition (air pollutants that fall down as precipitation or gas/dust) contribute to climate change and global warming.

Toxic pollutants can lead to increased acidity in bodies of water and can be fatal to the wildlife in those bodies of water. Fish in oceans consume the toxins and those who eat seafood consume the toxins as well.

Smog, a sometimes clear or brown cloud of smoky fog that moves slow and takes over entire cities, is caused by climate change and leads to increased risk of heart and lung diseases when inhaled by people.

Those over 65, babies, and young children are most vulnerable to smog.

The pollutants irritate the breathing airways and can also irritate the eyes.

Most polluted areas include, but are not limited to: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Danmam, Delhi, Ghaziabhad, and Seoul.

The worst smog disaster occurred in London, 1952, the Great Smog of London. Between 10,000 and 12,000 deaths were estimated as a result of the incident.

Increased power outages

The heat causes more people to use air conditioning to cool themselves and everyone using the same power at once leads to frequent blackouts.

Conclusion

You may not be directly affected by climate change yet, but it will make its way around somehow and you will have to act accordingly in order to save your future.

Climate change has increased sea levels, will increase frequency and severity of natural disasters, decrease crop production which means less food, increase risk of skin cancer due to global warming, and increase risk of heart and lung disease because of smog.

As a result, forced migration/displacement will occur and many will have to leave their beloved homes.

But how is this our fault and why is it happening?