jasonpaulbruno

[jasonpaulbruno]

Climate

In chapter five ‘Climate’ I learned about the question that is surprisingly still not believed by everyone on earth, namely, is the earth warming? Not believing in climate change and the influence of humanity on this matter is an ignorant but easy way to not having to deal with it. I think many people are simply not willing to give up some of their bad habits in order to live more sustainable and save the planet. A key not is to first understand what climate means before being able to realize if it is changing or not. I think it is a common mistake to look at short term weather patterns to justify that the earth is not warming up, but climate is only measurable in long terms. According to writer Margaret Robertson of our book Sustainability Principle and Practices acknowledges how only a few degrees have the potential to have quite an impact. She states as followed, “A change of only a few degrees in the global average temperature has a significant impact on the climate as a whole” (p.68) This proves how important it is for people to thoroughly study theories before deciding whether something should be believed or not.

The second quote that stood out to me was the following, “ Changes predicted by computer models reviewed by the IPCC include heat waves; extremes of weather conditions including floods, droughts, and hurricanes; melting of gla-ciers and polar ice; sea level rise; changing ocean currents; changes to terrestrial and marine ecosystems including extinctions; and changes to human lifestyles including agriculture and economic issues” (p.75). When projecting to the future after the calculations done by specialists, it is scary to see where the earth is heading. This should be alarming enough to make it mandatory for all of humanity to make a huge change in lifestyle because when these things will start to happen it will most likely be to late.

 In author Kim Severson’s article called From Apples to Popcorn, Climate Change Is Altering the Foods America Grows, the impact climate change has on the food in the United States is being illustrated. Rice is being affected as well as many fruits like tart cherries, peaches, organic apples, wild blueberries, organic raspberries, golden kiwi’s, and watermelons. In addition there are several vegetables like chickpeas, organic heirloom popcorn, and artichoke. In this week’s material we saw how we as humans are having a negative influence on climate change. This is a good example of how we are only fooling ourselves as these changes are also negatively impact us as the quality of our food decreases.

References

Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability principles and practice.  Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/dining/farming-climate-change.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront