An Essay on Climate Change

With an earth that is on its way to dying, we, the destroyers of our own planet, need to step up and quickly find a solution to our biggest problem. Climate change has been happening ever since the earth was created but now it is occurring at a rate like no other (Week 11 #3). Because of this, dangerous storms like hurricanes and tornados are occurring more often and with greater force. In addition, sea levels are rising due to the polar ice caps melting from the suns powerful rays.

With the increased levels of CO2 in our atmosphere, the earth is rapidly heating up to a point where there may be no stopping it. Not only do we need to advance what we are currently doing for this problem already, but we need to completely change our way of life immediately for the hopes of fixing this, could be unstoppable, epidemic.

We always here of dangerous and terrifying storms happening somewhere in the world but recently they have been occurring more often.

During the months from August to October hurricanes frequency is at its high and are likely to cause tremendous damage. As shown by the National Weather Service on their website, over the past 50 years the amount of hurricanes per year have been showing signs of increasing. Not only are hurricanes becoming more frequent, their strength has also been increased dramatically. There has been more category 3 or above hurricanes in the last 60 years alone than in the 100 prior. These storms are already dangerous as they are and people lose their homes, livelihood and sometimes even die from them every year.

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Naturally theses storms are going to occur on their own but not to this degree of power. We are causing these storms to become even greater in power and damage and it is ultimately backfiring on us. Climate change isn't only effecting the temperature, it effects every single thing we have here and know of on earth (Week 9 #2). We need to start making changes if we want to keep out planet from its ultimate doomsday. Hurricanes are just the start of our issue, there are many other types of storms that can cause significant damage to peoples homes and livelihood. As stated on NASA's website, “nearly 60% of hurricanes crossing into land develop tornados” for even more damage to occur. Tornados can tare through cities and rip apart homes and when combining them with hurricanes can become even more deadly. Both of these types of storms along with the drastic changes in temperature from day to day is all effecting our environment and the species that live in it. Many species can't handle these storms and perish from them while others can't sustain life with temperatures drastically changing overnight. Even though these storms are dangerous and cause visible damage, changes in the height of our seas can easily cause as much if not more damage by displacing millions of people from their homes.

Sea levels are known to go up and down during the year due to the polar caps melting then refreezing but recently more ice is melting each year than what is being refrozen. The ocean absorbs much of the radiation from the sun whereas the ice caps bounce the radiations off. We need these ice caps in order to keep our planet at a reasonable temperature or way to much of the suns rays will be absorbed by the ocean continuously heating up the earth to unbearable temperatures. This is how our ice caps are melting at such a fast rate; as more of them melt it creates are larger ocean area for the suns rays to be absorbed. (Week 11 #2) With shorelines increasing each year, it is only a matter of time until people have to start abandoning homes or design a temporary solution to stop the water. These quick fixes will only work for short periods of time until the shorelines increase even more and people have to push back again. If we can't stop our own destruction, places such as NYC, Long Island, Florida and the entire east coast would be submerged underwater (Week 4 #2&#1). Not only would many people lose there livelihoods, but one of our largest and most influential cities in the world, NYC, would be lost. All of this destruction, between storms and sea levels, can almost entirely be contributed from the CO2 emissions that we pollute our world with every day.

CO2 emissions are being pushed into our atmosphere everyday at increasing rates with little care about the effects that it is having on our planet (Week 12 #4). Ever since the great boom with the industrial revolution CO2 levels have only been increasing and causing damage. Even if we stopped all CO2 input into the atmosphere today, we would still feel the effects of what we have done for at least the next 50 years. This is concerning because we keep producing more and more and by the time we realize there is a problem and actually want to do something about it, it will already be too late. It really makes one think how we need to act now to reduce these CO2 levels. CO2 creates a barrier between our atmosphere and space and with that barrier being thickened, less and less of the suns radiation is able to go back into space. It gets trapped within our planet and absorbed. Having these increased levels of CO2, ties back to the increase number and strength of hurricanes, tornadoes and most importantly, sea level rise (Week 5 #1). All of these detrimental events are taking place because of the CO2 that we are trapping within our planet. To ultimately save our planet and our future generations, we need to devote all resources from countries all over the world to resolving this epidemic immediately.

Obviously nobody knows the answer to solving the problem immediately but there are many things that we can all do on a daily basis to help lessen the amount of CO2 we emit (Week 2 #2). Simply tasks like switching to more effecting light bulbs, turning the lights off when were not using them, driving more efficient cars, are all reasonable tasks for people to be able to do to help the environment. In spite all that the people can do, if large manufacturing companies don't stop polluting then the problem will continue to just get worse. If governments can force all companies to reduce their emissions by a certain amount then it could show a step towards the ultimate goal. The best solution for our environment would be to stop polluting entirely and to not drive gas powered cars at all. Now even though this is best for our environment, it is extremely unrealistic due to amount we rely on such transportation and factories. The solution to this problem isn't easy and isn't going to be favorable for everyone. Companies along with ordinary people will have to make sacrifices for the greater good of our world by emitting less CO2. Climate change isn't going to get better unless we can all come together as one planet collectively to resolve the issue.