Home united states 3 Effects of Climate Change And How You Can Help

3 Effects of Climate Change And How You Can Help

716
0

3 Effects of Climate Change And How You Can Help: Climate change refers to the change in the large-scale climate patterns, either regional or global, that affects the weather patterns in those locations. It might be changes in temperature, the amount of rainfall, or the water levels in a surrounding area.

While the world has undergone natural climate change phases throughout its history, experts agree that the ongoing one has been driven mainly by anthropogenic activities.

From burning of fossil fuels stored in the earth to the continuous cutting down of trees, mankind continues to release greenhouse gasses that drive climate change.

To better understand the impact of these abnormalities, here are three effects of climate change and how you can help mitigate it.

3 Effects of Climate Change And How You Can Help

1. Rising Water Levels

As we release more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, more heat from the sun is trapped inside the planet. This raises the average temperature and makes everything warmer. Normally, as the world goes through the seasons, ice in the polar regions melt during warmer seasons and freeze again during the colder ones.

With climate change, however, more ice melts while less ice freezes. This leads to a rise in water levels around the world. In fact, ocean forecasts place the water level will rise by about 15 to 25 cm more by 2050.

If this sounds too little, remember that this is already putting at risk about 20 percent of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, locations that are environmentally or culturally significant. This excludes sites already deleted from the list because of irreversible damage from manmade projects such as the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania.

These are not just pretty places, these are locations that generate income for their nations because of tourism and real-estate related industries.

An increase in water levels will upset the ecological balance in many ecosystems, such as destroying beaches, deltas, marshes, and wetlands. More practically, sea level rise doesn’t only threaten civilization through flooding, it will also threaten the economy and the imbalance between fresh and saltwater could start contaminating our drinking water supply. As climate change alters water composition in coastal areas, it also affects us by…

2. Changing Weather Patterns, Putting Food Security at Risk

This is an effect already felt in some developing countries around the world. Climate change causes weather systems in certain locations to change, which in turn causes drought or excessive rainfall.

This prevents people from creating harvest, which affects food supply or worse, leaves people to hunger. The same can be said for coastal regions whose main supply of food comes from the ocean.

Sea weather forecasts have been reporting more frequent and more intense tropical storms over the past few years. This makes it virtually impossible to set sail and catch food, not to mention raging waves destroying fish traps, farms, and vessels altogether.

If you think this only affects farming and fishing regions, think again. The main units of the global supply have far-reaching effects. Unstable weather affects global supply, a scenario best exemplified by everyone’s favorite treat: chocolate.

Experts agreed that cacao beans, the main ingredient in all chocolate products, could be lost by 2050 due to climate change.

The plant bearing these beans only grows under very specific conditions, and the slightest intermittent change could ruin an entire season’s worth of crops.

3. More Heatwaves and Wildfires

Heatwaves are a regular occurrence in the atmosphere, usually happening when a high-pressure area sets in a location and lasts for a couple of days. However, ever since we’ve started roads of concrete and asphalt, we’ve never seen them melt like they did in the past decade.

Some examples include the Reagan National Airport, Washington D.C., in 2012 and in India in 2015, which caused the deaths of about 2,500 people. Heatwaves in itself are dangerous to both property and health, and their effects even more so.

It causes severe drought in affected areas, which deprive humans, plants, and wildlife of their required drinking water. In humans, heatwaves can trigger a number of fatal diseases, chief among them being heatstroke.

On the other hand, wildfires are mainly caused by lightning strikes. While associating more frequent and larger wildfires with climate change requires us to account for a lot of other factors, the simplest explanation would be that increased temperatures lead to more dead matter accumulating in the forests.

More dried-up trees, leaves, and twigs scattered around increases the opportunities of a lightning strike hitting and igniting them, setting some of the largest wildfires ever recorded.

Here’s How You Can Help

While the situation looks dire, all is not lost. As the big corporations lay out their big plans for cutting off on carbon emissions, here’s how you can help mitigate climate change at its root:

Save energy

Much of the power we use ultimately comes from fuel-powered plants. Lower your heating and air conditioning whenever possible, switch to more energy-efficient appliances such as LED lights instead of incandescent bulbs, or hang your newly-washed clothes instead of using your dryer.

Skip the car

Some people drive to work, with only one or two people in each car. Compare the number of smoke-belching cars that could be taken off the road if they would all walk or take a bus or a train to work. If the distance is not that great, take a walk or use your bike. Not only do you save on petrol or diesel-burning, but you also give yourself a good exercise.

Cut down on plastics

Plastics are among the most harmful materials to the environment, from their production to their disposal. Not only does it take many years for them to break down, but the higher temperatures decompose them into methane and ethylene, which accelerates climate change.

While they’re still indispensable in today’s living, prevent plastic disposal by reusing rather than recycling.