Climate Change: 10 Facts Everyone Should Know
By: Muriel Tataw
Fact #1: What is Climate Change?
Climate change is a broader term for the changes happening across planet Earth as a result of the increases in temperature around the world. These changes include rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, rapid ice melting in frigid places such as Greenland and Antarctica, and the changing of blooming times for flowers and other vegetation.
Fact #2: Climate Change & Global Warming
‘Global warming’ is a term that refers to the long-term warming of the planet. It is a term within the broader term of climate change. Global warming is the primary result of the overall climate change.
Fact #3: What Caused Climate Change?
Climate change is caused by human activity. Greenhouse gas emissions is said to be the primary cause of climate change. But various other activities we humans participate in have contributed to global warming over the years such as aerosol spraying, burning fossil fuels, deforestation (cutting down forests), pollution, and overpopulation. These human activities are devastating our planet earth an causing changes such as soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water.
Fact #4: The Greenhouse Effect
One may ask how these human activities caused climate change in the first place? Its all due to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a process in which radiation and heat from the sun are trapped in the lower atmosphere of the planet because of gases in the lower atmosphere that prevent the extra heat from being reflected away from the planet. Normally, some sunlight that hits earth is supposed to reflect back into space, while the rest turns into heat here on earth. But greenhouse gases prevent the extra sunlight from being reflected back into space. That extra sunlight remaining on planet Earth is the cause of todays climate change.
Fact #5: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created to collect and study evidence on climate change. According to their research, most of the planets ice covers will melt by the year 2100. This extreme change will cause a cascade of consequences that will not be reversible, including flooding bad enough to engulf entire cities.
Fact #6: Paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology is the study of changes in Earth’s climate over the planet’s history. According to studies by various Paleoclimatology experts, current global warming is increasing about 10x faster than the planet warming after the last ice age 2.6 million years ago.
Fact #7: Current Extreme Weather Caused by Climate Change
Today we see an increase in warm temperatures all across the globe. We also see an influx in extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, droughts, and forest fires. 14 different extreme weather events occurred globally in the year 2018 alone, causing $1 Billion in damages.
Fact #8: The Cost of Climate Change
Speaking of costs, it is predicted that inaction against climate change will cost an alarming $44 Trillion by the year 2060 alone! Thats a lot closer to our present day than we think. The areas predicted to have the highest GDP losses on the planet include Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
Fact #9: Climate Change Affects EVERYONE
The average number of people exposed to heatwaves has increased by 125 million over the last 100 years.
Fact #10: EVERYONE Should Be Fighting Climate Change
Everyone can contribute towards the fight against climate change. We can all decrease pollution by disposing of trash properly. Those who can should help decrease the carbon fingerprint on the planet by consuming less gasoline and using hybrid cars. Women can buy beauty products that do not affect the planets atmospheric ability to release sunlight back into space.
Hopefully, some of these 10 facts about climate change are alarming enough to encourage us all to take action against it, for the sake of our future living on this planet. Next week we will cover various products everyone on earth can use to help decrease pollution and its effects on the planet. Climate change is not a problem to just a specific set of people here on earth. It is a problem that affects every living soul upon this earth. It is imperative we individually take this problem more seriously around the world.
Thank you for stopping by the Sustain Afric Blog! We look forward to more readers next week as we continue to cover the global issue of climate change. Please share this article to educate the world on this important topic. Together, we can positively impact planet Earth and combat the effects of climate change for a better future.