Essay Sample about Climate Change

With climate change worsening and continuously disrupting our environment, we all have a warning that humanity is running out of time to keep global warming below 1.5°C. 2021 has been a difficult year for all, and the Emissions Gap Report 2021 calls for signatory countries to strengthen their emission promises. The emissions gap remains wide. According to the Emissions Gap Report 2021, compared to prior unconditional NDCs, the new pledges for 2030 lower predicted 2030 emissions by only 7.5 percent, but 30% is required for 2°C and 55% is required for 1.5°C. The report states that country pledges by 2030 are most consistent with warming exceeding 2.5°C by the end of the century and continuing to rise beyond that. If continued throughout this century, they would result in warming of 2.7°C. This is certainly bound to get worse the longer we delay action. 

Ever since, we have been taught about climate change, inside and outside schools. We were taught that we should segregate our waste, plant trees, make compost pits, and everything that people say we should do in order to save our planet. But the way I see it, we are doing the opposite thing. Through the years, we, humans have treated our planet as if we do not care for it. People do not segregate their wastes properly, cut trees, dispose their wastes anywhere, and emit enormous amount of carbon dioxide without being fully aware that the environment suffers from all of these wrong acts, without knowledge about the long and worsening existential emergency we are facing-climate change. It is disappointing how we say we know what to do but not really know the urgency, the need for us to take action.

The Emissions Gap Report 2021 is telling us to face the facts. We have to face these numbers and our slim chance to make things better in the future. We have to stop believing all these feel-good stories that just tells us that everything is going to fine without telling us what to do to make things better. We have less and less carbon to emit in our carbon budget every day which is quite alarming but true, uncomfortable but we should know these in order to take action. With all these being said, I refuse to say that I do not believe we can still make because I do. I know humans can still make a difference. We still have the ability to turn the situation around.

Since elementary days, I have always heard of the saying, “Nasa atin ang kaligtasan ni inang kaligtasan”. And I believe in that saying. Many may say there’s no hope for us but I do not believe that. What I believe in is that there is no point in crying over spilled milk. What we need are actions to make changes. Change is still possible as much as it is necessary. We can still budget a budget if we count all the numbers. 

We have all those net-zero pledges. We can still have them implemented if we do not let climate justice drown in all those big empty promises. For their net-zero ambitions to be met, these countries can till have enhanced and more ambitious near-term climate strategies. We have all these countries that can help. We can still make it if a lot more countries agree to pledge and actually take action. We need to work together. Working together and making actions, not words can still help us turn the situation around. None of these is a bad deal for any country, for anyone, as it will benefit all of us and our future generations. Not taking actions now is a betrayal to future generations. Not making any difference now is depriving our planet the climate justice it deserves. Why do we have to spend billions trying to get to another planet when we can do a lot to save the earth? Why do we have to delay action when we can do it now?

We should help each other. We all should take responsibility and take care of our planet like how it takes care of by giving us everything we need. The worsening global situations are the facts, pills that are hard to swallow but we all know we need it for us to fully understand the crisis we are in, the need for our actions, and the suffering that we made our planet experience. We need to take actions, together, hand in hand. We all want climate justice and we want it now so we start to unite and save our planet NOW.