Essay Sample on Climate Change

📌Category: Climate Change, Environment
📌Words: 840
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 24 January 2022

Arguably one of the most important issues we are currently dealing with is climate change, and it is not long before the damage we have done to our planet will become irreversible. Climate change, by definition, is a change in global or regional climate patterns, and we are the cause. As of today, the effects that have been observed are manageable. Later down the line, the effects on weather and temperature will vary depending on location, but the effects on our agriculture systems and water will be detrimental. As far as possible solutions go, unfortunately, there is no simple fix to this problem.

Climate change includes a broad spectrum of changes, including global warming. Global warming is the increase in temperature of the earth’s surface, and currently the temperature is rising rapidly when compared to the earth’s past warming and cooling cycles. The article “The Causes of Climate Change” by Nasa states, “Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the "greenhouse effect"1 — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.”(1). The causes of the current global warming trend include, but are not limited to, the burning of fossil fuels, farming and agriculture, along with deforestation. By continuing activities that are proven to increase greenhouse gases and change the earth’s natural greenhouse, we are only worsening the condition of our planet.

Meanwhile, the effects of climate change are already being observed and monitored. There has already been a steady increase observed in wildfires, including the frequency, intensity, scale, and length of the wildfire season. This can be contributed to the increasing intensity and frequency of droughts and heatwaves. The article written by Mark Crawford states, “Climate patterns suggest that wildfire seasons are becoming hotter, longer and more severe. Over the past io years, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Utah, California and several other states have experienced the most destructive fires in their histories.”(2). This statement was written about the 2015 wildfire season, and as predicted with every passing year the wildfire season has continued to worsen. Along with the rising sea level, melting glaciers, and increase in tropical storms it is becoming more and more obvious that this is only the beginning of our issues. 

Since it is quite difficult to predict the future, predicting the effects of climate change are no different. Especially seeing as future effects will depend on when action is taken, but despite the difficulty scientists still have a general idea of how our climate will react to the increasing global temperature. The future environmental effects will include, ocean acidification, continued increase in global temperature, changes in patterns of precipitation and weather, increase in severity of wildfire season along with hurricane season, the thawing of permafrost, and the melting of sea ice and glaciers. The article “Biogeochemistry: Long-term effects of permafrost thaw” by Donatella Zona states, “Global warming is causing tundra ecosystems to undergo hydrological changes as a result of thawing of the underlying permafrost [1] -- the permanently frozen soil layer that acts as a barrier to soil drainage.” The article then goes on to state, “Thawing of permafrost can cause a reduction in soil moisture through increased soil drainage. The effect of these changes on the fluxes of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) released from the Arctic is of great concern, because a vast amount of carbon is stored in this permafrost-dominated region.”(3). This is only one example of the many future effects, but it goes to show that eventually, climate change will become a situation we will no longer be able to handle, more or less fix, if action is not taken. 

When it comes to solutions and policy change there is still much to be done. Since climate change is a global issue in order to establish effective change, the majority of the world’s countries need to be involved. The article “Actions for adaptation and mitigation of climate change: Madrid case study” states, “In 2015, 193-member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, made up of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and 169 goals to be achieved by 2030 [1]. These universally applicable goals set quantitative results in the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental.”(4). However, the United Nations meeting coverage of a general assembly meeting on climate change and sustainable development on March 28, 2019, states, “We are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet,” General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador) warned the gathering in her opening remarks, stressing that 11 years are all that remain to avert catastrophe.”(5). Although  Agenda 2030 is a win for the policy change regarding climate change, if the goals of the agenda are not met, we will have run out of valuable time.

In conclusion, the earth’s climate is steadily decreasing faster than ever before, and without effective intervention, this will not only affect us but as well as all future generations to come. There is plenty of evidence to support the dangers that climate change will bring in the coming years. The effects of climate change currently being observed are still not permanent and can be fixed with the right policies and time. However, the indescribable amount of damage that will be caused by future effects will be irreversible if climate change is allowed to continue. Regardless, there is no reason to lose hope, we still have time to correct our mistakes.

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