Essay Sample on Climate Change

Lets talk about climate change. With sea levels and temperatures rising (show picture of high tide and global chart) its hard to deny it nowadays, and yet people still do. As someone who intends to live on this planet for the rest of my life, I find it a little disconcerting when I see news about how little time we have left,(change tone slightly to indicate fear) and by that I mean I’m terrified. That’s the primary reason for this video, because the more people that know about this the better. Climate change is having disastrously harmful effects on Australia and measures need to be taken immediately. I’ll be going over how irreversible it’s becoming, Australia’s contributions, and the coverage of global warming in general. 

The amount of time we have left to stop climate change from being irreversible may be a lot shorter than you think. If you were to give me an estimate on how long we have left, you might say, something like fifty, or 30, or if you’re lowballing it you might even go 20, but god forbid right? (hold) 

We have 8 years (stare into camera and show screenshots of the 4 websites that show this) and that’s the absolute latest. I know there are a lot of people who say, “Yeah, well I’m not gonna worry about it cause I won’t be alive,” but this is not even a decade away. It’s also a really dismissive argument but that’s beside the point. Why does it have to be by 2030? Well that’s the time estimated by scientists. Dr Brenda Ekwurzel explains it in an interview with Union of Concerned scientists as (highlight words from interview) the time it takes to preheat an oven and it is in our best interest to keep our average global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius, and that would be impossible if carbon emissions are not reduced to 45% of the carbon emissions from 2010. If we look at the rate we are going, according to this graph from ourworldindata.com (show graph) shows that if all countries abide by the pledges they’ve made so far, the average temperature will be 2.1 degrees in 2100. Current policies will result in 2.5 degrees. That means that with all that we have in place, we are still doomed if nothing more changes. Just think, people alive today may live to see the end of the world! I just don’t understand how people can ignore this information, it’s do or die time right now and that realisation is just terrifying. 

What about Australia? What is Australia doing to help solve climate change? Well the government pledged in 2020 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 which seems promising, but you’ve got to remember this (show our world in data graph). 2030 is the point that should be focused on, and while net zero by then is inconceivable, it should be the main concern. It turns out this sentiment is shared by the climate council, who revealed that among all developed countries, Australia ranked dead last! Specifically, when it comes to cutting greenhouse gas emission and moving beyond fossil fuels. The climate council suggests that Australia should reduce its emissions by 75% by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2035, and the first step to achieve that is to match the commitments of our allies. You wan proof that we are already being affected? Well boy howdee you’re in luck cause Energy matters released an article last year called “9 Ways that climate change is affecting Australia in 2021”(show on screen) and they’ve got the whole shebang. Warming, Bushfires, drought, sea level rise, extreme weather (show the whole list on screen). We can expect more of everything earlier this year we saw Australia starting to flood and the climate council is saying that that trend is not circumstantial (show the first source from slideshow). 

Nothing can be changed about climate change if no one is paying attention. Global warming has been pushed aside in recent years and focus has instead been put on a certain... disease. Let’s not beat around the bush (show the meme of climate change being ignored). It’s the old adage, “ignorance is bliss,” except in this case it absolutely is not. The governments of the world have made pledges to achieve net zero by certain dates, but they can’t do that if no one is paying attention. Worse still, people don’t do anything regardless of their knowledge. When the borders first opened during lock down, people couldn’t help themselves and everyone started going out and travelling, but then a bunch of people got sick again, borders had to close and lock down restrictions got harsher. Then when things seemed to be clearing up again, the same thing happened! This happened over, and over again, and at a certain point you expect it to stop. You get people who think they are above it, and won’t get it just because they are themselves. Well I’ve got news for you buster; the planet affects everyone! People don’t do anything unless they have to. They had to quarantine, but there are no strict rules for any carbon emission limits. Most media about climate change is negative, and fear mongering, and while in most cases I would reject this method, in this case I am in favour of it. We need more warnings so people actually do something.

We have to start doing our part to save the planet as soon as possible. We are running out of time, with less than a decade left to do as much as we can. We need to hold our government more accountable for the poor effort they put in, and we need to spread the message to as many people as we know. I don’t want the world to be ruined by something preventable, do you?