Written By: Nabiha Khan
Edited By: Tiana Mair
Designed By: Nabiha Khan
Published By: Maryam Khan
Although global warming may be a very well-known topic, few know the consequences and risks of it yet to come. In this article, I will go over how global warming will affect our climate and possible future events that might happen if we don’t do something quick.
Firstly, what is global warming? Global warming is the long-term heating of the Earth’s surface. Due to this, the Earth gets hotter, creating climate change. Global warming has been a severe problem since the 1980s and has gotten much worse since then as well.
The main causes of global warming are generating power, manufacturing goods, cutting down forests and using transportation. When we generate power or manufacture goods, we burn fossil fuels, which release immense amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide then gets trapped in our atmosphere, which creates heat. When people cut trees down, the carbon dioxide trapped inside the tree gets released into the air and gets stuck in the atmosphere. Many fossil fuels are burnt to manufacture cars, and when they are manufactured, cars continue to use gas which pollutes the air. These main contributors are very dangerous to the earth, and especially our climate.
Photo taken by Chris LeBoutillier, Provided on Unsplash.
So, how does global warming affect our climate? Many are already familiar with events happening more commonly because of global warming, such as forest fires, ice melting and sea levels rising, and you’ve probably guessed they’re not just happening because of “natural forces”, there’s something much bigger at play here.
We’ll start with forest fires first. You’ve probably heard of the California Wildfires, the main cause of those wasn’t just natural events, but global warming. Forest fires are naturally caused by hot lightning, but although this may be the case sometimes, about 85% of forest fires are caused by humans. These are caused by campfires left unattended, disregarded cigarettes, burning debris and acts of arson. Global warming also dries out vegetation, making them more prone to fire. Not only do forest fires burn up a lot of natural resources, but they also release more carbon dioxide into the air from the trees and pollute the air quality with smoke. So, even if 15% of wildfires are natural, the rest of the 85% is caused by us.
Ice melting is also one of the consequences of global warming. Global warming is doing what it sounds like – warming the planet, so obviously places like the arctic would get affected by this. The rising heat temperatures melt the ice by over 13% per decade and the thickest ice in the arctic has already melted by 95%! This unfortunately provides complications both to us and other animals. Polar bears, for example, aren’t able to hunt for fish anymore because of the lack of snow to camouflage themselves in. Seals and other animals that live in the arctic also depend on the ice, and without it, many of them are going extinct. Due to the ice melting, sea levels are rising, which floods islands and makes the lands we have already smaller. You can guess that this isn’t a good thing, since islands like Hawaii would soon cease to exist, forcing people to move to other places, where lack of land would also start being a problem. Lastly, along with all of that, the ice melting would mean much more severe hot and cold temperatures around the world, which could lead to more catastrophes.
Photo taken by Annie Spratt, Provided on Unsplash
Although you may not feel so good after reading this article, there is still time to save our world and its inhabitants! Countries have already started making plans to get to net zero by a certain year, and many families are dedicating their time to living a more sustainable lifestyle. If all of us make an effort to try and stop global warming, it could work, and we could live in a healthy environment once again!
Photo taken by David Marcu, Provided on Unsplash
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