Climate change is the biggest threat to the survival of planet earth we have ever encountered. It is a large-scale, long-term shift in the planet's weather patterns and average temperatures. It is important we take heed. There must be no denying it.
The Earth's Climate
Since the last ice age about 11,000 years ago, the Earth's climate has been relatively stable, with an average global temperature of about 14 °C. However, we know that global temperatures have risen significantly over the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily as a result of a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).
Since the Industrial Revolution, CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by over 40% to levels that have never been seen. This has caused warming throughout the climate system, and many indicators prove that our climate is changing.
Higher temperatures
Global average surface temperature has increased by about 1 °C since the 1850s. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer than any other preceding decade and 16 of the 17 warmest years on record have occurred since the year 2001.
Changing rainfall
Rainfall has increased in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century. There are also changes between seasons in different regions. For example, the UK's summer rainfall is decreasing on average, while winter rainfall is increasing. There is also evidence that heavy rainfall events have become more intensive, especially over North America. We are seeing flooding on unprecedented levels.
Changes in nature
Changes in the seasons (such as the UK spring starting earlier, autumn starting later) are bringing changes in the behaviour of species, for example, butterflies appearing earlier in the year and birds shifting their migration patterns.
Sea level rises
Since 1900, global average sea level has risen by more than 20 cm. The rate of sea-level rise has increased in recent decades from around 1.7 mm per year over the last century, to 3.3 mm per year since the early 1990s.
Retreating glaciers
Glaciers all over the world, in the Alps, Rockies, Andes, Himalayas, Africa and Alaska are melting and the rate of shrinkage has increased in recent decades.
Sea ice
Arctic sea-ice has been declining since the late 1970s, reducing in extent by about 4%, or 0.6 million square kilometres per decade. The summer minimum Arctic sea ice extent has decreased by 13.3% per decade since 1979. At the same time Antarctic sea-ice has been more stable, though most areas have been at very low levels since autumn 2016.
Ice sheets
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which between them store the majority of the world's fresh water, are both shrinking at an accelerating rate.
The United Nations
The United Nations has recently held talks about climate change again in Poland. This conference is the most critical on climate change since the 2015 Paris agreement. At the opening ceremony UN Secretary-General, said climate change was already "a matter of life and death" for many countries. He explained that many of the countries, most responsible for climate change were still behind in their responsibilities, primary USA and China.
Sir David Attenborough
Speaking at the conference in Poland, Sir David Attenborough said: "Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate Change. If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
The Paris Agreement
Although the USA has withdrawn from the Paris agreement, it cannot leave until 2020, so its negotiators have been taking part in meetings and have not obstructed the process. However, given the President's well-known support for coal, in spite of the overwhelming evidence it has been anticipated that the White House will again organise a side event promoting fossil fuels.
Conclusion
The world needs to work together to come to understand climate change. Bringing our personal opinions into whether climate change exists is damming. just because certain countries may not believe it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
The reality is, it’s happening, and we must act now. To deny that means future generations and animals will struggle to survive. (Source: bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment metoffice.gov.uk)
What can you say in response to a blog like this? Are we really so dumb as not to see what we're doing to our own planet and either deny it is happening or not do anything about it?
Until China and the U.S are fully committed the rest of the world is just tinkering at the periphery of the problem. I only hope governments act while we still have a planet to save.
We either don't see, or don't think about it, but and I don't agree we don't see. It is always something that's being highlighted. Scientists are telling us.
Some of us do care. Yes, my blog outlines Climate Change in its entirety and what we must think about. It's selfish where we choose to ignore how we live, How we live has produced the climate to change.
Even if we're not bothered for ourselves, we must be bothered for future generations, our children, our children's children and animals. Climate Change affects us all. We're all part of the same ecosystem.
Governments must act now and pave the way for a brighter planet and future. Individually, we must also stop being so selfish and change how we live, so there is a future for new generations coming through.
I happen to live in an area where global warming has become extremely obvious over the past 25 years or so. We have events like wild rainstorms in the middle of January when we should have blizzards!
I have also noticed how much stronger the sun seems to be, which is a prime example of the atmospheric changes that have occurred in just a few short decades.
There's no way that people can keep denying it, but the ones who can do the most about it, are choosing to ignore the signs since they don't have to live in the same kind of world as everyone else does.
They get to live in their fancy towers high above the rest of the world, which they mistakenly assume will save them in the end; but that isn't going to be the case.
Thanks Randy. Yes, as you say there will be those who can do something about it but simply choose not to.
It's important that even if those people don't believe in climate change, they still do their bit to protect the environment on behalf of those that do.
Sir David Attenborough, an Environmentalist and Natural Historian has been campaigning for may decades, to save the planet, amongst all his other work.