Climate Change and it’s Impact

Nowadays we see various debates and numerous conversations regarding climate change. It’s high time that we focus more on action to deal with this change affecting the earth and the living beings. Climate policies should be implemented before it’s too late and each one of us should do our bit in every possible way.

Climate change refers to long- term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. This can be due to natural changes, such as through variations in the solar cycle, volcanoes or internal variability in the climate system, or human activities like burning of fossil fuels. There is an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. The number of heat waves, heavy downpours, major hurricanes, wildfire etc. has highly increased.

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Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide and methane that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures. Some of the reasons for the release of these gases are:

• Using fuel for driving a vehicle.
• Using coal for heating a building.
• Clearing land and forests.
• Landfills for garbage.
• Emission from factories.

The general notion is that climate change mainly means warmer temperatures. But that’s just the beginning of everything because in nature everything is related and a change in one area can influence several other changes. A change that begins with rise in temperature can subsequently lead to droughts, flooding, severe fires, rising sea levels, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and even leads to decline in biodiversity.

Impact of Change in Climate

Adverse Climate – Climate change is expected to worsen the frequency, intensity, and impacts of some types of extreme weather events. For example, sea level rise increases the impacts of coastal storms and warming can place more stress on water supplies during droughts. Temperature is increasing drastically. 2020 was one of the hottest years on record. High temperature causes wildfires which can spread more rapidly when conditions are hotter. Changes in temperature cause changes in rainfall. This results in more severe and frequent storms causing flooding and landslides, destroying homes and communities, and costing billions of pounds. Droughts can stir destructive sand and dust storms that can move billions of tons of sand across continents. This results in the expansion of deserts, reducing land for growing food. That’s why many cities, states, and businesses are taking steps to prepare for more extreme weather.

Changes in Ocean – Changes are also occurring in the ocean. The ocean absorbs about 30% of the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. As a result, the water is becoming more acidic, affecting marine life. Sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion, in addition to melting ice sheets and glaciers, putting coastal areas at greater risk of erosion and storm surge.

Health – Climate changes can also affect the health and well being as it is linked to our natural environment. As a matter of fact, the World Health Organization has called climate change “the single biggest health threat facing humanity.” Air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas kills 13 people every minute whose causes of death include conditions like lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Drought induced scarcity, contamination caused by severe storms and floods, rising seas making freshwater salty etc. compromises access to safe, clean drinking water. Some 2 billion people currently lack access to safe drinking water, and 829,000 people die from diarrheal diseases every year due to polluted water and poor sanitation. The destruction of natural habitats and loss of biodiversity increase the spread of disease between animals and humans. The rise in temperature has caused an increase in  mosquito borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever. the trauma of extreme climate events is affecting the mental health of people around the world. As weather becomes more severe, anxiety and stress are projected to increase, especially for children, adolescents, and the elderly. Higher incidences of flooding can lead to the spread of waterborne diseases, injuries, and chemical hazards.

Migration – Climate change migration has begun due to conditions like sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion. People are forced to relocate because of the drastic changes in their locality which makes life miserable. As early as 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migration—with millions of people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption.

Economy – The extreme weather conditions have a negative impact on the economy too. The largest impact of climate change is that it could wipe off up to 18% of GDP off the worldwide economy by 2050 if global temperatures rise by 3.2°C, the Swiss Re Institute warns. The global economy could lose 10% of its total economic value by 2050 due to climate change, according to new research. The impact of climate change has been forecasted to be the hardest hit for Asian economies, with a 5.5% hit to GDP in the best-case scenario, and 26.5% hit in a severe scenario. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2021 identified climate action failure as the most impactful and second-most likely long term risk facing the world in a year when populations continued to struggle mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also warned that billions across the world were at a heightened risk of missing out on future economic opportunities and the benefits of a resilient global community. As climate change increases the frequency and ferocity of extreme weather events like drought, it will have a heavy impact on global agriculture and food production resulting in rising rates of food insecurity and malnutrition.

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Solutions to Counter Climate Changes

Several international organizations and countries are coming up with solutions to protect the environment, improve the lives of people and deliver economic benefits. There are global frameworks and agreements to guide progress, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.

Switching energy systems from fossil fuels to renewables like solar or wind will reduce the emissions driving climate change. Even though countries are committing to net zero emissions by 2050, about half of emissions cuts must be in place by 2030 to keep warming below 1.5°C. Fossil fuel production must decline by roughly 6 per cent per year between 2020 and 2030.

Early warning systems for disasters, for instance, save lives and property, and can deliver benefits up to 10 times the initial cost. Climate action requires significant financial investments by governments and businesses. But climate inaction is vastly more expensive. One critical step is for industrialized countries to fulfil their commitment to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries so they can adapt and move towards greener economies.

In 1992, the United States and 175 other countries ratified a treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which aims to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system” and stabilize levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. In 2021, the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31st October to 13th November. The conference was the first since the Paris Agreement of COP21 that expected parties to make enhanced commitments towards mitigating climate change. The result of COP26 was the Glasgow Climate Pact, negotiated through consensus of the representatives of the 197 attending parties. The pact is the first climate agreement explicitly planning to reduce unabated coal usage. The main elements of the pact are as follows:

• An agreement to re-visit emission reduction plans in 2022 in order to try to keep the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement target achievable
• The first ever inclusion of a commitment to limit (“phase down”) the use of unabated coal (from this wording it implicitly follows that utilizing coal with “abatement” (net-zero emission), e.g. by neutralizing the resulting carbon dioxide via the CO₂-to-stone process, need not be reduced. However this carbon capture and storage is too expensive for most coal fired power stations.
• Commitment to climate finance for developing countries.

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Even though the impacts of climate change may be uneven across communities and countries, it can be  seen throughout every aspect of the world. The impacts of climate change on different sectors of society are interrelated. Climate change threatens the cleanliness of our air, depletes our water sources and limits food supply. It disrupts livelihoods, forces families from their homes and pushes people into poverty. We are aware of the problems and solutions and the ongoing research provides us with new ones regularly. It is possible to avoid the most negative of outcomes by limiting warming and reducing emissions to zero as quickly as possible.

Quotes on Climate Change

• “The world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades.” – Barack Obama
• “Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.” – Bill Gates
• “We are running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.” – Elon Musk
• “We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.” – Stephen Hawking
• “Climate change is the greatest threat to our existence in our short history on this planet. Nobody’s going to buy their way out of its effects.” – Mark Ruffalo
• “The challenge of pollution and global warming is no longer the science, or the rate of innovation, but the rate of implementation: We have the clean solutions; now let’s bundle them and install them.” – Jens Martin Skibsted
• “To all of you who choose to look the other way every day because you seem more frightened of the changes that can prevent catastrophic climate change than the catastrophic climate change itself. Your silence is worst of all.” – Greta Thunberg
• “One of the biggest obstacles to making a start on climate change is that it has become a cliche before it has even been understood” – Tim Flannery
• “The less we do to address climate change now, the more regulation we will have in the future.” – Bill Nye
• “On climate change, we often don’t fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.” – Kofi Annan

Quiz on Climate Change

Wasting less food is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. True or False?

a) True

b) False

Ans: a) True

Which of the following is a greenhouse gas?

a) Carbon dioxide

b) Methane

c) Water vapor

d) All of the above

Ans: d) All of the above

The overwhelming majority of scientists agree that climate change is real and caused by humans. True or False?

a) True

b) False

Ans: a) True

Which of these countries emits the most carbon dioxide?

a) China

b) USA

c) UK

d) Russia

Ans: a) China

What percentage of the global greenhouse gas emissions does the transportation sector emit?

a) 1%

b) 10%

c) 14%

d) 73%

Ans: c) 14%

Which of the following economic sectors emits the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions?

a) Transportation

b) Industry

c) Buildings

d) Electricity and heat production

Ans: d) Electricity and heat production

Which was the hottest year on record?

a) 2020

b) 2016

c) 2002

d) 2017

Ans: a) 2020

What is the greenhouse effect?

a) When climate change effects ecosystem

b) The measurement of plant growth in areas affected by flooding

c) The impact trees have on global temperature

d) The phenomenon in which gases in the earth’s atmosphere prevent heat from escaping into space.

Ans: d) The phenomenon in which gases in the earth’s atmosphere prevent heat from escaping into space.

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