Many individuals are denying the existence of global warming and climate change by dismissing it as hoax, but facts are facts and scientists say that it is happening because it was created by mankind. By far this is the biggest issue created by humans and could possibly end us.
After the industrial revolution began, we have been emitting enormous amounts of green house gasses mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) by the use of fossil fuels, cement production and land use. These gases have been piling up in the lower layers of our atmosphere. This layer is now estimated to be almost 2,000 gigatons of just carbon dioxide and is the highest as compared to any time in the last 800,000 years.
The increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere result in a higher temperature around the globe, which has shown its own ridiculously dangerous consequences.
Animals and plants in places such as America and Malaysia have significantly moved 17 kilometers towards the pole to escape the constantly rising heat. The mass amount of carbon dioxide is also making sea levels rise 10th of an inch every single year by thawing away the ice sheets and glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, as well as making oceans more acidic than ever which scientists predict this will end up killing one-third of the species in the ocean.
This is just the tip of the iceberg because animal life is not the only life affected by this; 90 per cent of people who work in fisheries come from the world’s poorest countries such as those in Western Africa, Peru and Colombia. When climate change makes fish move towards the pole or simply kills fish population, these people won’t have jobs anymore and won’t be able to afford any income resulting in losing the only food security left.
Climate change has also contributed to a rise in chaotic weather events including hurricanes and disastrous floods.
Scientists believe that by 2030 global warming and climate change will bring more than 50 million people into poverty, and unless if we stop ignoring facts and start doing something to prevent climate change our earth will be 2.5-5 degrees warmer and with the sea level 1 meter higher than before by the end of this century, and also with the chance of us living in poverty for life.
The writer is a media student at the Sharjah Higher College of Technology.
The International Government Communication Forum (IGCF), held in Sharjah, is an annual forum that shares global best practices in fields of government communication and aims to build a platform for better communication between governments and their citizens. This column is a collaborative effort with Gulf News featuring work by UAE-based students as part of that initiative.
