Global Warming. Is it a hoax or is it an actual science? In today’s society filled with an abundance of information floating through ALL channels of media and apps, it is so incredibly difficult to differentiate between people who are speaking facts because they are knowledgeable about the topic and people who are speaking strictly based on their opinions and what they want to believe.
Much like other serious topics, no one wants to talk about global warming. No one wants to talk about something that can cause more detrimental damage than the loss of health care or more/less gun control. I am in no way removing the importance of those topics, but what many don’t understand is without the earth working properly… we won’t need health care and guns… we’ll most likely be (like many of the other species on this earth) going extinct. The viewpoint a majority of people have, that I have noticed, is “there’s nothing we can do now, it’s going to happen anyway so who cares what we do” or, my personal favorite, “it’s just this one bottle [not recycling], it’s not going to make a difference”. Well not with that attitude it won’t.
So what is global warming? Global warming, as defined by Webster, “is the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.” I’m not going to sit here and list EVERY single thing that is causing climate change and global warming, but people need to face the facts that it IS a real thing. I have links at the bottom of the article that you can go to and read more in-depth about everything. NASA has a website that has a constant update on the vital signs of the planet. As of today, carbon dioxide is at 406.94 parts per million and increasing with the average being around 400 parts per million. I know what you’re thinking, “6.94 increase is not a lot”, but it is. Any sort of increase worldwide of carbon dioxide is a big deal. That is the air we are breathing… and it is filling with chemicals. The website then details how the average temperature of the earth is increasing, our ice caps are melting, and the sea level is rising. If none of that alarms you, it should.
The temperature rising causes a change in our seasons that don’t allow for proper weather conditions to occur, directly affecting animals, agriculture, people, animals, everything. The melting of ice caps causes the sea levels to rise because the ice is melting into the water. And no, you can’t argue “the ice is already in the water when it melts it won’t do anything”. Uhh, no. The water in is displaced around these frozen solid chunks of ice, as it melts, much like an ice cube in a glass of water; the water levels rise. The melting and rising of water create unlivable conditions for all living things around it including flooding, destroying of crops, ruining homes of both animals and humans etc.
These “vital signs” may seem like pretty serious things but, honestly, it takes the smallest things to reduce these signs. These signs serve as a warning of an oncoming threat, much like getting a stuffy nose and congestion before the flu or numbness and difficulty breathing before a heart attack. The earth is literally warning us that something bad is going to happen. With something that we, as humans, can actually control you’d think more of us would be trying to grasp onto this and take charge as compared to leaving choices to politicians. You don’t need to have a power title, tons of money or famous name to make a difference when it comes to our environment.
Sometimes remembering to recycle, or remembering to turn off the light or turn off the faucet can be tedious and annoying until you form a habit but the rewards are so worth it. The rewards are both personally beneficial and environmentally beneficial. Your water and electric bill will go down while reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The Earth is not a renewable resource, we only have one Earth and with our ever-growing population, we are using all of its resources way too quickly. It is important now more than ever to conserve what we have LEFT before we use it all so future generations can grow up experiencing the same parks and zoos and animals that we have now. We need to set an example for future generations that the Earth’s resources are vital to our success and it starts with you.