What will happen if Climate Change doesn't stop?
Scientists have predicted that a lot of long-term effects of climate change that will happen in the future. These impacts include; warmer temperatures, human health due to worsening air quality, rising sea levels, changes in the patterns and amount of rainfall, changing ecosystems influencing geographic ranges of many plant and animal species and increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
So far, nations are not slashing emissions enough to keep earth’s temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels- the threshold established in the Paris climate agreement.
The world has already heated up by around 1.2 degree Celsius on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second.
“what we know is that unabated climate will really transform our world into something that is unrecognizable”, Kelly Levin, a senior associate at thour e worlds resources institutes climate program, told business insider. That transformation has already begun. The last few years saw record-breaking temperatures, catastrophic and bizarre storms, and unprecedented ice melt. This is all likely to get worse by 2030.
I agree with this statement from Sir David Attenborough as if no action is done the impacts are going to continue to get worse.
Furthermore, in 2019 Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN she said “we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth”
What can we do to Stop Climate Change?
According to Greenpeace the main ways to stop climate change are:
Keep fossil fuels in the ground- fossil fuels include, coal, oil and gas. The more that are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get.
Using more renewable energy- changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels.
Switch to more sustainable transport- petrol and diesel vehicles, planes and ships use fossil fuels. Switching to electric vehicles and minimising plane travel will help climate change and also reduce air pollution.
Improve farming and encourage vegan diets-reducing meat and dairy consumption or by going vegan.
Protect forests like the Amazon rainforest- companies are destroying forests to make way for animal farming, soya or palm oil plantations. Governments can stop them by making better laws.
Protect the oceans- oceans also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which helps to keep our climate stable. Many are overfished, used for oil and gas drilling or threatened by deep sea mining.
Reduce plastic- plastic is made from oil, the process of extracting, refining and turning oil into plastic is surprisingly carbon-intense. Demand for plastic is rising so quickly that creating and disposing of plastics will account for 17% of the global carbon budget by 2050.
The Climate Change Act
Through the climate change act, the UK government has set a target to significantly reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and a path to get there. The Climate Change Act commits the UK government by law to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100% of 1990 levels (net zero) by 2050. This includes reducing emissions from the devolved administrations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), which currently account for about 20% of the UK’s emissions.
Individuals can also play by making better choices about where they get their energy, how they travel and what food they eat. But the best way to anyone to help stop climate change is to take collective action.