Adam McKay’s recent movie ‘’Don’t Look Up'’ tells a real life civil disobedience story, as we live in a society that allows us to bypass scientific facts and ignore the threat of our own self-destruction for short-term gains. Ice functions as a barrier between the Earth and our seas. These dazzling white patches reflect heat away from the planet, keeping it colder. Because more heat from the sun is bounced off the ice and back into space, the Arctic remains cooler than the equator.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Fashion contributes around 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, but there are methods to lessen your wardrobe's environmental effect. The shocking figures speak for themselves. In 2018, the worldwide garment and footwear business emitted more CO2 than France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined, totalling 2.1 billion tonnes. This implies that unless we accelerate our efforts to limit fashion's effect over the next 10 years, emissions are expected to climb to 2.7 billion tonnes per year by 2030.
Melting glaciers
Many glaciers throughout the world have been quickly melting since the early 1900s; human actions cause this phenomenon. Since the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions have increased global temperatures, especially at the poles, causing glaciers to quickly melt, calve into the sea, and recede on land. Even if emissions are drastically reduced in the coming decades, more than a third of the world's remaining glaciers will disappear by 2100. When it comes to sea ice, 95% of the Arctic's oldest and thickest ice has already disappeared. According to scientists, if emissions continue to grow uncontrolled, the Arctic may be ice-free in the summer by 2040 if ocean and air temperatures continue to climb at their current rates.
But what are the effects of melting ice caps? NASA has tried to warn us for many decades:
“Every day that we continue to expand the fossil fuel industry and add more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is going to lock in additional levels of heating in the future,” -Dr Kalmus
Melting glaciers contribute to increasing sea levels, which increases coastal erosion and storm surges when air and ocean temperatures rise, resulting in more frequent and stronger coastal storms such as hurricanes and typhoons. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, in particular, are the most significant contributors to the global sea-level increase. Greenland's ice sheet is melting four times faster than it was in 2003, accounting for 20% of current sea level increase. How much and how rapidly these ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melt in the future will decide how much ocean levels rise. The present pace of melting on the Greenland ice sheet is anticipated to quadruple by the end of the century if emissions continue to climb. Greenland's ice sheet would melt completely, raising global sea levels by 20 feet.
It’s our planet and our story
Am I right to think that we are in the midst of a climate catastrophe, and the consequences are already being felt throughout the globe? Climate change is clearly not a future concern, but a present reality, as evidenced by extreme heatwaves, devastating flash floods, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. Changing our minds before doing is no longer an option; after all, action breeds action. We must do everything we can right now.