Consequences of Climate Change

Consequences of Climate Change

As the time humans have left to live on planet earth dwindles down, it is quite apparent that everyone is worried about climate change to some extent. Despite billions of lives being at stake, very few people have the willpower to actually take action. Plastic is filling our oceans, temperatures are rising, and resources are becoming more scarce due to the constantly increasing population. The root cause of all these issues is people failing to educate themselves. When most of the population does not even know that pizza boxes cannot be recycled, it seems that our world is doomed. However, if everyone decides to take action, climate change can be beaten.

There are two main myths that cause this inaction: the idea that climate change will not affect them personally or that there is nothing that they can do about it. Both of these myths are wrong. First of all, climate change will have a global effect so no matter where you reside, you will definitely feel the effects of climate change. For example, there will be an increase in natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, and cyclones. When the earth gets 4 degrees warmer, a majority of countries including part of the United States will turn into deserts. Secondly, there are plenty of things you can do about climate change!

At a glance it may seem that nothing can be done without large-scale government intervention, however, many things contribute to climate change. For example, whenever you recycle correctly, you are indirectly contributing to reducing climate change as recycling causes less manufacturing and more reusing which decreases emissions. Even simply reducing shower times by 2 minutes a day will save 342 pounds of carbon dioxide a year which really adds up in the long term.

All of these problems trace back to humans. The evidence has existed for decades, but humans chose to ignore it. They prioritized profits over environmental issues caused by policies. Even to this day, capitalism is causing lobbyists to prevent many environmentally friendly laws such as the ban on plastic and the promotion of electric cars.