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Jane Blakelock
ENG 2100 30
March 14, 2016
Final Draft
Climate change and why we should be worried
Climate change is a term that people are hearing more and more
lately. Politics are based around it, world conferences are held over it,
and humans are the cause of it. The official definition of climate
change is a long-term change in the earth's climate, especially a
change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature. It
has a significant impact on not only ecosystems but economies and
communities as well. While support and proof of Climate change is not
sparse there are people who are strong deniers of climate change and
the effects it can cause.
When bringing up the topic of climate change it is almost
guaranteed to start a very intense conversation, but the facts stand
that the Earths environment is changing. We as humans have a duty
to understand and protect the Earth. Being top of the food chain
comes with responsibility, which includes understanding how we are
damaging the earth and the effects we are causing. We must educate
future generations and ourselfs on the effects so we can them to stop
them in the future; the goal is to minimize the damage as much as
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possible. The biggest way we are doing harm to the planet we live on
is by using way too much CO2.
Every country and every continent is feeling the effects of rising
CO2 level. CO2, know otherwise as carbon dioxide, is defined by the
Merriam-Webster dictionary as "a gas that is produced when people
and animals breathe out or when certain fuels are burned and that is
used by plants for energy" CO2 is naturally found in the environment.
The problem comes from humans releasing an abundance of CO2, so
much in fact that we are messing with earth's natural chemistry. As
CO2 rises so are sea levels, along with many ice caps shrinking,
glaciers retreating, ocean warming and acidification, global
temperatures rising, and an overall decreased snow cover. The danger
is grave.
The effects the climate change can cause are great not only in
number but severity. Average global temperatures start a domino
effect; essentially one major problem is leading to several other major
problems. When temperatures go up you get changing landscapes
meaning melting ice caps, this, in turn, causes rising sea levels, and
with sea levels higher you get an increase in stronger storms with more
damage. On the other hand with higher temperatures some areas of
the planets are going to see an increase the risk of drought, fire, and
floods, which will cause more heat-related illness, diseases, and death.
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teachers and 87% of high school biology teachers devote some class
time to climate change, which seems great because it means we are
education the youth to make changes in the future. However, nearly a
third of U.S. teachers who instruct on climate change say that the
phenomenon is likely caused by "natural causes" despite the fact that
more than 95% of climate scientists agree that humans have driven
global warming. This is a huge reason people deny climate changes.
They believe it to be a natural accruing phenomenon so when
scientists preach against the excessive use of co2's they just scoff and
call them crazy because they were taught it was not the case. It a
cycle that needs to be broken in order to have any hope of changing
the way we protect and serve the environment in the future. Young
generations of people are our future so we need to preach that change
is needed so they can be the ones to get the ball rolling.
Even if climate change was a myth what harm is coming from
wanting to keep the environment more clean and safe? If one believes
that we are not currently experiencing climate change than clearly with
current CO2 levels higher than ever and rising then they have to
believe we will be experiencing it in the future. Why are we damaging
the Earth so much? It's the one thing every human needs to survive,
and there is only one. It's non-Replaceable, so even if it could handle
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what were throwing at it now who's to say that in the future it will be
able too. Why do people deny a claim that wants to raise awareness to
save future generations from a decaying planet? The facts are when
you deny climate change you're denying the environment and that's
just something we can't afford to do.
Sources
Goldsby, M., & Koolage, W. J. (2015). Climate Modeling: Comments on
Coincidence, Conspiracy, and Climate Change Denial. Environmental
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