Climate Change 101

What Is Global Climate Change

Climate change is a long-term shift in temperature and weather patterns. So, global climate change is climate change, but on a larger scale, outside of our local community. Some shifts in climate change are natural occurrences, but recently most of them are consequences of human actions. Since the 1880s, climate change’s main driving force has been humans and human activity. One primary example of human activity causing climate change is burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas, because they produce heat trapping gasses.

Factors That Cause Climate Change

There are five main factors that cause climate change. These causes include fossil fuels, deforestation, increases in livestock farming, fertilizers containing nitrogen, and fluorinated gasses. Fossil fuels are extracted from the ground by either mining or drilling and they are natural fuels that were formed in the past by dead living organisms such as plants and animals. The main types of fossil fuels are coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Deforestation is the removal or clearing of a wide area of trees and other plants. Deforestation has increased now more than ever to clear land for non-forest like uses, such as farmland, houses or commercial buildings. Increases in livestock farming depreciates climate change through the emission of methane and nitrous oxide. Fertilizers containing nitrogen not only affect climate change, but also the environment around where it was used. These fertilizers can be harmful to certain plant species, deplete soil nutrients, cause fish and other aquatic organisms to die as a result of runoff, and can contaminate drinking water. Finally, fluorinated gasses are a family of gasses that contain the element fluorine. They are man-made greenhouse gasses that trap heat in the atmosphere, which inturn contributes to global warming. All of these causes contribute to rising temperatures and manipulate the major effects of climate change that we see in our world today!

How Does This Affect Us & The Planet

Climate change is going to affect anyone and everyone around the Earth, not to mention future generations. With the effects of climate change, it will be harder to enjoy the world we live in. We will experience hotter temperatures, warming and rising oceans, and droughts that will be detrimental to species who can not adapt fast enough. There will also be more severe storms that could tear apart our homes and infrastructure we’ve spent generations creating. Even little things like coffee will become harder to access and it may be harder to find clean water. Climate change also makes clean, fresh air scarcer and in short supply. This fate that is no longer so distant is preventable, but it is up to us to make the changes necessary.

Solutions

It may seem like you as an individual can do very little to rally the globe towards change, but there are many ways to reduce your ecological footprint and help save the Earth from climate change. Firstly, you can save energy by using LED light bulbs and doing laundry with cold water. These are easy edits that you wouldn't even think about. You can also make an effort to rethink your methods of transportation. Meaning you could walk or bike instead of driving, use public transportation, switch to an electric car, and simply consider more environmentally friendly ways of traveling. Next, you can invest in sustainable food sources, this includes