Throughout history, the world’s climate has progressively changed. According to NASA, the earth has gone through seven cycles of glacial advancement and retreatment within the last 650,000 years. The cyclical event abruptly ended at the end of the last age, some 7,000 years ago, acting as a starting point for not only the modern climate era, but also of human civilization.
Satellites and other modern technologies are orbiting earth, and recording visual data regarding the world’s climate that enables scientists to observe the planet in a larger, holistic scale. Scientists have stated they’ve observed signals of climate change.
To further strengthen their hypothesis, scientists have drawn ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers to show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. These ice cores also show that in the past, large changes in climate have happened very quickly. According to these studies, scientists have concluded that, geologically-speaking, the climate changes we are experiencing now, have happened in tens of years, not in millions or even thousands, but within the last decade.Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier in the year.
Much of the earth’s heat has been absorbed by the oceans. The top 700 meters, about 2,300 feet, of ocean have grown warmer by 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since the year 1969.
In response to the warming oceans, NASA’s Gravity and Recovery Climate Experiment show Greenland has lost as much as 60 cubic miles of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, and Antarctica has lost 36 cubic miles of ice between 2002 and 2005. In 2006, the AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported, “The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.”
Oceans also act as a sponge for carbon dioxide. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, 1712, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by 30 percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting significant doses of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, hence more carbon dioxide being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is rapidly increasing. The ocean is absorbing about 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. The American Chemical Society stated in 2004, “Comprehensive scientific assessments of our current and potential future climates clearly indicate that climate change is real, largely attributable to emissions from human activities, and potentially a very serious problem.”
According to whitehouse.gov, “The United States is leading global efforts to address the threat of climate change. Since 2005, the United States has reduced its total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. Wind power has tripled, and energy from the sun has increased tenfold. President Obama has taken a series of common-sense steps to curb carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases through initiatives that drive energy efficiency, promote clean energy, and put in place the first-ever carbon pollution standards for power plants.” However, this progress may be halted or regressed due to president elect Donald Trump’s views and future actions on climate change, such as dismantling the Paris agreement, which is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance starting in the year 2020.
Despite all the physical and scitenfic evidence of global climate change, 46% of the worlds population don’t believe global climate change is occurring. However, when given this evidence by NASA, and observing the visuals of the worlds climate, I find it hard to believe that anybody can believe current global climate change can be a hoax. According to pew research.org, “A global median of 51% say climate change is already harming people around the world, while another 28% believe it will do so in the next few years.”
Let’s not let our arrogance harm our neighbors and wild species that rely on the ocean, and other natural lands. Let’s combat this progressive regression of natural land masses and animals. To do so, we can use less energy; install a solar panel, turn the lights for other technologies off when they don’t have to be used, use energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, recycle, reduce waste, etc. In a world of consumers, we’re not only consuming goods and products, but also the natural world around us.
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