Climate Change and Our Future

Good day everyone

It's a beautiful day here and a perfect day to discuss world issues as they affect humanity.

source

Climate change is the world leading environmental challenge facing mankind. The severity of climate change has started showing in major aspects of the world from food supply, agriculture, natural disasters especially relating to weather, diseases spread, flooding to mention but a few.

What is climate change?

Climate change is the alteration of the climatic pattern of a place (globally or regionally) from the normal that is mostly engineered or accelerated by human activities.
Human activities like the use of fossil fuels is increasing the rate of climate change. It has been predicted that if the trend continues, the global average temperature will increase by a whopping 2.4 degree at the close of this century (2100).

Impacts of climate change

One of the impact is the increase in the intensity of extreme weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes as seen in the some parts of the world. Also, some regions will become more dry such that inhabitating such places will be extremely difficult while other places will experience more and intense rainfall which will result in flooding especially of the coastal communities.
Furthermore, due to temperature increase, more glaciers in the polar region continue to melt thereby increasing the volume of water in the coastal regions which ultimately leads to more flooding in coastal areas.
The increased temperature also increases the intensity and frequency of wildfires.

The change in climate also impacts on agriculture and food supply such that famine results. In terms of health, tropical diseases due to the changing climate also result in the spread of disease causing organisms like mosquitoes to other regions due to the conducive environment created by the changing climate.

What can we do to lessen the impacts of climate change as individuals and government?

Individuals and governments have a role to play in the fight against climate change. Climate change is a normal process on the surface of the earth. However, if the rate is faster than the rate humans can adapt to it, it is capable of significantly impacting human survival on Earth now and in the future.

As individuals, change in the energy consumption in our various homes and workplaces can lessen the rate of climate change as lesser greenhouse gases will be emitted. Individuals can also engage in tree planting activities. Trees are natural sink for carbon dioxide the major greenhouse gas released through consumption of fossil fuels

Government on their part can come together to cut down on greenhouse gases emissions through joint implementation, giving incentives. The 2015 Paris agreement was signed by the parties to the conference to drastically reduce emissions. The November 2021 climate conference in the UK also saw countries coming together to sign agreement towards putting global temperature below 1.5 degrees.

The fight against climate change is a collective process which need the effort of everyone on earth. No effort is too small. We have a responsibility to give to the future generation a better and more habitable planet and it starts with you and I.
Have a great day everyone