To put it simply, climate change is the long term change of temperature and weather patterns in an area. When we think climate change, we think the world is getting hot. True, but there is much more than that. Some signs of climate change include changing rain and snow patterns, stronger storms, higher temperatures, damaged corals, etc. Although weather can be caused by natural variability, human induced climate change is the main issue at hand.
When we burn fossil fuels, we are producing carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, into the air. This produces a greenhouse effect that makes the Earth warmer. Although these changing temperatures are not ideal, if you look at it from a realistic standpoint, what is going on will only continue at the same rate. Global warming can be reduced if we decrease global emissions of carbon dioxide, but sadly, that’s asking for a lot. Fossil fuels supply 80 percent of the world’s energy and are used to make plastic and steel. The production of gas is responsible for .3C of the 1C increase in global temperatures. As for oil, when burned, releases a third of the world’s total carbon emissions. To make matters worse, there have been numerous oil spills that have only been a detriment to the ocean’s ecosystem. The reason the ask for a decrease in global emissions is unrealistic is because we rely too much on these fossil fuels.
Thousands of jobs are supplied in the oil field because we rely on this production so much. Asking for a decrease will not only effect our GDP, but might cause thousands of people to lose their jobs. You might be thinking, well if global warming continues you aren’t just taking away jobs, you’re taking away lives. Fair point. I wish I could tell you that if we work together we can reduce these factors of climate change, but even if we do our best, the global temperature will remain at a constant of where it is at right now, which is already substandard.
Nobody wants to live in a world where weather patterns are getting worse, but sadly we do. No matter what stance you take on the topic, climate change is real. The big question is can we do something to stop it? Theoretically yes, realistically no.
