Climate Change is Happening
Most don't want to believe that climate change is happening, but scientists have come to the conclusion that global warming is happening at a steady rate now. In Siberia, the permafrost layer is now starting to melt. Permafrost contains "75 times more carbon than is released by burning fossil fuel around the entire planet for an entire year," says ABC News. If the permafrost melts all that carbon will be released into the atmosphere which will warm our planet. The melting of the permafrost is not something that is going to happen in a year or even ten years at that, it will take centuries for it all to melt. But this is still a problem that we have to face now. The melting of the permafrost is not only limited to Siberia either. In Alaska, the permafrost is melting as well.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that in the next century the global temperature will rise 2.5-10 degrees Fahrenheit. There are some hazardous global changes happening on our planet today. In the United States, there is decreased snowpack in the mountains and an increased frequency of heat waves. In Latin America, there has been significant changes in water availability and loss of biodiversity due to animal extinction. In Europe, there has been an increase in flash floods and an increase in erosion from storms and sea level rise. In Africa, the IPCC has predicted that "by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to increased water stress." In Asia, the coastal regions will have an increase potential for flooding and there will be an increase in diseases due to flooding and droughts. If global warming keeps up at this rate these hazards we wont be able to stop.
Another sign that climate change is happening now is the warming of water temperatures which damages the coral reefs.The loss of coral reefs means a loss of diversity of fish. Although coral reefs can comeback from dying off, many do not. "By and large, reefs have collapsed catastrophically just in the three decades that I've been studying them," said Nancy Knowlton, a marine biology professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. The devastation of coral reefs is leaving some fish species extinct in local regions.
These factors are sure signs for us that global warming is happening now. Many believe that global warming is not happening now cause it still feels like just as cold of a winter or just as hot summers. But even though in your area you may not be affected, the effects of climate change are showing up across the globe. The icebergs are melting at an astounding rate, much faster than they ever have before. The permafrost in Siberia is slowly disappearing and coral reefs and the fish that live there are all becoming extinct. If climate change stays at this rate we will not be able to take our actions back.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that in the next century the global temperature will rise 2.5-10 degrees Fahrenheit. There are some hazardous global changes happening on our planet today. In the United States, there is decreased snowpack in the mountains and an increased frequency of heat waves. In Latin America, there has been significant changes in water availability and loss of biodiversity due to animal extinction. In Europe, there has been an increase in flash floods and an increase in erosion from storms and sea level rise. In Africa, the IPCC has predicted that "by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to increased water stress." In Asia, the coastal regions will have an increase potential for flooding and there will be an increase in diseases due to flooding and droughts. If global warming keeps up at this rate these hazards we wont be able to stop.
Another sign that climate change is happening now is the warming of water temperatures which damages the coral reefs.The loss of coral reefs means a loss of diversity of fish. Although coral reefs can comeback from dying off, many do not. "By and large, reefs have collapsed catastrophically just in the three decades that I've been studying them," said Nancy Knowlton, a marine biology professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. The devastation of coral reefs is leaving some fish species extinct in local regions.
These factors are sure signs for us that global warming is happening now. Many believe that global warming is not happening now cause it still feels like just as cold of a winter or just as hot summers. But even though in your area you may not be affected, the effects of climate change are showing up across the globe. The icebergs are melting at an astounding rate, much faster than they ever have before. The permafrost in Siberia is slowly disappearing and coral reefs and the fish that live there are all becoming extinct. If climate change stays at this rate we will not be able to take our actions back.