Most people are aware of the chaos climate exchange is casting, but little does humanity worry about how far it can go. Climate change has been, and will continue to be, one of the biggest problems to solve for society. Its effect on the world has been evident, with it disrupting livestock, as well as producing harmful air pollutants that have a substantial effect on the air humans breathe. It has also been proven that climate change makesthe ocean more acidic, which affects marine resources that feed billions of people.
The question is, will climate change make the world uninhabitable?
Climate change occurs when greenhouse gas emissions trap heat within the earth, mostly coming from the burning of fossil fuels. However, fossil fuels are an essential part of daily life, as they power engines and produce electricity, so their usage has seen a huge increment in the past years, as humans take advantage of their efficiency.
In 2022, the United States consumed an average of about 20.28 million barrels of petroleum per day, or a total of about 7.4 billion barrels of petroleum, which is a form of fossil fuels. With climate change comes the rise in temperature, which especially affects marine life. The possibility of marine and coastal ecosystems being permanently lost increases with rising temperatures.
Widespread changes have been noticed today, including species migration to higher latitudes and altitudes where the water may be cooler, as well as harm to coral reefs and mangroves that support marine life. On top of that, the United Nations predicts that more than half of marine species could become extinct by 2100 due to global warming, with 70% to 90% of coral reefs lost.
Climate change is not only affecting wildlife, but also humans themeselves, with temperature fluctuations affecting the frequency of natural disasters. Accordingly, the likelihood of more droughts and worse storms will likely grow with rising global surface temperatures.
More water vapor evaporating into the sky provides fuel for storms to grow stronger. Wind speeds in tropical storms may rise as a result of rising atmospheric temperatures and increasing ocean surface temperatures. Rising sea levels reveal higher places that are normally shielded from the sea’s power and its erosive currents and waves. For people under harsh living conditions, this could mean the destruction of their home, and even possible health risks.
As to how it affects human interaction, it has proven to disrupt internet availability, with climate changebeing one of the main reasons for power outages. With power outages, even power lines can become damaged and lead to long delays when restoring power. Extended outages impact entire communities and can even affect the economy when power is unavailable to large areas of the population.
Though most of the world seems to have the capability to resist climate change for decades, or even centuries to come, according to NASA, some parts of the world will be uninhabitable by 2050 due to climate change. Mostly small islands on the ocean are affected, but also some iconic places such as the Maldives will accordingly be completely covered by the rising sea level by 2050.
While some major organizations have been working to alleviate the consequences that come from climate change, it has still proven to be a growing complication for the world. An Example of companies responding to the crisis is Tesla, a company that produces electric cars, not powered by fossil fuels. With electric cars gaining attention, they emit fewer greenhouse gasses and air pollutants than petrol or diesel cars. And this takes into account their production and electricity generation to keep them running.
Climate change will keep being a concern if people don’t come together to fight it. It is important that we all recognize how climate change is affecting our lives and take action to curtail the effects if we don’t want climate change to end the world.
