#vol 2: Effects of Climate Change on our Planet?
Effects of Climate Change.
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Hey Friends,
Trust you had a great week?
Climate Change is a huge topic, I’m trying my best not to make this boring to read, just bear with me!
To understand this topic better, let’s compare this two planets Earth and Venus, both are essentially the same size, both of them are not too far from the sun and also both have the same amount of Carbon. The difference is that overtime on Earth, the carbon has been trapped in the earth subsurface in the form of coal, oil, natural gas whereas on Venus most of the carbon is in the atmosphere, the difference is that on Earth the average temperature is around 50 degrees, whereas on Venus it is around 850 degrees, not just because it is slightly closer to the sun, Mercury is the closest to the sun and is around three (3) times cooler than Venus.
I’m sure you got that so let me give a quick summary of the last letter;
Since you all know we have come a long way since the industrial revolution, through our curiosity of making life easier for us; we have built airplanes, faster cars, developed remarkable technologies and learned how the natural resources around us can be used for our own human benefits.
Although all this has led to many wonderful inventions and advancements on our planet like the device you are using to read this letter or the ability to move quickly around the world, it also means we have increased our consumption of natural resources and in turn release a lot of “green house gases” into the atmosphere. Click here to read the last letter.
Now that we’ve understood the subject Climate Change and the factors behind the rapid increase of the earth temperature, Let’s talk about some of it’s effect we are seeing around us;
Warmer temperatures makes weather more extreme, this means not only are we going to experience more intense major storms, floods and heavy snowfall but also longer and more frequent drought, these changes in weather pose a lot of challenges. It’s been predicted that millions of people are likely to surfer worsening food and water shortages. Madagascar an island nation in southern Africa is currently facing its worst drought in 40 years, caused by years of failed rains and intensified by a series of sandstorms and locust attacks. Some parts of Europe are experiencing colder temperatures than the Arctic.
One of climate changes biggest victims is our oceans, oceans regulates the earth temperature and provide 50% of the earth’s oxygen, now climate change has increased the global temperature of the ocean by more than .3 (point three) degrees Fahrenheit since 1969 and this has devastating consequences for life at sea, one of those consequences is ocean acidification, this is putting the entire ocean food web at risk, and this is bad news for the 1 billion people relying on the ocean as it’s primary source of protein.
Sea levels are rising about three (3) millimeters a year, melting ice sheets and glaciers add trillions of tons of freshwater into our ocean which causes sea levels to rise, leading to extra water spilling out of the ocean and flooding coastal regions. People around the world are already losing their homes, and if things carry on, millions more of us will have to pack up to. Entire coastal cities like Lagos, Nigeria and Miami in the United States could be underwater within 80 years, Island countries in the pacific like Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Zealand could completely disappear.
Other troubling signs of climate change are increased weather events like Smog, this is because smog contains ozone particles which increase rapidly at higher temperatures, exposure to higher levels of smog can cause health problems such as; Asthma, Lung cancer etc. Natural disasters like flood, tornadoes, and deadly heat waves are more obvious to humans because of their immediate impact.
I hope you enjoyed reading, to be continued next week!
Have a nice weekend!
Faith.
My Favourite Things This Week
Recently, I have been reading and watching videos about our forefathers and how living and survival was for them. I came across this article about how civilization started in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq, Kuwait and Syria) and their earliest inventions, click here to check it out.
Video Of The Week
A simple and well explained video on the topic Climate Change!
Quote of the Week
No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than Climate Change.
-Barack Obama.
Yea
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