Although many critics won’t resist bringing up the incredibly long winter we just had when the topic of global warming comes up, the fact of the matter is that recent studies and news are definitely reporting the severe climate change occurring in our present and future.
The very-recently published National Climate Assessment, a.k.a. a comprehensive, government-backed report regarding the recent conditions of climate change in the United States, stresses that the public should start caring about this issue now, not putting it off for later.
According to the many scientists studying the phenomenon, what now is an average warming of about 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most of our nation (in the last century) could approach 10 degrees in the next century.
And aside from the slightly warmer national temperatures, the nation has been experiencing more drastic and noticeable effects in its weather patterns and ecology.
The report stated the existing effects of climate change in our nation: “Summers are longer and hotter, and extended periods of unusual heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced… Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours.”
And not only is the weather affected, but our country’s plant and animal species are changing along with the tide as well: “People are seeing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies, the plant varieties that thrive in their gardens, and the kinds of birds they see in any particular month in their neighborhoods.”
According to the New York Times, “It is the third national report in 14 years, and by far the most urgent in tone, leaving little doubt that the scientists consider climate change an incipient crisis.”
Along with the present, the future looks bleak as well. According to the report, “produced by scientists from academia, government and the private sector,” southern and western America will experience potential drying, droughts, increase in wildfires, and worsened farming conditions.
The northern part of our country and the east coast may witness a Hurricane Sandy-repeat, at greater risk of storms. With rising temperatures, a greater amount of vapor can be stored in the atmosphere to later be released as rain or snow. Rising sea-levels anywhere from 3 to 6 feet are also expected.
Alaska seems to be at the greatest risk, mimicking the arctic and melting at a faster pace, releasing methane into the atmosphere (due to melting permafrost).
Not only is this issue a concern nationally, it’s also a concern globally. In a report published by The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in March, scientists laid down the pressing truths that melting ice, heat waves, severe rain storms, dying coral reefs and sea-life, and extinction of several animal species are indicators of the harmful effects human activity has been reaping on our global environment.
Power plant emissions, car exhausts, and waste are all contributing to such drastic changes such as the acidification of our oceans and rising of water levels.
The world food and water supply is also being threatened, potentially signalling global problems to come involving interminable poverty and even violent antagonism over land, water, resources, and the like. American society and society all over the Earth will definitely change as the climate changes; economies and governments will be put under stress trying to deal with the future catastrophes that humans are helping to create for themselves right now.
President Obama, in an interview on NBC News, urged that “This is not some distant problem of the future. This is a problem that is affecting Americans right now.”
And to go even further, Rajendra K. Pachauri of the intergovernmental panel warned, “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.”
