climate change

Climate change is a familiar topic, but there are many aspects that people may not understand. Greenhouse gases play a role in climate change, trapping heat in the atmosphere. While some greenhouse gases are necessary for life, emissions have been increasing, primarily due to fossil fuels and deforestation. This has led to melting glaciers and rising sea levels, causing flooding and displacement of people. Some argue that preventing climate change is impossible, but investing in prevention would actually save money in the long run. Emissions trading, tech sharing, reducing deforestation, and supporting poor countries are key elements in preventing climate change. It is not impossible to stop climate change, and individuals, governments, and the global community can take action to make a difference. Climate change is a topic that we're all familiar with. We hear about it on social media, we hear about it in the news, and all over the place. However, there's a lot of words and things and topics within climate change that are kind of unfamiliar to a lot of people, and that's what I want to talk about today. But one of the basic things that we hear a lot when talking about climate change is about greenhouse gases. And to really understand greenhouse gases and what they are, you have to understand what the greenhouse effect is. If you look at a greenhouse for plants, it's a big glass building where there are a lot of different plants and gardens and things like that. And essentially, the glass traps in the solar energy, warming up the greenhouse, making it a place for plants to live. And the atmosphere has a very similar effect as the glass of the greenhouse does on the earth. And so greenhouse gases are gases that are effective in trapping heat. And these include H2O, methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and a variety of different gases that contain fluoride. And greenhouse gases in and of themselves are not inherently bad. For example, H2O, that's not bad, and we actually need greenhouse gases for the earth to be a livable place. Without greenhouse gases, there wouldn't be water, and the earth would be a lot colder. However, in recent years, the emissions of greenhouse gases have been alarming. In the last 45 years worldwide, carbon dioxide emissions specifically have doubled. And the US and China alone are responsible for nearly half of the CO2 or carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. And there's a lot of different things that contribute to carbon dioxide emissions, but the two biggest ones are fossil fuels and deforestation. Fossil fuels are another one of those words we hear thrown around a lot, but fossil fuels is a very basic generic term for non-renewable energy sources. This includes coal, natural gases, crude oil, and things like that sort. And these derive from plants and animals decomposing plants and animals found in the earth's crust. And essentially, once these are used, there's no getting them back. And deforestation is exactly what it sounds like. However, this releases carbon dioxide because as a living tree is cut down, it releases all the carbon that it stores. And this has had some impacts on the earth and on climate change specifically. And one of the big ones that we hear a lot about is the melting of glaciers, right? Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate as the earth is warming up. And Arctic ice has decreased and is half as thick and half as expansive as it was 30 years ago. And the melting of this ice in these glaciers is increasing sea levels. In the past century, sea levels worldwide have increased about six to eight inches. And this has increased flooding, but there's also a lot of future impacts as a cause of sea levels rising. It is expected that by 2050, sea levels are expected to rise 75 centimeters. And this can have very dramatic flooding impacts on places such as South Florida or Pakistan, just to name a few. And while it's expected to continue to affect the earth in the future, it also has already had significant effects on the earth. For example, the South Island of Tuvulu has announced that they are abandoning their homeland due to flooding and the rise of sea level, and they're fleeing to New Zealand. And this is displacing about 11,000 residents. And still with all of this, there are a lot of different arguments made about climate change, about if it's real, how to approach this in the future and things of the sort. And one of the common arguments, at least that I've heard, is that preventing climate change is not possible, that it's really expensive and not possible. However, it is expected that the U.S. could spend about $500 billion a year on damages caused by climate change. And $500 billion, that's a lot of money. However, preventing climate change and pouring money into preventing climate change would actually save the U.S. alone a lot of money. For example, if the U.S. were to invest $1 today in preventing climate change, by the end of the century, they would have saved $20. So if the U.S. were to invest $500 billion now, by the end of the century, it would save them $10 trillion because the cost up front to prevent climate change is significantly cheaper than the cost to repair the damages caused by climate change. And in order to prevent climate change, there are a lot of different ideas, a lot of different things that can be done. But there are four key elements to climate change prevention worldwide. And the first one is something called emissions trading. And emissions trading would treat CO2 emissions just like any other commodity for businesses. So essentially, in an area, businesses would have a cap on the amount of CO2 emissions that they are allowed to release in a set period of time. And this cap would slowly over time decrease, but companies could trade or sell their CO2 emissions that they are allotted to other companies. And this would affect a cost-effective way of diminishing the amount of CO2s that we are emitting. The next one is tech sharing. And so this would double the research on clean energy and spread technology to developing countries, helping reduce climate change. The next one is the reduction of deforestation, as we know that deforestation is one of the greatest causes of CO2 emissions. And last is to help poor countries, help them offset climate change, help them deal with the impacts of climate change and things of the sort. So while the effects and the damages that can be caused by climate change are pretty dramatic, it's not impossible to stop climate change. There are many things that we can do on an individual, global, governmental basis to help prevent future climate change.