The Horrors of Climate Change
To most people when the word ‘horror’ come to mind, it will probably be horror films. However, personally when I think of horror. I think of climate change and the dangers that comes with it.
In layman's terms, climate change is the dissimilarity in the Earth’s global climate or in geographical climates over time. Climate change happens due to the changes in the conditions of the atmosphere over the years.
Some of the causes of climate change are movements inside the Earth, impacts from the Earth’s exterior and probably the most damaging – human activities.
As a whole, climate change causes damaging effects on animals, the environment and agriculture.
Firstly, the disruption of habitat is one of the major impacts of climate change. Habitat disruptions are frequently due to temperature changes and the availability of water. Thus, this affect the native vegetation and the wildlife that depend on it for food. Some animals that are affected the most includes polar bears, arctic foxes, caribous, pandas, green turtles, penguins and elephants.
Secondly, climate change affects the environment.
According to NASA, effects of the results of climate change that scientists had foreseen formerly are now transpiring. Those effects are loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more powerful heat waves.
Due to the rise in temperatures, it affects the functions of the environment. This means that the nutrient cycles are at a risk thus hurting soil fertility. Explicitly, as soils become dryer, it impacts the nitrogen and carbon concentrations which is the main elements for plant growth.
In addition, there is a huge possibility that landscapes are changing due to climate change. The rapid growth of pests is a result of the temperature changing. As regions grow warmer and warm periods last lengthier, some pests are breed more frequently.
The air quality is also affected by climate change. According to a study, more than half of the world’s population will be unprotected from progressively stagnant atmospheric conditions. This includes the tropics and subtropics enduring the harsh poor air quality.
Lastly, climate change cause impacts on agriculture. Agricultural activity is affected by increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the rise in temperatures and changed precipitations patterns. Effects of yearly and perennial crops varies but every production system will be affected to some extent. The span and quality of the growing season will be affected and the increasing concentration of drought, flooding and fires damages the harvests.
These are just a few impacts of climate change. And we as humans should keep doing our best to reduce the effects that it brings such as reducing our carbon footprints, investing in renewable and reminding others that climate change is real and it is our duty to save the earth.
