And of course there are all those weird people that try to convince you that climate change isn't real. They've made it their mission to sew doubt so that they can continue their destructive actions.
And it looks like they've taken this to new levels since this new weirdo has ended up pretending to be a president.
So this will be a pretty brief overview of climate change.
I'd better start with a brief description of climate change. People think it's the same thing as global warming, but they're not quite the same. Global warming is necessary for all life on the planet. It's the reason the planet has air and warmth.
Climate change has to do with the long-term (by long-term, I mean thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years) cycles of heating and cooling that the planet goes through.
It may be true that the planet is undergoing a natural cycle of heating. But humans are speeding this cycle up by a massive amount. The changes we are creating are so fast that many species will not be able to evolve alongside it.
And the more climate change progresses, the faster it will accelerate.
Now, what are the main problems that climate change will bring to our planet? These aren't just going to happen in the future. Some of them have already started.
When we burn fossil fuels (like coal, natural gas, and oil), we're releasing carbon and other materials that have been stored under the Earth's surface for countless thousands of years. In that time, life has evolved to deal with less carbon in the atmosphere. As we continue to pump more carbon into the air, it traps more heat. This leads to a change in the Earth's climate.
Climate change will lead to a greater frequency of weather disasters, and they will be more destructive.
In places where the temperature rises, insect populations can increase and spread, which would lead to disease outbreaks.
Temperature changes can harm countless species, both plant and animal. Some animals might try to move to cooler climates, for example by moving up a mountain toward the snow-covered peak. But there's only so far they can go before they run out of mountain. And there's no way a tree can get up and walk to a better place.
Warming temperatures also melt ice. A lot of creatures rely on ice. The iconic example are the polar bears, which require sea ice to hunt for food.
As more ice melts, the faster the temperature will rise. This is especially true for sea ice. Ice is white, so it reflects heat. As sea ice melts, it leaves behind the darker colored ocean. And that dark water absorbs more heat.
And of course when land ice melts, it causes the sea levels to rise. A lot of people live near the sea.
Sometimes communities try to build huge walls to protect buildings from the sea (buildings that were built far too close to the ocean to begin with). But these walls mean that all of the beaches in front of them disappear. Beaches are not only recreation, but also important habitat.
Let's look at some of the main causes of climate change.
Well, fossil fuels are the best known cause.
Most of our vehicles are powered by fossil fuels. Every time we drive, our cars blow greenhouse gases into the air.
Plane flights use enormous amounts of fossil fuels. Cruise ships are usually pretty bad too. And of course, the vehicles used in farming and mining rely on fossil fuels.
Public transportation, such as trains or buses, are much more efficient than cars driven by individuals. That's why it's so important to have good public transportation systems. Ours sucks pretty badly. But I am in love with the public transportation in Japan.
Agriculture has a number of different effects on climate change. There's the machinery that they use for planting, harvesting, processing, which generally runs off of fossil fuels.
And cattle generate a lot of methane, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
But perhaps most of all, a lot of agricultural land is located where forests used to be. Insane amounts of rain forests are cleared every day, and cattle and crops are put there instead. All that cleared forest means that there are fewer trees. Trees regulate our climate. They absorb carbon dioxide and send out oxygen. With fewer trees, forests can't process as much carbon dioxide as they should.
Trash is another source of greenhouse gasses.
Whether we burn it or let it decompose, it can release gasses and chemicals which can be bad for the air we breathe, and the rest of the atmosphere.
Other weird chemicals include ozone, which should not be in large concentrations near the ground. It belongs way above the earth's surface.
And then there are the chemicals that actually destroy the ozone layer.
Electricity isn't as much of a problem for greenhouse gasses as transportation is. But places that burn coal are sending huge amounts of pollutants into the air. These pollutants aren't only greenhouse gasses, but also gasses that lead to acid rain.
Burning natural gas for electricity also releases greenhouse gasses, but it's not nearly as bad as coal or oil.
Except the planet only increases its greenhouse gas emissions with each year.
Even if the growth of those emissions were to level off and become steady, that will not solve our problem. Just because the amount isn't increasing does not mean that it has stopped. If we want to stop climate change before it spirals out of control (we're already getting close to the point of no return), then we need to significantly decrease out greenhouse gas emissions.
How Would You Use this Topic in a story?
Some stories take place in the future, where climate change has run rampant (Ship Breaker, and many of this guy's other books). Weather disasters provide plenty of space to work with. Everything from hurricanes to drought.
Other stories show the effects of climate change in the present (Flight Behavior looks at how climate change hurts monarch butterflies). You could focus on any number of species that are harmed by climate change, like the polar bears.
Maybe you want to focus on sea level rise. The movie Waterworld took this to an extreme. But flooded cities, displaced people, all plenty to work with.
Maybe your characters are fighting for less polluting transportation solutions.
Climate change has so many impacts, and so many things potentially contribute to it that your imagination is the limit.
What stories have used this theme?
Ship Breaker (Bacigalupi)
Flight Behavior (Kingsolver)
The Day After Tomorrow
Wall-E
Waterworld
No comments:
Post a Comment