Climate Change Editoral

*Cough cough*

Devastating storms, endless floods, burning summers, all of this could become a reality if we continue to burden our Earth with smog and CO2. The burning of fossil fuels and other natural resources has taken quite a toll on our fair planet. The gasses being released have created an increase in the greenhouse gasses of our atmosphere, which in turn could trap more heat than normal. The hear energy coming from the sun comes into the atmosphere, and then it bounces back into space. However, the greenhouse gassed present in our atmosphere trap and hold in the heat. With too much of these gasses, more hear will be held in, and could eventually change our climate dramatically. But, we still have some hope that we can stop this. In fact, lots of human related things have been setting this “global warming” into motion. If we continue to use the evildoers called ‘coal and oil power plants,’ these effects could be irreversible. More than 40% of the electricity needs of America are met by coal power plants.

Our planet has been experiencing lots of unwanted effects due to the recent production of CO2. Permafrost has been thawing much sooner, the mid and high latitude growing seasons have been expanding because of less time a year it being cold, and plant and animal habitat ranges have been moving pole ward because of the different temperatures making the species think that the climate that they are in is not the correct temperature. Animal and plant species have been diminishing too, trees are flowering earlier, insects are emerging earlier, and birds have been laying eggs earlier, all because of the increase in temperature. Another thing is that in the next 100 years, the temperature of Earth could raise 2.5 to 10.4 degrees F. This is assuming of course that no major actions are done to prevent it. This is likely however, considering that we’ve known about this for a long time but still nothing has been done. There will also be many agricultural losses from the continuation of this. Different weather patterns and temperatures, water stress, and sea level rise are all factors that shall take a toll on our agriculture. This isn’t just going to affect the plants and animals that share the Earth with us, this is going to affect US more than anything. We depend on lots of things that the Earth provides us with, and now it’s all going away as our planet changes in ways that would have been seen as preposterous if ever mentioned 300 years ago or earlier.

However, we can still stop this occurrence, despite the many effects already happening. Coal and oil power plants are far too abundant. We need to use a more reliable energy source. 40% of all power plants in the USA are coal power plants. We absolutely have to act now. Do anything you can to conserve energy, like turn down the thermostat, turn off light if you aren’t using them, and don’t drive cars everywhere. There are so many things we can be doing to help this worldwide crisis, and yet we still overlook them. What we’re doing today about this situation is sickening. Stop procrastinating to stop procrastinating!

Brandt P.