By Fredrica Syren:
Well, we’ve heard it before: climate change is here, and it’s our fault, the U.N’s panel on Climate Science said on Sunday. So nothing new was reported, considering the findings in the last three reports released during the past 13 months. However, I agree that it needs to be discussed, and brought up again and again to make a point: we need to make drastic changes to combat global warming or we’re in trouble.
The panel pointed out that emissions, mainly from fossil fuels, need to be reduced to zero by the end of this century for any hopes of keeping temperatures from rising to the abnormal levels we have experienced in many parts of the world lately, posing a grave danger to humans, animals and the environment. We already can see the impact of global warming in rising sea levels, a warmer and acidic ocean, melting glaciers and Arctic Sea ice, and intense heat waves that are becoming more frequent. U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the release of the report that the time is now for world leaders to act.
We already have the tools and technology to make the change toward a low-emission world. We just need the will to break our addiction to oil, coal and gas that today mostly powers the global energy systems, causing pollution in the atmosphere and greenhouse gasses.
I think we already see a small change because fewer scientists today are challenging the thought that global warming is man-made (which is good news). We need everyone working together to make the change. I think that we need all world leaders to set a goal for their country to stop using the economy as an excuse for not doing so. The fact is that global warming effects everyone, and it’s NOT cheap.
