Kyle Gransee
Burke
ENG2-7
3/5/19
With the exponential growth of the human population, consequences will drag along
with its booming populace. One of those major effects include climate change, driven by
the excessive carbon dioxide release through human activities such as respiration and
burning. The long-term effects of climate change will forever tamper Earth’s oceans and
ecosystems, as repercussions will follow through agriculture, seasons, and precipitation
patterns. Although some may argue climate change is not caused by humans, the
residue left by climate change will impact the planet for generations to come with vast
gains of global sea levels, and the consecutive increase of droughts and heatwaves and
their intensities.
As a result of climate change, global sea levels will rise credited by the melting of ice
caps and land ice. According to NASA, “sea level will rise 1-4 feet by 2100” and in the
next several decades, “storm surges and high tides could combine with sea level rise
and land subsidence to further increase flooding in many regions” (“How climate is
changing”). The rise of global sea levels would threaten infrastructure in urban coastal
settings, including locals and regional industries. In the United States, approximately 40
percent of the population lives in areas of coastal areas with high population densities,
leaving millions dependent upon roads, power and sewage treatment plants, and other
facilities vulnerable to the backlash of climate change if sea levels rise. In an organic
setting, “rising sea level creates stress on coastal ecosystems that provide recreation,
protection from storms, and habitat for fish and wildlife, including commercially valuable
fisheries” (“Climate Change: Global Sea Level”). The loss of coastal ecosystems and
aquatic habitats will disrupt food webs in environments. With less fish, fisheries will go
out of business providing a shortage of jobs, and protection from storms granted by
reefs will disappear. As credited by climate change, the melting of glacial masses
proves climate change acts as an imminent concern which may seriously alter Earth
with time granted.
In addition to the global rise of sea levels, the increase of heatwave plus drought
intensity and prevalence makes climate change a serious concern worldwide.
Projections depict summer temperature to continue rising, with both heatwaves and
droughts in the Southwest “to become more intense, and cold waves less intense
everywhere” (“How climate is changing”). Culminating from an escalation of dry climate,
days of extreme heat will occur more frequently as soil moisture drops. Human health
will deplete, as the elderly and young children struggle against extreme heat; agriculture
and livestock battle from high temperatures leading to heat stress and particular
damage. Energy demands will skyrocket because of high demand for air conditioning to
cool down from blazing hot weather. In terms of labor, heatwaves and drought have the
same catastrophic effect as part of climate change. Extreme heat plays a dominant role
in daily life of many people: “Millions of people living in the United States work primarily
outdoors—construction workers, police officers, farm workers, military personnel,
roofers, postal workers, landscapers, and others—and are at risk of heat stress when
temperatures soar” (“Heat Waves and Climate Change: What the Science Tells Us
About Extreme Heat Events”). As stated, millions of people stand at risk of the acute
and chronic impacts of prolonged, intense heat exposure by cause of climate change.
The gradually increasing severity and popularity of extreme heat credited by climate
change raises massive concerns among human populations worldwide.
Although some may claim the catastrophic effects of climate change appear not
standing as human-induced, contradicting evidence suggesting human-caused climate
change correlates with direct measurements of ice core measurements of carbon
dioxide. The scientific evidence claims, “the current warming trend is of particular
significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability)
to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate
that is unprecedented over decades to millennia” (“Climate change: How do we
know?”). Just before human civilization, seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat has
subsisted, displaying consistent carbon dioxide levels, before precipitously ending at the
start of the modern era of the human era. With the evidence provided, previously
recorded atmospheric carbon levels heavily contrast a natural explanation for extremely
rich carbon dioxide level as seen today. Definitively, causes of human-induced climate
change abide as prevalent and backed by legitimate scientific evidence denying any
circumstance where it would occur as a natural cause.
To conclude, the burdens of climate change make it an impending disaster to occur if
not prevented in time. The rising of global sea levels and extreme heat consequences of
heatwaves and droughts provide much to worry about for the rest of this century and the
next. With millions of people of all ages at threat to the resentment of climate change, it
gives everybody a reason to worry for its imminent consequences, gradually occurring
right now.