Jodi Cisman
If a homeless man were standing on the corner of
a street as you were passing by, screaming "The world is coming to
an end!" would you believe him?
Movies set aside, most would try not to make eye contact and walk
by swiftly muttering, "He's crazy."
But what if this "insane" man's predictions came true? What if a
fire started in your own backyard because of a drought or if your
entire neighborhood was wiped out by a terrible monsoon one
night?
Global warming is no longer the problem of our future generations.
It is our problem.
Rising sea levels due to melting glaciers; droughts, monsoons,
wildfires and greenhouse gasses are all natural disasters that have
come to be known as not-so-natural.
How is something we can't control not natural? Its simple- these
actions have been on the rise because of the effect of our every
day lives on Mother Nature.
Whether it's a citizen's daily commute, running their clothes
through a dryer in the middle of the day, watering their lawn
during winter or even the kind of light bulbs they use, they have a
bigger impact on the environment then they are aware of.
In fact, the United States only makes up four percent of the
world's population but is responsible for an alarming 22 percent of
the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main culprit for our greenhouse gas
emissions. Earth is designed to hold just enough CO2 to create a
warm blanket, therefore allowing life to form.
With Americans pumping out millions of pounds of carbon every day
with our gas-guzzling cars and ruthless energy use, Mother Nature
was bound to lash back sometime.
There's always the skeptic who couldn't possibly make the
connection between them driving their car to work everyday and the
polar ice caps melting at alarming rates.
Anyone who's taken a science class in their lifetime knows that
heat melts ice. The more carbon released into the atmosphere,
causes more heat to be trapped which means glaciers act as ice in a
glass on a summer day in the Valley of the Sun.
But what most people don't realize is how much
carbon and even money they can save by carpooling with someone who
is taking the same route. In a year, it can save 1,590 pounds of
CO2 and hundreds of dollars.
Drastic climate changes aren't the only predictions in Earth's
crystal ball.
Insect-born diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and encephalitis
can be spread by mosquitoes and rodents who migrate to warmer
areas.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change
contributes to 150,000 extra deaths a year. With the climate
gradually getting worse, this number can easily be doubled in the
next 25 years.
Respiratory problems are also in the future due to high levels of
CO2 favoring the growth of ragweed and other pollen producers. The
amount of pollen produced rises with CO2 emissions and therefore
causes more asthma and allergy attacks.
For anyone living in Arizona with allergies or asthma, they might
not even be able to imagine it being any worse with all of the dust
and plants residing here.
This is the grim outlook of the world if people continue on the
careless path of believing it will never happen to them. Just when
we thought it couldn't get any worse, the advancement of our own
society is finally fighting back.
So do you have solutions for these problems?
