The issue of Climate Change, also known as Global Warming, has been plaguing not just the United States, but all the countries and people of the world. If there isn’t a concentrated effort on the part of all governments and the people who they govern to stop or minimize it, the planet and the people that live upon it could be thrown into total chaos.

Doomsday Scenario

No doubt, you’ve wondered what our future would be if nothing is done about Climate Change. Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration (BNCCR), an independent think tank in Australia, wonders too. The group has studied the consequences of climate change if nothing is done to stop it.

Scientists believe that the results of doing nothing will begin in 2050.

According to the BNCCR, the main reason for the catastrophe is due to mankind’s inability to cut greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are expected to peak in 2030 and begins to decrease due to a drop in the use of fossil fuels. However, it’s too late, the damage has been done. Global warming reaches 37.4°F (3°C).

As a result, by 2050 ocean levels will rise 1.6 feet and is expected to rise to as much as 10 feet by 2100.

A little more than half the population of the world lives in locations that suffer more than 20 days of high temperatures that is beyond the threshold where humans can survive.

Meanwhile, in North America severe weather including wildfires, heat waves, droughts, and flooding afflict the continent. The Midwest and Southeast of the United States experience an increase in the intensity of storms as well as fiercer Weather that disrupt farming, and causes flooding and damaged businesses and homes. The population of the western states experience more drought and wildfires.

In China, there are no summer monsoons. As a result, water in the rivers of Asia is severely diminished because of the loss of more than one-third of the ice sheet in the Himalayan Mountains.

The ecosystems of the coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest fail, causing a major reduction of the fish population as well as severe rain events.

More than a billion people are forced out of their homes in West Africa, tropical South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia due to extreme heat conditions that render the territories unlivable.

Water shortages affect two million people around the world. Food production declines by one-fifth and droughts, heat waves, floods and storms destroy crops.

Many of the most populous cities located on coasts including Mumbai, Jakarta, Canton, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Lagos, Bangkok, and Manila are overwhelmed by rising ocean levels, making many of them or at least part of them uninhabitable.
All of this leads to wars for control of needed resources.

This describes a future that is nothing less than an apocalypse. However, if the world governments start taking a stand to limit Climate Change all of this could be avoided.

What Is Climate Change

Although the actions of mankind have been blamed for climate change, it is something that has occurred during the history of earth when people couldn’t have caused the problem.

In the last 650,000 years, for example, there has been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat. The end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago designated the beginning of the modern climate period and the appearance of human civilization.

Changes in the earth’s orbit that affected the amount of solar energy the planet had received are blamed for these early changes in the climate.

However, since the mid-20th Century extreme changes in the climate has mostly been blamed on human activity.

Satellites and other technologies have assisted scientists in recent years to gather a plethora of data about the planet and climate. The studies that have stemmed from these technologies have shown evidence of a changing climate.

These changes have been attributed to the capture of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere of earth that has cause a greenhouse effect – a warming of temperature similar to what occurs in a greenhouse. The greenhouse affect is what has caused temperatures to rise and it has been blamed on human activity.

Gases That Contribute To The Greenhouse Effect

A number of gases contribute to the greenhouse effect, some of which cannot be blamed on the actions of mankind and some that can. These gases include:

• Water Vapor, Clouds, and Precipitation – The most abundant of the greenhouse gases, water vapor increases as the atmosphere warms. However, clouds and participation also contribute to the temperature rise.
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – A minor element, but an important part of the earth’s atmosphere is carbon dioxide. It is generated through natural activity including human and animal respiration, volcanoes. Human activity also causes it including deforestation, changes in the way the land is used, and burning fossil fuels. Studies have shown the human activity has added about 47 percent to the intensity of CO2 since the industrial revolution. This the most important element that is forcing the activity of climate change.
• Methane – A hydrocarbon gas generated through natural sources and human activity, methane production includes decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, rice farming, and digestion and manure management involving domestic livestock. Methane is less active in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
• Nitrous Oxide – Produced during soil cultivation, nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that comes from commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production and biomass burning.
• Chlorofluorocarbons – It is industrial made synthetic composites that are currently regulated in production and release by international agreements because it assists in damaging the ozone layer.

A good example of how the greenhouse effect can shape the atmosphere of a planet is Venus and Mars. The atmospheres of both planets are almost entirely made up of carbon dioxide. This results in a greenhouse effect and a surface temperature that is so hot it melts lead.

Such human activity as burning fossil fuels including coal and oil over the last century has enhanced the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The burning of these substances combines carbon with oxygen in the air, resulting in the production of carbon dioxide.

The Evidence Of Climate Change

Studies have identified evidence that climate change is happening. For example, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused the average surface temperature of earth has risen nearly 2.12°F (1.18°C) since the late 19th Century, partially caused by human activity. Most of the warming has occurred during the past 40 years with the seven most recent years being the worst.

The oceans have captured much of the heat. The top 328 feet of the seas have warmed more than 0.6°F (1.33°C) since 1969. About 90 percent of the excess energy is stored in the ocean. As a result, the warm ocean waters are melting the Antarctic’s ice shelves causing a loss of ice totaling about 148 billion tons a year.

Greenland’s ice sheets have also melted causing the loss of 279 billion tons of ice a year from 1993 through 2019.

Glaciers have retreated throughout the world including the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa. In addition, the amount of spring snow cover of the earth’s Northern Hemisphere has decreased more than the past five decades. Snow is melting earlier.

As a result, global sea levels have increase about 8-inches (20 centimeters) during the past century. However, the rate of sea level increase during the last two decades has about doubled.

The quantity of record high temperatures in the U.S. has been increasing and the amount of record low temperatures has decreased since 1950.

Ocean acidification has increased since the start of the industrial revolution by nearly 30 percent, caused by the emission of more carbon dioxide due to human activity. This has caused the oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide of between 20 percent and 30 percent.

Conclusion

Soon a very important vote in the United States Senate will be held to pass legislation to minimize climate change. The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed the bill. Because of a Senate rule known as the filibuster, to pass the bill 60 or more yes votes are needed. There are 50 Democratic senators and most of them favor the bill. At least 10 Republican votes will be needed for the bill to pass unless the Democrats end the filibuster or proceed with a vote under another rule known as reconciliation, which allows budget related legislation to be passed with a majority vote.

Many scientists say we have about nine years to reverse the affects of climate change or it may be too late. The future will soon be in the hands of the United States Senate. What will it decide?