While the U.S. senate is voting on whether or not climate change is a thing.
Spoiler alert it totally is and a bunch of old white dudes voting on that isn't going
to make a difference.
I figured i’d inform your brains about some of the real life, and totally terrifying consequences
of climate change.
So there is all the regular stuff you’ve heard a ton of times -- like heatwaves, drought,
superstorms, wildfires and while all of that stuff is super terrifying I’ve been informed
that people already know that and don't seem to care.
Even though all that stuff is happening, not much has changed, people still really want
to be stuck in their ways even though Sandy, Katrina and the California droughts and those
wildfires in Arizona that lasted for weeks.
So here are the things that you might not know about that'll stop you from buying plastic
bottles and voting for climate deniers.
All the diseases You know what is great about the winter?
its really really cold.
It is so cold it has a tendency to kill off all those warm-weather disease carrying insects
like ticks and mosquitoes.
Because the whole earth is getting warmer those bugs are migrating further and further
north.
Plus, as those nasty little dudes spread they’re exposing huge chunks of populations to diseases
they've never seen before.
So you want some real world EXAMPLES!?!?
Well, Dengue fever has now made its way to Florida.
Ticks carrying Lyme disease have made it to Scandinavia.
Cholera's now in South America.
And West Nile virus which used to hang out only around the equator has made it as far
north as Canada and 21,000 people in the United States have been infected.
Delicious pesticides All this high temperature, lack of water,
makes growing food super difficult.
The food we can grow will have to be genetically modified or heavily protected by pesticides
in order to survive the influx of insects and constantly shifting weather patterns.
Curiously enough, if we switched away from the model of only growing one plant at a farm
a lot of these problems would be solved.
If you’re interested in learning more about holistic farming, check out Joel Saladin and
Polyface farm
Animal attacks People aren't going to be the only ones having
a hard time finding food.
As species begin migrating or go extinct, animals will have to start looking for food
in new places.
Think that trashcan behind your house.
Soon its not just going to be raccoons rooting there but things like bears and large cats.
Why are bears so hungry?
Because their traditional diets of berries, pinecones and nuts are in short supply due
to poor growing conditions caused by climate change.
And giant terrifying land mammals aren’t the only things we’ve got to worry about.
As warming oceans erase the natural temperature barrier between the open sea and the shore,
more and more jellyfish are going to start stinging you.
So basically if you keep contributing to climate change, it means you're gonna get stung by
zillions of jellyfish every time you go swimming.
So i've covered a lot of external issues, so lets go internal.
Mental Illness
Researchers have found a significant link between high temperatures and a rise in suicide
rates and dementia.
Plus medications for extreme mental disorders like schizophrenia interrupt the body’s
ability to regulate heat, which means warmer temperatures are more likely to cause heat
stroke in those individuals.
Plus theres the fact that climate change alone can cause stress: being in a hurricane, being
in incredibly hot weathers, having influxes of rain that your community isn't used to
dealing with can cause a lot of stress.
That stress can compound upon those who are already mentally ill, or incline some other
individuals to become mentally ill.
Allergies forever Now we all know that air quality is a huge
problem, not even just for climate change, but just for walking around.
Like insects, the winter has a tendency to keep pollen and other allergens in check.
With more frost-free days, higher temperatures and increased CO2 plants are going to go crazy,
which means tons and tons of pollen.
And all that warmer weather and increased rainfall in some places increases the prevalency
of mold and fungi.
Sniffle, sniffle.
Plus all these allergies will only get worse as we keep dirtying the air.
Rates of Asthma and allergies have increased in the last decade.
I mean have you looked at the air quality numbers in China recently?
Mix in some volcanic ash or a little bit of smoke from increased wildfires and you have
a good recipe for worldwide respiratory problems.
Wars You think people fighting over oil is bad?
Imagine what happens when it is something even more base to human existence, like food
or water?
Entire areas of the world are going to become inhabitable, estimates say the number of refugees
around the world will top a billion by 2050, and a lot of those are going to be climate
refugees.
And finally, and perhaps worst of all, you’re going to have to deal with me saying “ i
told you so” for the rest of our lives. which you know, at the rate climate change
is going might not be that long.
Hey guys thanks for watching.
Sorry if that was a little bit of a downer.
If you're now looking for how you can contribute to movement, check out my video from last
week telling Obama and the Senators not to vote for the keystone XL pipeline, or see
what New York just did to ban fracking.
I’ve also included tons of links in the description for ways you can get involved
in the climate movement.
thanks ByE!!