imagine its a beautiful day in April of 2017
three children in different parts of the world
are going about their daily lives as they do every day
and as their parents have done for countless generations
meet Hiro in Japan
Hiro wants to be a successful banker one day just like his father
but right now he is more interested in spaceships and planets
Abasie lives in Kenya with his parents and grandparents
one day he wants to travel the world in his own little sailboat
akash lives in india with his big happy family when Akash grows up
he wants to be the world's greatest chef
and so life goes on
hiro becomes an astronaut
much to his fathers suprise
Abasie travels the world
in his sailboat
and Akash opened his own restaurant in his home town
they grow old and pass on
having lived fulfilled lifes
their children follow
and thier children's children
until one day in April of 2100
Akoh and his family
are crammed with thousands of other people
at Haneda Airport hoping it's not too late
sadly the people of Tokyo never had a chance
the once-proud city is reduced to
rubble by tsunami the likes of which has never been seen
Anassa lyes in the
dark of his quiet home and he knows his
time has come
it hasn't rained in months all the crops
and livestock have died and the well
dried up long ago
the people of Kenya
suffer the slow death of starvation and dehydration
oni draws ragged breaths
in his hospital bed
his body ravaged by
disease is the last living member of his
family the population of India has
fallen drastically these are a few
hypothetical scenarios from various
parts of the globe while they may seem
unrelated they all share a common
catalyst climate change
as 2017 begins
and the United States presidency changes
hands it has become increasingly
apparent that the new regime is full of
climate change deniers and fossil fuel
advocates it is more important than ever
to spread real information regarding
climate change and the catastrophic
effects it can produce within the next
100 years
let's start with the common
misconception when some people hear the
term global warming
they'll point to an instance of colder
than normal weather like the Sahara
Desert recently and say that's
ridiculous it's snowing here this
objection stems from a misunderstanding
of how weather differs from climate
weather refers to local changes over
short periods of time such as minutes
hours days or weeks
typical examples of whether include rain
clouds snow wind and thunderstorms
climate refers to longer-term averages
and maybe regional or global in scale
and can be thought of as weather
averaged over an extended period of time
typically years or decades an easy way
to remember the distinction is weather
is what you get
climate is what you expect
now that we have a good
understanding of how climate
and weather differ
let's look at the scientific consensus
over ninety seven percent of actively
publishing climate scientists agree that
climate warming trends over the past 100
years are extremely likely to have been
caused largely by human activity that
number goes up to over ninety-nine percent
if you include climate
scientists who have not recently
published scholarly articles most of the
leading scientific organizations around
the world have issued public statements
endorsing this position there are too
many to list in this video so i put a
link in the description of organizations
and their statements
climate change deniers tend to latch onto studies that
disprove the trend but you always notice
that the studies are either not
peer-reviewed come from a known
anti-science publisher or come from a
scientist in a completely unrelated
filled with an agenda of their own so
where does this problem come from the
largest contributing factor to climate
change is the burning of fossil fuels
oil coal and natural gas all release
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when
burned carbon dioxide is considered a
greenhouse gas which simply means it
sticks around in the upper atmosphere
and traps heat the more carbon dioxide
is released the more the atmosphere
heats up this temperature increase then
causes other problems such as melting
glaciers and polar ice as arctic ice
melts it releases co2 and methane a more
potent greenhouse gas compounding the
problem by making the atmosphere even
warmer the smelting morais it's a
vicious cycle
ok but where do we stand right now
what's the damage as of the end of 2016
carbon dioxide levels are up by nearly
405 parts-per-million the highest in
650,000 years global temperatures up by
one point seven degrees since eighteen
eighty and nine of the last ten hottest
years on record happened since 2000 the
tenth being 1998 Arctic ice is shrinking
at a rate of 13.3 percent per decade and
land ice is disappearing at a rate of
281 gigatons per year
Greenland ice loss doubled between 1996
in 2005 and finally the global sea level
has risen seven inches in the last 100
you're probably thinking well that
doesn't sound too bad
let's look at the consequences by
category first the melting of polar ice
of course we've all heard that global
warming affects the poor polar bears but
it's true and it's severe at the current
rate of melting which is likely to
increase the Arctic is projected to see
its first ice-free summer by 2050
imagine that all of the ice gone and yes
that likely means extinction for the
polar bears within a hundred years and
it's not just polar bears some species
of ice dependent seals will die off if
they can't adapt including harp ringed
ribbon and bearded seals then there are
the ivory goals and ox ivory goals have
already suffered a ninety percent
population reduction in Canada over the
past 20 years then there's the walrus
the arctic fox small plant eaters like
ground squirrels hairs lemmings involves
large planters like moose caribou
reindeer and musk ox and meat eaters like
weasels wolverines wolves foxes bears
and birds of prey the melting ice is
likely to cause a domino effect
knocking out species that other species
depend upon for food melting ice brings
us to our next category rising sea level
over the past 100 years the global sea
level has risen approximately seven
inches the more alarming fact is that
the rate of rise in the last decade is
nearly double the rate of the entire
last century
at this rate rising sea level puts
coastal cities and islands at great risk
SC water reaches further inland it can
cause destructive erosion flooding of
wetlands contamination of aquifers and
agricultural soils and lost habitat for
fish birds and plants most projections
show the sea level will rise between
point 8 and 2 meters by 2100 which would
be catastrophic for many low-lying
islands and much of the eastern coast of
the United States more dire predictions
based upon the complete melting of the
Greenland ice sheet project a rise up to
seven meters that's enough to submerge
London the third category is the one
with which most people are familiar
global temperature rise
as CO2
accumulates in our atmosphere the
temperature creeps steadily upward the
annual increase is measured at roughly
1.7 degrees Fahrenheit this increase in
temperature could cause the most drastic
immediate effects of all three
categories
the list is long and distressing so here
we go global warming will cause droughts
and heat waves which are already
responsible for killing more people per
year than floods
hurricanes lightning and tornadoes
combined it will aggravate the spread of
disease warmer weather allows disease
bears to be active longer and further
abroad warmer ocean temperatures will
allow pathogens to flourish as we've
already seen with the widespread coral
bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef this
coral houses twenty-five percent of all
marine diversity and the reef is already
declined by fifty percent in the last thirty
years when the coral goes we'll lose
hundreds of thousands of species
dependent upon it for shelter which will
collapse much of the marine food chain
back on land fishing will suffer
droughts will destroy crops and
livestock and create a water scarcity
pushing farmers and people in rural
areas into the city
this will cause overcrowding and help
spark civil wars that killed hundreds of
thousands like it did in Syria GDP is
expected to plummet by twenty-three
percent by 2100 caused by property
damage from flooding droughts wildfires
storms loss of productivity loss of
tourism and illness you can see how
quickly the situation can snowball
wildly out-of-control it seems very dire
but what can we do
is it too late to stop the changes we
put in motion it's hard to say for sure
but the affect humans have had on this
earth is severe and the changes have
indeed been set in motion even if we
stopped emitting greenhouse gases today
global warming would continue for at
least several more decades since carbon
dioxide can linger in the atmosphere for
up to centuries some experts believe
we're approaching a tipping point a
point at which abrupt perhaps
irreversible changes would tip our
climate into a new state however it may
not be too late to limit some of the
worst effects of climate change two
important steps are required one
mitigation the reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions into the atmosphere and two
adaptation learning to cope with and
adapt to the climate changes that have
already been set in motion recycling and
driving fuel-efficient cars are
important steps in the right direction
but not sufficient on their own
it will take a globally coordinated
response such as clean energy agreements
between nations as well as local efforts
on the city and regional level such as
sustainable City Planning public
transportation upgrades and energy
efficiency improvements so yes
climate change is the biggest threat to
existence as we know it and is deeply
troubling that the United States
government seeks to normalize ignorance
of good science so if you're concerned
for the future of the planet and
generations to come
do your part help spread this
information because the earth truly is
worth saving
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