Today, it is a scientific fact that humans have caused climate change. The main reason is because many human activities release greenhouse gases. The emissions are causing global warming and the current changes in the climate.
Greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere naturally. However, human activities lead to an abundance of them. The gases warm the climate through the greenhouse effect. Today, the warming is happening rapidly, putting the Earth out of its natural balance. It threatens life as we know it.
IPCC & climate change
In 2013 the IPCC, meaning the UN’s climate panel, stated that it was “extremely likely” that humans have been the dominant factor of global warming since the middle of the 20th century. To work with this, the UN
organises international environmental meetings. These are called COP meetings. The Paris Agreement from 2015 is one of the most famous outcomes of these gatherings. This deal states that all the UN members (193 out of 195 countries) will work together to reduce emissions. Particularly greenhouse gases such as CO2. One goal is, for instance, to keep the global temperature below 2° Celsius. A temperature rise above this risks biodiversity loss and cause changes in the climate with severe consequences.
Climate change & global warming
Some use climate change as a synonym for global warming. However, climate change can also refer to other types of changes in the climate. For example, changes that occur naturally, without human influence. For example, natural variations and patterns in the Earth’s climate. There can be many different reasons for these changes. Such as differences in solar activity or geological processes.
A changing climate
Scientists predict that global warming will have severe consequences, such as increased extreme weather and rising sea levels. For example, warmer temperatures lead to more extreme droughts, floods and storms. While rising sea levels make many of the world’s cities unhabitable since they are right next to the water level. Hence, they will end up underwater. Cities like Miami, Shanghai, and Rio de Janeiro risk this outcome. More so, the extreme weather and rising sea levels will likely lead to millions of climate refugees.
Climate refugees
If the development continues like today, there will be an enormous number of climate refugees in the future. For example, some scientists believe there could be around 30 million people each from India and China. More so, about 15 million from Bangladesh and Egypt. The global total could be 150-200 million people by 2050.
