Climate Change

By Mason.Sandoval

Climate Change: This Is Not A Drill

Wildfires burning up California. Hurricanes decimating Puerto Rico. Floods threatening Venice. Rifts of Antarctica miles long melting away more and more every year. What links these disasters? Climate change, the most dangerous of the many looming dangers our planet faces.

Climate change is the change in climate patterns caused by large levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide provided by fossil fuels. In other words, the temperature is getting hotter because gas from cars and refineries are weakening our ozone layer, letting more of the sun’s heat and UV rays reach the earth.

This is affecting every living thing on this planet and it’s going to get worse in the coming years. We will experience Increased heat, drought and insect outbreaks. Ecosystems will be destroyed. The polar ice caps are melting which will cause flooding and a rise in sea levels along coastal cities (The Bay Area will be heavily affected by this in the future).

What are our elected officials doing about this?

According to the United Nations Climate Change Framework, 175 of the 195 countries in the world have signed the Paris Agreement, essentially making it 6.75 billion of the 7.53 billion people on this planet believe that climate change needs to be fought. And the Paris Agreement could give us a chance.

The Paris Agreement (also known as la Accord de Paris in French) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change dealing with greenhouse gas emissions regulations.

America signed the Paris Agreement back in 2016 under former president Barack Obama , but withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2017 under the Trump administration.

So if our elected officials aren’t doing anything to fix it, what can we as citizens do?

Reduce your carbon footprint. If you have your license, try to drive a car that doesn’t run on diesel fuel.

If your family hasn’t already, and has the money, install solar panels on your roof. Solar power greatly reduces your carbon footprint.

And don’t litter. Plastics and metals don’t break down easily and most contain chemicals that are hazardous to an already deteriorating environment.

Refraining from littering not only helps the environment, but keeps our little blue planet looking as beautiful as the people that fill it.