5 Reasons Why It’s Time to Get Serious About Climate Change
Six weeks into the Donald Trump presidency and even though the media cycle continues to stagnate with each new 140 character lie from @realDonaldTrump, more pressing issues are being lost in the chaos. One of them is climate change.
As nations on every continent begin the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, an effort which already likely won’t be enough, the Trump administration is cutting the EPA workforce by almost 3000 and their budget by $2 billion. Included in these draconian cuts are the restoration of Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay, mitigating water pollution problems in the Great Lakes, the transition from diesel emissions, and environmental education, with other programs being eliminated completely.
The President has also approved both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline in the first few days of his presidency, two projects which threaten our water supply and ecosystems. Climate research is also facing huge cuts and our EPA head doesn’t even believe that carbon dioxide is the major contributor to global warming.
With each budget cut and executive order, the White House is endangering the future of our planet, ecosystems, and humanity, and we should ALL be outraged. As we transition from an unseasonably warm winter to spring, here are some issues which will only have an increasing effect on our lives, whether or not Trump is impeached:
THE TEMPERATURES ARE RISING
One year of record warmth around the globe could certainly be considered an anomaly, but the annual global temperature record has been broken 5 times since the Y2K scare: 2005, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016. In 2016, both the sea and land surface temperatures surpassed all time records.
According to NASA’s calculations, the planet has warmed by over a half-degree Fahrenheit in just the past 3 years, which is the largest temperature increase in the history of the agency’s record keeping.
This trend doesn’t appear to be changing for 2017, as many US cities in the Northeast have recently experienced the warmest February in history. Here is a view of all the records broken on just one warm February afternoon:
THE DISASTERS ARE INTENSIFYING
While a 60 degree NYC afternoon in late February might seem like an improvement over the usual frozen tundra, this rapid, sustained warming has very detrimental effects on our planet. This past year featured not only warm temperatures, but abnormal weather patterns around the globe.
In 2016, major storms caused massive flooding in North Carolina, West Virginia, Louisiana, & Houston. The northeast US saw record breaking snow, and major droughts plagued the Western and Southeast US.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma has seen a 4000% increase in earthquakes in the last eight years likely due to fracking, as wastewater is injected near fault lines. Just in case you are having a hard time visualizing this, here are the earthquakes from 2016 alone:
THE ICE IS MELTING
In November, the Arctic experienced temperatures which were 33 degrees Celsius higher than normal, leading to unprecedented ice melt of 50,000 square kilometers at the very beginning of the Winter. When the Arctic ice melts, the exposed dark ocean underneath absorbs even more sun, initiating a feedback loop which is causing the Arctic to warm faster than the rest of the Earth. As the temperature gradient between the arctic and the south decreases, the jet stream weakens, which has a major impact on global weather patterns.
The opposite pole is experiencing an even more serious melt which could already be unstoppable. In 2016, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet began to tear apart, and the East Antarctic Sheet revealed thousands of superglacial lakes which indicate that a similar melt is underway.
Now you might ask: Why is this important? The massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet alone contains enough water to raise the sea level by 10 feet, which would submerge 30% of the homes in Florida and force 9% of New York City’s residents to relocate.
THE COASTS ARE FLOODING
As the ice caps melt and the sea level of our oceans rise, coastal flooding will become much more likely. This isn’t only an inevitability of climate change but a process which has already begun.
In recent years, scientists have noticed a sharp increase in ‘sunny-day’ flooding occurring in cities and towns all along the east coast. Even though these floods are only a few feet deep, they can damage basements, cars, lawns, and also poison wells and interfere with storm water drainage.
THE PERMAFROST IS THAWING
The warming arctic is causing the permafrost in Northwest Canada to thaw at a rapid rate over 52,000 square miles, in a process which is also being observed in coastal areas of the Arctic and Siberia.
Since Permafrost holds nearly twice as much carbon as the rest of the atmosphere, this thaw is causing carbon-rich mud and silt to flood into streams and rivers. As the frost melts, carbon is released back into the atmosphere, another feedback loop which locks us in for even further warming.
Keep in mind that these are only the most major symptoms of our rapidly warming planet as weather systems continue to destabilize. Donald Trump may only be President for four years, but the decisions of his administration will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
