The human race cannot exist without its ecosystem and environment. With the lens of corporations and our ever expanding personal life, we as people rarely take the time to think about what is around us and how we affect it. Our carbon footprint, as well as our knowledge on carbon-based issues, makes topics like sustainability and healthy living a much easier conservation. A knowledgeable population can more easily fight disinformation and propaganda.
Climate change causes long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns. NASA’s website keeps a live tracker of ice sheets, carbon dioxide measurements, our ocean’s current temperature, and other essential information. In measuring carbon dioxide levels since 1958, the CO2 in our atmosphere has increased from x >20 parts per million to x >400 parts per million. These numbers prove human activity has increased carbon dioxide levels by 50%, which is greater than the amount present at the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago. These graphs provide concrete proof to climate deniers and Republicans who remind us that climate change is not real. Their echo chamber of falsehoods continues to have devastating consequences, as without concrete action our planet will continue to get warmer. Glacier images from Alaska over a thirty-year period show how drastically global warming affects ice levels. From lakes in Central Asia to droughts in Utah and Arizona, global warming has a worldwide effect on our environment, regardless of income level or population.
NASA also monitors glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland with their GRACE satellites to measure the rate in which they’re disappearing under the warmer summers and shorter winters of our planet. The Arctic Ice Sheet is melting at a rate of 13% per decade, which means by 2100 the ice sheet will be completely gone if nothing changes. From the early 1980s the ice sheet has lost at least half of its total mass, which drastically affects sea levels in our oceans and rivers. NASA has an interactive graph which illustrates the Arctic Ice Sheet’s shrinking, which makes the catastrophic event much easier to visualize. Without concrete visualizing techniques, these measurements are just numbers and data. It is essential to realize that these numbers and data have real-world consequences that affect every one of us.
The rising sea levels are caused by two major factors: the melting of Arctic sea ice and seawater expanding as it warms. From 1900–2020, sea water levels have risen by 200 millimeters, which drastically affects how the ocean’s ecosystem regulates itself. 90% of all global warming happens in the ocean which causes seawater to expand and sea levels to rise. Most of the added energy rises to the surface, which creates a greenhouse gas-type effect. Ocean warming is measured in zettajoules, which is about five atomic bombs of energy per second. Warming has a web-like effect on the ocean and how it affects Earth’s natural resources. As the ocean gets hotter, it causes coral bleaching, which is when coral reefs turn white due to changes in their environment. Coral, like trees and other plants, depend on each other to survive. Coral relies on algae called zooxanthellae for food, which also provides the vibrant pigments coral is known for. When the ocean’s temperature rises, the algae is expelled from their body, which causes the coral to have no food. When they don’t eat, they turn white and are very weak. If the coral is white for long enough, it dies. Coral epicenters like the Great Barrier Reef are often hit the hardest when it comes to coral bleaching, and up to half of their coral turns white by the end of a calendar year.
2022 was the ocean’s warmest year on record. If you’ve been paying attention to news headlines, this headline has come up every year since 2016. This warm weather strengthens hurricanes and typhoons, and is especially hard-hitting for islands and East Asian countries like Taiwan and Japan, whose infrastructure is surrounded by water.
NASA greatly benefits by making the raw data on climate change available for the general public. While policymakers and politicians love to obfuscate facts and data to fit their agenda based on lobbying and corporate interests, NASA serves the betterment of citizens as well as conducting the highest capabilities of space exploration. Their stature should continue to be analyzed as businesses become more engrossed in our daily life. In advocating for causes like increasing Earth’s renewable energy reliance, measuring and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions, water conservation, and working to build more sustainable architecture; the future is not shrouded in darkness.
