By Joao Quadros
10th Grade
Professional and Technical High School (PATHS)
Climate change is one of the most polemical and commented on topics nowadays, and its presence went from a simple conversation between friends to serious matters in discussions made between leaders of nations and governments. Climate change is an artificial force, since it is based on the work made by humans, more specifically, from the results of selfish and detrimental actions, or decisions, taken by the residents of this planet, which affects it and all the ones that live on it in an explicit and pessimistic way.
Climate change is a term which describes a life-threatening force that acts against not only the planet, but all it contains within itself. The changes and variations in temperature around the globe directly interact with natural structures such as plants and animals, which are used to functioning in a certain way, within a certain area, in a certain climate and temperature. The distortion of one of these might prevent the natural resources from functioning properly and that may lead to the aggravation of natural occurrences. The contortion of the temperature of earth can only lead to the devastation of fauna and flora; something true to this concept is the acres burned in Australia. Resulted from this was the lack of Eucalyptus trees that function as a resource for Koala bears. During the Australian bushfires in 2020, the koala population was sadly impacted heavily with the deaths of one third of the koala population (Disaster Philanthropy, 2020). We can take what has happened in both Australia and California during 2020, the so called, “natural and eventual fires” are now way denser in detrimental consequences killing 24 people along with the deaths of about 3 billion animals and the destruction of 2,000 residences and 12.34 million acres (about twice the area of New Jersey) only in Australia (Gunia & Law, 2020). In California, the damage to land was not as heavy with only 4.2 million aces being damaged, however more people were lost to this fire with the death toll being 31 citizens and 6,000-12,000 pets dying as well (Cal Fire, 2020).
The effects of climate change in nature will harshly negate any benefits to the abundance of biodiversity around the world and will exponentially change the world currently known by men. As a matter of fact, the world is a closed system, and anything that may happen in one or multiple corners of the world will eventually influence its structure, whether positively or negatively. Therefore, the wrong decisions taken by humans will lead to catastrophic consequences. For example, the surge in rising sea levels, which affects coastline habitats, impacts 30% of people inhabiting those coastlines. As the sea level rises so does the risk of bigger disasters damaging roads, bridges, subways, water supplies, oil and gas wells, power plants, and much more (Lindsey, 2020). If we stay on this path to destruction, we will have to watch flooding and catastrophic storms like hurricane Katrina, more dangerous and frequent fires in many forests throughout the world, and the quick and obligatory changes in the structure of cities inhabited by people and animals, as well as a rapid increase in extinction rates.
All these factors will create a toxic image of humans and despite the opportunities we have to make the world better for future generations, they may, instead, face the consequences of their ancestors’ actions. However, even if there is already damage being seen within the planet and its limits, there is still time to change this scenario for a better and more satisfying outcome. If people and governments come together and work united as one single force, changes can be made and the future, quite chaotic image of Earth could be erased from people’s minds, nature, and history altogether.
References: Gunia, Amy, and Tara Law. “At Least 24 People and Millions of Animals Have Been Killed by Australia’s Bushfires.” Time, 3 Jan. 2020, time.com/5758186/ australia-bushfire-size/.
Lindsey, Rebecca. “Climate Change: Global Sea Level.” Climate.gov, NOAA, 14 Aug. 2020, www.climate.gov/ news-features/understanding-climate/climate-changeglobal-sea-level.
“2019-2020 Australian Bushfires.” Center for Disaster Philanthropy, disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/2019-australian-wildfires/.
2020 Fire Season | Welcome to CAL FIRE.” Www.fire.ca.gov, 2020, www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/.
