With all of the empirical evidence showing that not only is climate change real, but that human behavior is directly responsible for the speed and severity at which it’s occurring, you’d think anyone who would claim differently would be seen as a pariah of sorts.
Yet climate change deniers still manage to redirect attention away from the problem at hand — and the solutions needed — back to themselves and the endless conspiracy theories that plague the climate community. The facts have made themselves quite evident. Rising global temps, deadly and erratic weather patterns, rising sea levels and massive marine die-offs are all rooted in climate change, and even a brief look at the scientific data gained from multiple research organizations from all over the world show that human behavior is directly to blame. The weight of our actions is trending at the worst way possible.
While healthy skepticism is a good thing, when the facts are this tangible, denying climate change and its impact on the planet’s future is simply unethical. It has been proven, consistently, for decades, by scientists all over the world, that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are trapping heat that should be reflected from the planet’s surface, here in the lower atmosphere. It has also been proven that the ocean’s overall temperature is on the rise; with water having such a high capacity to store heat, the reflected heat is being retained within the top 30 percent. The planet’s temperature is also on the rise, with the record showing the hottest years of the past century have been within the past 10 years.
Read more: According to NASA’s Climate Predictions, We’re Screwed!
Between satellite data, all three major global surface temperature reconstructions referenced, ice core samples, ocean samples from top to floor and general record keeping, the evidence is consistent no matter what agency is analyzing and reporting it.
When the planet’s temperature rises, it causes a terrible chain reaction. Ice shelves begin to melt, raising ocean levels, which have been rising consistently, but have doubled their normal yearly increase over the past decade, which alters the local ecosystems. There has also been a marked rise in the amount of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, thanks to both pollution and the lack of viable resources that are able to absorb excess carbon. Those that can absorb the excessive carbon, such as forests and oceans, are showing signs of declining health. Oceans are becoming more acidic, destroying sea life habitats such as coral reefs, while boreal forests are absorbing less carbon from the air because there aren’t enough trees to keep up with the amount of carbon being let loose.
We are pushing every resource to its limit, and will quite soon, if we haven’t already, pass a tipping point from which will cannot return.
You know climate change is real. The signs are very real and happening all around us. Don’t waste any more of your precious time paying attention to those who are denying what is so damn evident. Instead, educate yourself on what is going on and what we can all do together to help reduce our collective carbon footprint and how best prepare for the changes to come.
I highly recommend visiting NASA’s Climate Change website for more information and the agency’s plans to slow its effects on the planet, along with other sites such as Earth Day Network’s Canopy Project and the European Commission’s Green Infrastructure to see how other countries are tackling this very issue.
Because remember, we are all in this together.
Diana Marsh is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.
