Climate Change
You Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone
For the first time in human history it has become undeniably apparent that our lifestyle has finally come full circle. The bi-partisan argument between political parties has ceased and it is evident our world will never be the same. Just like the course of action that has been taken in the past, the human race silently awaits the unavoidable reality of destruction and decimation through the increased emissions of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.
As an environmental geographer it is my duty to attempt to understand what went wrong, and why we could not come together as one and stop this terrible crisis that has slowly but surely changed life, as we know it. Global warming has destroyed nearly 40% of the worlds species, melted all the ice caps in the arctic leading to increase sea levels and dangerous threats towards coastal cities. Hurricanes and typhoons pummel wet, hot climates such as the U.S. Gulf coast, the eastern seaboard and parts of Southeast Asia. The cities and infrastructures that we built in the past are deteriorating, clearly not created for the purpose of survival in this foreign climate. It is too little too late for the political sphere to attempt to make changes. They have ignored the warnings my colleagues and me have been begging them to give due attention to for decades; caught up in the greed of wealth and power rather than the sustainability of the one world we have. As nature and subsequently our society slips through our fingers in front of our eyes, I sit back and think about everything that could have been done. How did our political, economical, and social culture halt the movement for policies to be passed through the governmental system? How could a society so focused on our future look past the evidence right in front of our eyes and refuse to come together as one? After months of research, I have the scientific facts that were ignored, I know the system that was
For the first time in human history it has become undeniably apparent that our lifestyle has finally come full circle. The bi-partisan argument between political parties has ceased and it is evident our world will never be the same. Just like the course of action that has been taken in the past, the human race silently awaits the unavoidable reality of destruction and decimation through the increased emissions of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.
As an environmental geographer it is my duty to attempt to understand what went wrong, and why we could not come together as one and stop this terrible crisis that has slowly but surely changed life, as we know it. Global warming has destroyed nearly 40% of the worlds species, melted all the ice caps in the arctic leading to increase sea levels and dangerous threats towards coastal cities. Hurricanes and typhoons pummel wet, hot climates such as the U.S. Gulf coast, the eastern seaboard and parts of Southeast Asia. The cities and infrastructures that we built in the past are deteriorating, clearly not created for the purpose of survival in this foreign climate. It is too little too late for the political sphere to attempt to make changes. They have ignored the warnings my colleagues and me have been begging them to give due attention to for decades; caught up in the greed of wealth and power rather than the sustainability of the one world we have. As nature and subsequently our society slips through our fingers in front of our eyes, I sit back and think about everything that could have been done. How did our political, economical, and social culture halt the movement for policies to be passed through the governmental system? How could a society so focused on our future look past the evidence right in front of our eyes and refuse to come together as one? After months of research, I have the scientific facts that were ignored, I know the system that was
Cited: Anderson, Kevin. “Climate Change going beyond dangerous – brutal numbers and tenuous hope.” Developmental Dialogue September 2012. Accessed April 3rd, 2014. Center of Concern. “Why Corporate Agriculture is a Problem.” Accessed on April 3rd, 2014. https://www.coc.org/node/6073. Cicerone, J. Ralph, Nurse Sir Paul. “Climate Change: An Overview from the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences (2014).” Accessed April 3rd, 2014 EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency). “Future of Climate Change.” Last updated March 4, 2014. Accessed April 3rd, 2014. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/future.html. Hertsgaard, Mark. Hot. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2011.