By Alexander Tran
According to The Washington Post, at least 85% of the world’s population has been affected by human-induced climate change. This is an alarming amount as researchers identify that the drastic temperature and precipitation shifts are directly caused by human fossil fuel use as well as other sources of carbon emissions.
According to a United Nations (UN) report released in February 2022, it was confirmed that billions of people on every continent are suffering because of human-induced climate change.
The report was produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the UN’s body for assessing the science related to climate change. Created in 1988, the IPCC is dedicated to providing the general public with regular updates on climate change, its impact on future generations and possible solutions.
According to one of the leading researchers of the IPCC, Kristie Ebi, “people are now suffering and dying from climate change.”
This is because of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, floods and wildfires caused by climate change. With polar ice caps melting and rainforests burning away, nature is less able to adapt and protect the planet.
Citizens nationwide have experienced this climate change already. In a study initiated by The Washington Post, it was found that nearly two out of three Americans have seen a multi-day heatwave last summer, which is the list since 2016.
Locally in California, many local residents can feel the effects of climate change taking its place. During the summer of 2021, Californians recorded a record-breaking heatwave.
During the fall of 2021, Livia Albeck-Ripka, a writer for The New York Times, warned readers that extreme heat may take many by surprise. A couple from Central California was found dead after hiking with their baby daughter and their dog at Sierra National Forest. Many theories have arisen stating that they may have drank water that was poisoned by toxic algae or inhaled toxic fumes, but the autopsies revealed that the family of four died from extreme heat.
This came as a shock to their families as they had simply gone on an eight-mile hike early in the morning in mild weather and sadly had not survived.
In 2021, Ashley Harrell of The San Francisco Chronicle confirmed that at least nine other people are thought to have died from heat-related causes while entering nature in California. This is still shocking to many as rescue technology and communication have been accessible for decades yet lives are still lost to simple and preventable deaths.
Extreme weather like these can cost many lives, and take a huge toll on the environment as well. Incident Information System reports, The Dixie Fire, started on July 13, 2021, was the state’s second-largest fire ever to be recorded. The fire burned almost one million acres and took almost 5000 personnel to contain, but sadly lost a life in the process. An estimate of one billion dollars worth of timber has been destroyed, and has, in turn, released decades of sequestered carbon into the atmosphere with “uncalculatable impacts to greenhouse gas accumulations.”
The Washington Post predicts that in 2050, Los Angeles is predicted to experience an average of 22 extreme heat days annually. That is six days of extreme heat more than the period from 1980 to 2000.
The UN Secretary General António Guterres stated gravely at the IPCC that, “greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are hiking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes (already) becoming irreversible.”
Some of these irreversible changes include carbon dioxide emissions. Study author Susan Solomon, one of the world’s top climate scientists says that, ” We’re used to thinking about pollution problems as things that we can fix. Smog, we just cut back and everything will be better later. Or haze, you know it’ll go away pretty quickly.”
This type of “kicking the can down the road” thinking has essentially led humanity to where it is today, on the brink of extinction. In a climate report by Live Science, it is believed that there is as possibility that society could collapse as soon as 2050.
Despite the odds and the predictions, there is still hope for humanity. Svein Inge Meland published a report based on the research from IPCC and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology states that, “We need to restructure the energy system. There’s no way around it. We have to move away from fossil fuel sources and over to renewable energy and nuclear power. Solar energy has become substantially less expensive. Offshore wind has become much cheaper too.”
These are major switches that require communities if not nations to abide by to completely make a change. Meland states that majority of people can make an impact by making small switches in their lives from convenience to mindfulness of the environment. Some switches may be consuming less mean as, “the climate panel’s latest report points out that it is important to do something about methane, and animal husbandry accounts for the greatest emissions of methane. Given that the health authorities also recommend reducing how much red meat we consume, it might not be a stupid idea to return to the meat consumption level we had in the 1950s.”
