Introduction & Background
Climate change is an exciting subject that arouses curiosity. Climate change is a phenomenon that has drawn much attention recently. Climate change is a continuous unusual natural event that has occurred for a long time. Many people, including me, still do not know much about this phenomenon. Little is known about climate change by ordinary citizens, and this ignorance is increasing the levels of climate changes. As a result, it possesses more threat to the environment and humans. Climate change has been a significant environmental problem for hundreds of thousands of years. In the past, most changes occurred naturally, for example, due to ice-ages. Over recent centuries, changes in climate have been significantly triggered by carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Seeking to get more information about climate change, I interviewed one Environmentalist called John. According to John, as from the 19th-century industrial revolution up to date, climate change has mainly been triggered by human activity. “According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, anthropogenic activities amount to 95% causes of climate change,’’ said John. The industrial revolution signified a shift of human labour to use of machinery and initiated the generation of combustion engines which includes the automobile, which resulted in excessive fossil fuels burning. As a result, anthropogenic activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide, increasing greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere, thus causing global temperature to rise, leading to changes in climate.
Incidents & Characteristics
According to John, the global average temperature has increased by 0.85 °C as from the industrial revolution, which led to significant warming impacting the flora and fauna, ecosystem, health, and public safety. He further said that “climate change causes some health complications, and there is a substantial relation between child malnutrition and climate change.” In real life situation, I have also noted that the heat intensity has increased. I have witnessed allegations that there have been increased cases of cancer due to increased UV-rays reaching the earth. This has been connected to increase global warming, which has destroyed the ozone layer. “Human health and public safety are at stake due to increased levels of climate change,” said John, “1 °C warming during summertime is possible to cause 1% demographic death.” Judging from this, I can tell that this is the probable threat of sudden changes in global temperature to humans’ health. With the help of John’s knowledge of climate change, I have also noted that climate change plays a vital role in deteriorating air quality, especially in developed and developing countries. If you visit urban areas in developed and developing countries, you will note that polluted air and warm temperatures characterize these places. This has led to increased respiratory-related diseases. Several deaths have been reported to have increased, especially in urban centers or cities.
Climate change also poses safety issues to humans. “Due to climate change, the frequency, intensity as well as the duration of natural disasters such as the strongest hurricanes and tsunami have increased since the 1980s,” said John, “these natural disasters have increased, and it has been proven that climate change has significantly contributed to these rampant natural disasters occurring.” Today we witness incidences of strong Hurricanes, especially the North Atlantic hurricanes. The aftermath of these hurricanes has brought about significant safety issues. ‘’In fact, recently a strong wave of Hurricane hit on the Bahamas leaving several people homeless, destructing a lot of property and killing some people,” said John. People’s safety has been at risk, given that the frequency of Hurricane has been prevalent and much unpredicted. People have lost their property, several people killed, scores of people exposed to contracting waterborne diseases and other diseases. “In the recent Bahamas Hurricane calamity, the death toll stood at 50 and more than 1000 people still missing,” said John. Humans are now living with fear as they risk being affected by natural disasters. Scientists and environmentalists have attested the increasing changes in weather patterns and rapid natural processes occurring have been due to high levels of global warming, which have trigger climate change.
John proceeded to emphasize that in the global scale, climate change impact on human health will continue to significantly affect mostly developing countries or regions, whereby people are endemically suffering many health burdens related to the extreme poverty they are aggravated by climate change. It is so uncertain that the most affected populations are the poor whom both their health and safety are at big risk. “There is a British Medical Journal editorial which stated that failure of all countries across the world to minimize emissions would probably result in a global health catastrophe,” said John. It turns out that in developed countries like the United States, the poor, physically challenged, the sick or those in poor health, the lonely, those with inadequate housing facilities and amenities, the elderly and people lacking affordable healthcare or living in areas with inefficient public health systems populations are the ones who are utmost risk. In essence, climate change causes a significant effect on human’s health and safety. It affects all people regardless of their social class. But, the most affected are populations that lack mitigation measures to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Conclusion
To sum it all, public knowledge about climate change is low. Despite being a significant environmental issue, it is essential to note that climate change has adverse effects, and humans play a vital role in triggering climate change. It is noteworthy that increased health complications and mortality rates are as a result of climate change. In essence, climate change is mostly caused by human activities and therefore to safeguard humans’ health and wellbeing, it is vital that public education on climate change is conducted and immediate measures to mitigate climate change to be implemented. It is upon all nations, worldwide to act together in ensuring that the emissions are minimized and environmental protection measures are given a top priority. Human lives are important, and it is worth protecting it by taking immediate action in mitigating climate change.