The world seemed to be healing during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Antarctic ozone hole (one of the largest ozone holes seen in the last 40 years) finally closed, the greenery seemed to increase, and there was a temporary decline in carbon dioxide emissions.
The climate crisis was far from being over, but things were starting to look up. That was until the Climate Clock (a project by Andrew Boyd and Gan Golan) in Manhattan’s Union Square began its countdown and we were once again awoken with a harsh reality: The earth is dying, and now its death date is staring us right in the face.
Six years. That is all the time we have left to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions. And to further our anxiety, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) came out with their 2021 report… and it is not looking good. As the New York Times called it, “a hotter future is certain.” Even if we began a fierce campaign to cut emissions in the present time, global warming is almost certain to increase at around 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next 20 years. The ravaging fires that occurred throughout the pandemic will be amplified. Heat waves and droughts will affect a greater number of people. Some of the plant and animal species we are familiar with today will most likely go extinct.
However, we can prevent global warming from rising higher than 1.5 degrees if we combat greenhouse gas emissions now.
Protect the natural environments that are still intact today. Cut back on consumerism and waste. Contact your government officials and urge them to take part in the fight against climate change on a larger scale. If we do not act now, the world will perish along with humanity.
Helpful Links:
If you want to find the contact information of government officials, go here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
If you want to explore the reports produced by the IPCC in more depth, go here: https://www.ipcc.ch
(Noah Berger | Associated Press | Taken from Los Angeles Times)
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