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Molly Beckett

Meyer

English I

21 October 2019

Goal 13: Climate Change

Goal 13: Climate Change has affected everything on every continent in some way.

According to the UN, “2018 was the fourth warmest year in a row on record, 2015, 2016, 2017

and 2018 were the warmest years on record” (“Goal 13: Climate Change”). This has caused a

number of huge problems in the world. The UN also said,“Between 1998 and 2017, 1.3 million

lives have been caused by climate-related disasters”(“Goal 13: Climate Change”). Every year

people on every continent die from the effects of climate change and disasters are getting worse

as climate change is increasing. The effects not only kill people but, it also makes it difficult to

live in the conditions and could potentially really harm everything alive on the planet. Globally

climate change is affected all in some way. According to the WWF, “One billion people

threatened by climate change risks to oceans, plar and mountain regions”(“Arctic Climate

Change”). This has led to a loss of birds, fish stocks and marine animals in the arctic. People's

homes are being swept away due to rising sea levels and land is being eroded away. As a whole,

the arctic in the past couple of years is heating up at a rate of almost twice the global average.

Soon this might cause shortage in food, “Climate disruptions to agriculture have been increasing

and are projected to become more severe over this century, a trend that would diminish the

security of America’s food supply” (“Arctic Climate Change”). The extreme heat of the past

years is making it harder for farmers to farm crops and raise their livestock. The stronger the
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weather has been has also affected animals in their habitats. Some animals are going extinct and

this could cause us to lose some of our food supply. Not only is our farming at risk because of

climate change, so is the animals that we use daily to help us survive and live every day.

The United Nations is a group of countries working together to maintain peace, solve

global issues, such as climate change. It also, helps countries with money to help stop climate

change. Currently focusing on “the environment dimension of sustainable development, natural

disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, chemicals and waste and resource efficiency”

(“Impacts on Society”). The organization is doing well and have made a huge improvement to

the cause. As well as making peace, the UN has also made a change to climate change, ”​By

1995, countries launched negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change, and

two years later, adopted the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol reduces greenhouse gas

concentrations in the atmosphere ​”​(“Goal 13: Climate Change”).​ ​ This shows how the UN has

strengthened the global response and has gotten more people to join the cause. The UN is

focusing on how to change the problem and stop it from getting worse. The UN set up the IPCC

to provide a source of information, helping people realize the threat going on in the world. More

people are getting involved because of what the UN is doing, to make a change. The United

Nations has helped less fortunate countries get the money and tools to help climate change, they

also spread the word to people about the threat and more people have gotten involved.With more

people getting involved and learning about the threat, we are starting to make a huge change in

the world.

Even with all of the new efforts that have been made to stop climate change, more still

needs to be done to stop it. All countries need to be involved because right now, only a few have
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woken up and realize there needs to be a change. According to the UN, “As of April 2018, 175

parties had ratified the Paris Agreement and 168 parties had communicated their first nationally

determined contributions to the UN framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat”

(“Goal 13: Climate Change”). More people getting involved have shown the effects of

improvement. If even more countries could get involved, then we will have a more sustainable

future. If more countries get involved with the cause then climate change will go down, but most

countries can’t do it on their own. It is too expensive for most smaller countries to help, when

bigger countries haven’t done anything. More countries need to make an effort to the cause, to

make it will be affordable for all. People also need to be more educated to help. Most people

don’t understand and don’t even know that climate change is even happening at all. The UN, also

said that people don’t know that, “To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, global

emissions need to fall by a staggering 45 percent by 2030 from 2010 levels” (“Goal 13: Climate

Change”). This shows how most people don’t recognize how bad the climate is changing for the

worse and the need to stop it. If people would learn to reduce and learn to recycle in their daily

lives, then it will help the pollution that people cause go down tremendously. In the article,

“Climate Change, Recycling and Waste Prevention”, it explains how, “Recycling helps reduce

greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy consumption” (“Effects of Global Warming”). If

people learn to reduce and recycle like the article says, then the World could reduce the amount

of greenhouse gasses people put in the air every day, that shouldn’t be in the air. More countries

and people need to join to help the problem of climate change go down and the public could also

make a huge difference to the Earth, from just getting involved with the cause.
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Works Cited

Global Change. ​Climate Change​. ​www.globalchange.gov/climate-change/impacts-society.

National Geographic. ​Effects of Global Warming​.

www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-effects/.

United Nations. ​Sustainable Development Goals​. ​www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/.

WWF Arctic. ​Arctic Climate Change​. ​arcticwwf.org/work/climate/.

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