Alex

Climate change is a naturally occurring process involving the earth’s atmosphere

where earth’s average temperature and weather patterns in specific regions fluctuate

over time. According to the Crash Course video on climate change, scientists have

found that climate change is a naturally occurring process. Climate change has been

found to have happened multiple times throughout earth’s history. The amount of CO2

from different time periods found in glaciers shows climate change has happened

throughout earth’s long history. Some heat from the sun is absorbed by land, some by

sea/water, some trapped by atmosphere causing rise in average temperature. Heat

from the sun can also bounce off of the earth and escape back through the atmosphere.

The naturally occurring process of climate change also involves the earth’s

atmosphere. Earth’s atmosphere traps heat to keep the planet warm. Greenhouse

gasses cause more heat to get trapped inside earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere can

trap too much heat or too little causing extreme weather.

Earth’s atmosphere can cause average temperatures and regional climates to

fluctuate over time.Average temps usually don’t drastically change in short periods of

time, instead slowly change over long periods of time. CO2 emissions can cause

average temps to increase, while less CO2 can cause temps to decrease. In earth’s

long history there has been ice ages and warmer global temperatures.
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Human activity of burning fossil fuels is causing climate change to accelerate.

According to the Harvard Gazette article, “Exxon Disputed Climate Finding for Years. Its

Scientists Knew Better”, Oil companies like Exxon intentionally misled the public,

causing climate change to accelerate. As early as the 1970s Exxon scientists were able

to create shockingly accurate climate models. Exxon scientists' findings were more

accurate than NASA and government scientists. Instead of sharing the findings Exxon

denied their own findings in order to protect the company’s profits. Therefore, the public

continued to support the burning of fossil fuels because of the disconnection of burning

fossil fuels and the acceleration of climate change.

In addition to Exxon, 20 corporations have contributed more than 30% of all CO2

emissions to the earth’s atmosphere. These 20 companies are responsible for

contributing 529 billion tons of carbon pollution. All 20 companies are still running

despite knowing the effects they have on accelerating climate change. In 1993-1994

Exxons and Shell joined lobbying groups to block emission regulations. Currently the

industry is spending hundreds of millions every year in order to lobby against

regulations to cut carbon emissions.

On a larger scale, 10 countries have contributed 60% of all global emissions. The

US has contributed the most carbon emissions sitting at 20.3%, or 509 gigatons of CO2,

of all global emissions. Following the US is China and Russia with 11.4% and 6.9% of

all global carbon emissions. The 4-6th countries with the most carbon emissions are

Brazil, Indonesia and Germany with emissions between 3.5%-4.5%. Following them

The Uk, India, Japan and Canada all follow behind in less than 3.5%. All this shows how

the vast majority of carbon emissions are mostly coming from 10 countries with the vast
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majority coming from the US, China and Russia.

The US military is responsible for so much greenhouse gas emissions that the

US military alone would place 47th in greenhouse gas emissions if it was a country. The

Us military has released 1.2 billion metric tons of CO2. The military has also burned 85

millions barrels of fuel for fighter jets in 2017. The demilitarization of the US military

would be rather difficult with the glorification of violence and control.The connections

between the acceleration of climate change and the US military is clear.

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Due to the acceleration of climate change, there are many impacts of climate

change that people are currently experiencing, and future impacts that we will

experience if we don’t address the climate change crisis. According to the video

“Climate Change” produced by Crash Course, the acceleration of climate change is

causing extreme weather events to happen more frequently and more intensely. An

example of this is wildfires, drought and heat waves that have become more frequent

and more intense. A wild fire called “Camp Fire” in California 2018 is known as the

deadliest fire in California history with 85 people killed and 18,000 structures destroyed

causing $16.5b in damages. Another wildfire is the Australian Bushfires of 2019-2020.

This wild fire burned 24 million acres of land and caused $7 billion in damages with at

least 34 deaths. An example of an increased intensity of heat wave is from India in 2015

and Europe in 2019 with over 4,000 deaths and $12 billion in damages.

Floods, hurricanes, typhoons and heavy rain are also among the extreme

weather increasing in intensity and frequency. For example in 2021 Hurricane Ida, the

2nd largest hurricane in US history, caused at least 82 deaths and $65 billion in

damages. Another example is from 2018 in Kerala, India where floods caused over 400

deaths, roughly $4 billion in damages and more than 1 million people displaced.

The extreme cold has also increased in frequency and intensity. An example of

this is the Polar Vortex of 2019 in the US and Canada with up to 22 deaths and over

250 million people impacted by loss of heat and power. Temperatures were as low as

-33ºF and damages were at least around $195 million in damages. Another example of

extreme cold is from Texas in 2021, Snowmageddon. Snowmageddon caused around

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722 deaths and as many as 11 million people were without power for as much as 3

days. Temperatures were as low as -2ºF in Dallas, Texas.

The Rising Sea Levels have been impacting people in large ways as well. An

example of this is in Bangladesh. Over 24 million people were impacted, losing almost 4

sq miles per year. The rising sea levels cause an increased flooding, an increased risk

of disease, a loss of habitat, and salinization of farmland. Small Island Developing

States (SIDS) are also being largely impacted by rising sea levels. Roughly 65 million

people across 58 states in the Pacific and Caribbean have been experiencing saltwater

intrusion, displacement, and coastal erosion. Several billions to tens of billions of dollars

of investment in adaptation to climate change would be required per year by 2030. This

is just some of the current impacts of climate change.

We also must worry about the future impacts of climate change.According to the

video “6 Tipping Points” produced by PBS Terra, there are many future impacts of

climate change that we are likely to experience if we do not keep the average global

temperature below 1.5ºC above pre-industrial averages. The Tipping Points are a point

in the earth’s average temperature that when reached results in rapid and irreversible

consequences. 1.5ºC is considered the first major tipping point. Currently we are at

1.1ºC.

For the Greenland Ice Sheet at 1.5ºC the arctic is warming is going to be 2x-3x

faster than the rest of earth.The darker water is revealed as arctic sea ice melts and

land is revealed as Greenland ice sheets melt. The darker water and land absorb and

trap more heat than ice and snow. Run off from snow melt causes AMOC to weaken.
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The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) will begin causing more

problems around 1.1º-2ºC. The flow of water brings heat from the southern hemisphere

to Greenland. The normal process of water becoming cold, salty, and dense enough to

sink to the bottom is disrupted by Greenland ice sheet melt. This could result in a mini

ice age in Europe, 8-12 inches of sea level rise on the US Northeast coast, and

disruption of global rain patterns. The heat left behind in the southern ocean because of

the weakened AMOC could cause the Antarctic Ice Sheets to melt, thus causing the rise

in sea levels as glaciers melt. More examples of ice melting being a big problem is

Permafrost melt. Permafrost is land that has been frozen for thousands and millions of

years. Carbon is trapped inside of the permafrost. In turn carbon is released as

permafrost melts. This could release hundreds of billions of tons of greenhouse gasses

in the atmosphere.

At about 2º-3ºC monsoons could disrupt global agriculture impacting over 1

billion people. Monsoons could also cause food shortages and displacement of people.

Furthermore monsoons could also impact the length and severity of the dry season in

the Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon Rainforest has experienced 3 “one in one hundred year” droughts

between 2010-2020. In Turn the Amazon Rainforest went from a carbon sink to a

source of greenhouse gas for the first time because of the dieback of rainforest. In the

future the Amazon rainforest could become a grassland or a desert.

Sadly for the Coral Reefs the tipping point has likely been reached. The

destruction of ocean ecosystems due to ocean acidification and warming is likely

irreversible.
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The impacts of climate change are wide and devastating but, there are many

organizations taking actions to prevent or lessen the impacts of climate change. One

organization working to combat climate change is CODEPINK. They first started in

Washington DC in front of the white house where they set up a 4-month long vigil in the

cold winter to protest the U.S led war in Iraq.CODEPINK was started and is led by

women but they accept anyone to join them. The work that they are doing to combat

climate change is organizing justice for Iraqis and to end or prevent other U.S wars.

CODEPINK is working to combat centralization of resources by redirecting resources

into life-affirming programs, healthcare, education and green jobs. They are doing this

work through satire, creative visuals, civil resistance and by directly challenging

decision-makers in corporations and governments while wearing pink. CODEPINK has

organized vigils in front of the white house for many issues including women's rights,

peace in Ukraine and to protest the U.S led war in Iraq. Their work will help to combat

the causes of climate change by working to defund the military to move resources to

more green areas. They are also actively raising awareness of the issues relating to war

and the consequences of war

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We can take action to combat climate change by learning from the work that is

already being done by many climate justice organizations. One of the most important

actions that we can take is reducing our fossil fuel consumption and reliance on fossil

fuels. We can do this by pressuring politicians through letter writing and attending local

political meetings to create laws that will divest from the US military. Taking these

actions to combat climate change will reduce the carbon emissions produced by the U.S

military. Another important action that we can take to combat climate change is to grow

food locally as part of a local economic system that is focused on community needs. We

can do this by building networks within our communities to produce and share

resources so that everyone’s needs are met through local resource production and

sharing. Growing food locally will help combat climate change by removing the need for

middle men and the mass production of one crop or animal. If we grow food specifically

for our local communities we would not need to rely on corporations that only care for

profit and quantity over quality. One other action we can take to combat climate change

is by supporting the work climate justice organizations are already doing by volunteering

our time and/or donating funds and resources. We can do this as a community by

organizing fundraising events and by giving our time to help. This action will help

combat climate change by actively working or supporting climate justice organizations

through many ways. Most importantly this will most likely raise awareness thus creating

more support.