Communicative English program 10th level

Essay

Climate change

Student:

Frankling Jahir Gutiérrez Hernández

San Marcos 07/28/2023

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 Introduction.

In recent years we have heard a lot about climate change, that it is a global problem,

that humans are the cause, that species are in danger of extinction because of this, etc. and all

of this sounds very scary, but if you think about it: actually, the majority of the population

apart from not being aware that such a threat exists, if they do, they really don't fully

understand what it is and why it is so worrying.

But before asking ourselves, what is climate change? We must make a very important

distinction and it’s the difference between 'weather' and 'climate', weather is the atmospheric

conditions at a given moment in a certain place, looking outside we have the exact proof: We

can describe how it is today and we would be referring to the weather; its main feature is that

it changes every day, every hour and even every minute. On the other hand, climate is the

long-term pattern of weather in a particular region. As I said, the weather can change every

minute, so the pattern of the weather cycle that prevails in an area for at least 30 years would

be its climate. So now yes: What is climate change? According to the United Nations (UN)

climate change “Refers to long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns. These

changes can be natural, due to variations in solar activity or large volcanic eruptions. But

since the 19th century, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, mainly

due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

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 Body

After hearing this you can formulate this question: is it climate change a real threat? I

mean, one more degree in temperature shouldn't be that bad, right? Well, this is not true,

this single degree of difference means that in recent years there are countries such as

Portugal where just last year 2022 it was recorded that the amount of rainfall had been half

of a normal year, according to the IPMA (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera) in

2022 only recorded 419 millimeters of rain, 51% of what would be a normal value.

Declaring the entire country in drought, 55% in severe drought class and 45% in extreme

drought. Examples like this are found around the world, including in Nicaragua: Chinandega

has had peaks of up to 42° Celsius, which would seem like a not so harmless heat wave that

causes sweating and dehydration, also causes droughts, fires, water shortages, which causes

downturns in the country's agricultural sector and a rise in all prices.

Now that we see that climate change is not only a real threat, but that we are currently

experiencing the consequences of the hyper-industrialization that began with the industrial

revolution, we can ask ourselves an interesting question. With so much data that

demonstrates the veracity of climate change, why are there still deniers? denialism ends up

being functional to the interests of the energy industry and to certain ideologies that have

spent 30 years sowing doubt about climate change where there is none. In fact, the budget

that companies use to control, delay or prevent the development of mandatory climate

policies is enormous.

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 Conclusion

Climate change is a reality and it is obvious that today we are suffering several of the

consequences due to the abuse of human beings with resources, today measures are already

being taken against all this and there is an international agreement that forces the most

developed countries to collaborate to keep the earth habitable, but the companies that profit

precisely from the activities that generate greenhouse gases do everything possible to avoid

these laws and agreements, so let's raise awareness to continue living in this our home, thank

you.