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Jazmyn Contreras

With climate change being a hot topic in the last decade, the public has started to notice the intense weather differences that were predicted to happen if human-made emissions continued to increase at their current rate. The effects of the impending global climate change are becoming more clear.

As an LA county resident, I have noticed the rain showers and the cold air currents seem to be more constant. I see the jokes on Twitter that the snow in Las Vegas and the below-freezing temperatures in Chicago are clues that the world is dying off, but they are quickly becoming the reality.

In a study by Binghamton University, Jessica Hua, an assistant professor of biological sciences, speaks on the complexity of global climate change. The study was published by Science Daily on Feb 20, 2019.

“There is a lot of misconceptions that global climate change only refers to an increase in warming temperatures,” Hua said. “We feel that the research in this paper is important because it highlights that global climate change is more complex than just an increase in average temperature. In fact, global climate change is also predicted to increase the prevalence of extreme cold temperature events, as well as increase the amount of variation in temperature fluctuations.”

Global climate change is a threat not only to the United States but to all of humankind; it is a crisis that is only getting worse daily. Predictions of global warming started in the 1930s; however, scientific jargon was not the world’s greatest worry in the midst of the Great Depression. Past matters have seemed more pressing, from war to famine and even the California drought. But now in 2019, we are starting to see the effects of global warming and they can no longer be swept under the rug.

The Earth’s natural atmosphere alone is not enough to keep current inhabitants alive and warm. Greenhouse gasses are needed as a blanket to keep the sun’s warmth trapped on Earth. Global warming happens from too many greenhouse gasses that warm the planet slowly and increase the overall temperature. Greenhouse gasses vary from the burning of fossil fuels in cars, planes, and trains to the carbon dioxide human and mammals exhale.

According to the The Hill article, “Australia declares climate change-threatened rodent officially extinct,” Burke stated that the Bramble Cay Melomys have gone extinct because of man-made climate change, the Bramble Cay is a species of small brown rats that were native to Australia.

It is believed that the extinction was caused by oceanic inundation. Oceanic inundation, otherwise known as “rising sea levels,”come from the ice caps dramatically melting since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Companies have tried to do their fair share of help to stop the pollution by “going green.” Car companies like Toyota and Honda have created hybrid to full electric cars. Dell started asking their customers to send their old electronics to the company for safe disposal or recycling. United Airlines has spent over 16 billion U.S. dollars replacing their airplanes for more fuel efficient planes.

While these initiatives are a good start, everyone must chip in to create a long lasting environment that can be sustained for centuries to come.

If you have questions on how to lessen your carbon footprint, you can visit:  https://cotap.org/reduce-carbon-footprint/ for more information.