Impact of Climate Change on Society

How is climate change affecting society? To start off, climate change is defined as long-term shifts in global temperature and weather patterns. Climate change is mainly caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, which results in greenhouse gas emissions. The primary greenhouse gas emissions are methane and carbon dioxide.  Greenhouse gases trap the sun’s heat around the globe, acting as a blanket, which in turn yields increased global temperatures, intense droughts, catastrophic storms, flooding, severe fires, the melting of polar ice, and sea level rise. This impacts people all over the world and many national economies. 

These extreme weather events not only cause significant economic losses, but also pose great threats to human health, especially for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and infants. Increasingly severe droughts disrupt agriculture, causing crop failures and water shortage, while rising sea levels endanger coastal communities and freshwater sources, leading to displacement and contamination. Therefore, the unpredictability of these events disrupts essential infrastructure such as transportation, energy, and public health services, increasing social and economic inequalities. Smaller island nations and developing countries are more easily impacted since they do not have the resources nor the economic status to protect themselves. The cumulative impact of climate change poses a great threat to global stability, food security, and human well-being, emphasizing the urgent need to start taking action.

Current analytics of Earth’s average surface temperature show that we are 1.1°C warmer than in the late 1800s. This was before the Industrial Revolution and is important to note because the Industrial Revolution is what sparked the popularized use of machinery, which in turn has led to our reliance on fossil fuels.  However, if no action is taken, the World’s average surface temperature is projected to reach over 3°C this century and in some areas, even higher. This would be detrimental to all groups of life on the planet. To conclude, addressing climate change is not just an environmental issue, but an issue for the well being of future generations.