No Time To Panic: Understanding the Climate Crisis

I’m just going to say it: this summer has been really hot.

For about a minute, I thought it was because this is my first summer in Southern Ontario. Maybe I’m not used to it. Maybe because I don’t have air conditioning. Maybe it has been an unusual year.

But when my fan rotated, in that moment of cool respite I remembered reality. Reality is the climate crisis. Reality is that the summers will continue to get hotter, weather will get less predictable, and that I will probably need an apartment with better insulation. Humans have been irresponsible with the planet, making a mad grab for everything they want like children in a toy store. It’s time for us to grow up and face the price tag. We don’t have time to panic. This is the climate crisis.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report earlier this year that made quite a splash. They outlined very clearly that the planet is warming and will continue to warm. The magnitude of the change is, for now, still in human hands. That is why it is essential to understand what is happening, and what we can do about it.

Earth has warmed approximately 1 °C since pre-industrial times. Think pre-coal, pre-locomotive trains. It is likely that warming will continue and reach 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels at or before the year 2050. The point at which climate change becomes dangerous and irreversible has been stated for some time to be 2 °C. That newest IPCC report explored and illustrated why 1.5 °C should be considered the dangerous limit (and there is a lot of reading that could be done about it for anyone interested).

A sign my friend made for a climate rally we attended.

Climate change has and will continue to have many far-reaching impacts:

As a result of rising global temperatures, sea ice will melt and global sea levels will rise. Ocean ecosystems are incredibly sensitive to changes in temperature and coastal areas will be reshaped as the waters rise. Aside from the threat to wildlife and plants, human communities will be at higher risk of floods and storms. In extreme cases, some communities will be displaced as the ocean swallows their home.

Rising global temperatures will increase the occurrences of extreme weather events. Hurricanes, heat waves, forest fires, and severe storms will present serious challenges for human communities. Gradual changes in regional climates will put wildlife and plants under pressure to adapt much faster than ever before. While two hundred years may seem long for a person, the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. All the changes caused by anthropogenic (read: human) actions are happening much too quickly for the rest of the planet to keep up.

Graphic by Melissa Jakow/ Media Matters.

As the world’s climate becomes more extreme, social inequality will worsen the impacts of environmental change. The areas in the world that will be the worst hit by extreme weather and resource shortages are also likely to be those that are less industrially developed, less wealthy, and less resilient as a result. The most economically powerful nations largely lie beyond the range of serious immediate danger. The impacts of climate change will not be felt equally around the globe, and there is a very frightening possibility that the countries most responsible for climate change may leave others to carry the cost of their actions.

I have heard a lot of people say that they don’t want to talk about climate change because it scares them. The climate crisis is a frightening thing. It’s big, complicated, long-term, and has no easy solutions. At this point, I would like to say that the world is not ending.

However, the world is changing.

Our best chance to make it through and adapt is to act as a global community. Taking action in our own lives, reaching out to our communities, working with other people to improve where we live. It is also very important to take civic action and vote, which is the only way to create governments that will steer us towards the best options for our future.

Communities are the most resilient, at their strongest, and at their best when members act because they care about each other. So it’s time to show that we care. Show your family, show your friends, show your cities, and show your leaders. Do it for the sake of everyone that you know and everyone that you don’t. We can make the change that we want to see in the world.

References:

Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 degrees C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2019. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/

Climate Change and the OCean. Ocean Conservancy. 2018. https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2018/10/11/climate-change-ocean-stark-message-ipcc/?ea.tracking.id=19HPXGJAXX&gclid=CjwKCAjwyqTqBRAyEiwA8K_4O4YZ-zdpqhtP_OgfwQLHPg4s_rqH6VtsA13Waz-6Y8rUJ10VKM9-UxoCL4EQAvD_BwE

The Countries Most Vulnerable to Climate Change in 8 Maps. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/02/03/the-countries-most-vulnerable-to-climate-change-in-3-maps/?noredirect=on

Further Reading:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/

We have 12 Years to Limit Climate Change Catastrophe. The Guardian. 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report

Impacts of Climate Change. The David Suzuki Foundation. 2017. https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/impacts-climate-change/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7anqBRALEiwAgvGgm11lYYLMow-V5suioN7P5X0e1TACmfK4ePA1a5SFJjI3n8VBd6EcGBoCdJ8QAvD_BwE

Environmental Issues in Canada. The Narwhal. https://thenarwhal.ca/topics/environmental-issues-canada/