Climate Education
Climate change is an urgent global problem.
Climate change includes many observed changes such as global temperature rise, warming oceans, melting polar ice, glacial retreat, sea level rise, increased extreme weather events and ocean acidification. These are the result of on-going human activities, especially burning of fossil fuels, which has added more than 1.5 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide to Earth’s atmosphere since the pre-industrial period, increasing its concentration from below 300 parts per million (ppm) to ca. 420 ppm today. One would have to go back millions of years in Earth’s history to find such a high level of carbon dioxide. The last time carbon dioxide levels were at similar levels was 3-5 million years ago before the evolution of modern humans, when the world was 2-3°C warmer and the sea level was 15-25 meters higher than today.
The past five years each ranked as the five hottest on record globally, as did 19 of the past 20 years in this century. Global warming is fueling destructive weather events, for example increasing wildfires and more intense storms around the world. Greenland and Antarctica are losing unprecedented amounts of ice and contributing to faster sea level rise. Record high temperatures of the oceans are being recorded, which were the hottest ever in 2020, and before that in 2019, and before that in 2018, and before that in 2017. Climate change is accelerating and leading to increasingly common and destructive weather events, food and water insecurity, and threatening human health.
Rapid climate change have significant costs that are borne throughout the globe. These include severe weather events, such as droughts, wildfires and forest fires, tropical storms, atmospheric rivers, tidal flooding, intense tornadoes, etc. Climate change-driven damages are increasing worldwide as the severe weather events become more frequent, increasing steadily over that past 50 years. Climate change also affects global health, including increased insect-borne infectious disease and increased heat-related illness. Climate change is driving large-scale migrations, which are expected to continue to increase, and predcited to displace between 143-216 million people by 2050.
In 2012, extreme weather drove more than 32 million people from their homes. This number is expected to rise significantly. (Source: https://www.socialeurope.eu/).
Immediate
actions that are necessary to avoid the worst damages include
suspension of fossil fuel uses and their rapid replacement with carbon
neutral (or carbon negative) energy sources, prioritizing renewable
solar and wind energy. Concurrently, careful management of carbon
sequestration assets such as coastal marshes, forests and agricultural
lands is also essential. The world’s nations committed to reducing
greenhouse gases through the Paris Agreement in 2016 and it is
imperative that these commitments be adhered to and enhanced in 2021 to
avoid irreversible damages to Earth’s natural cycles and ecosystems and
threaten human societies. Responses and actions are also needed at the
national, regional, and local levels by institutional and individual
leaders and citizens. We outline all these actions in our Roadmap.
Renewable wind and solar energy are part of the solution to reducing emissions from energy production.
Many resources are available to understand the magnitude of the climate change problem as well as the impacts and solutions. Links are provided below to our Roadmp for Responding to Climate Change, NASA's climate time machine to view climate change effects occurring globally and over large regions of the world. NOAA's sea level rise viewer may be employed to show the effects of different levels of sea level rise on coastal regions. Additional valuable tools and information are provided by the UN Climate Change website, NASA's GISS website, and Carbon Brief website. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website provides detailed information on the health effects of climate change.
(**DETAILS COMING SOON!**) MACA maintains a database for students (and others) to explore the impacts and solutions to climate change. Please contact us when using our ideas, asking for members to serve as mentors and advisors, reporting results from these projects, and to suggest other climate projects for students.