Urgent need to act on climate change
RECENTLY on the news I have seen a lot of articles on how, only now, people are realising just how devastating the impact we have had on the environment is.
Many questions arise in me when I see such reports: how did it take us so long to see this? How can we do our best to change, and if the worst comes to the worst and we don’t try to fix this – how will the world look in 30 years?
All of the headlines really got me going. How have we not taken this seriously? You could argue that global warming hasn’t been an issue for very long compared to the rest of human history, the first clear signs only showing in 1940 as the temperature started rising.
Looking closer it is easy to see that we have chosen to avoid the problem like we do with most things in our daily lives, turning a blind eye as though it will eventually pass. We have to wake up and accept that climate change isn’t going anywhere, it’s here to stay and it’s getting worse.
Without our help, in 2050, the world will be in absolute chaos. Giant storms and hurricanes will be the norm as well as disease because of overcrowding due to population growth to 9.7billion people.
Energy demand will have doubled, half the Amazon forests will have been cut down.
Humanity simply will not have enough resources, and so many people will die.
Although there is a global agreement between leaders to let temperature increase by 2ºC, there is only a 5% chance of it actually being possible, so icebergs will continue to melt, causing sea levels to rise and flood cities we call home.
There is no way to reverse the problem or our actions, but from here on we can change the way we live. There are the big changes we can make; solar heating and appliances, electric cars and reforestation, but there are also thousands of little things we can do.
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, take showers instead of baths, buy locally, eat less meat – many people think being vegan or vegetarian is expensive, but you’ll find it’s the complete opposite.
If none of these are available to you, look it up, and if you don’t have your own computer, head to a library. What you do today affects tomorrow. TALLULAH PERRIN
Cape Town