S.O.S The Troubled Earth

By Isabelle Huang

---

The fate of Earth is in our hands. How many times have you heard topics relating to melting glaciers, dying cloud forests, and rising sea levels mentioned in the past years? Our Earth is experiencing challenges and changes. What is happening? The answer is global warming. Over the past century, the Earth’s temperature has been rapidly rising and is affecting animals, environments, ecosystems, and even humans. The rapid rise of temperatures is altering the climate patterns faster than ever which could lead to new and unpredictable climate changes in the future. So how can we fix this problem? 
 
Before discussing solutions, let’s get a better understanding of climate change. As you might already know, humans have caused climate change and global warming by releasing greenhouse gases. These gases are released when humans burn fossil fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas), trapping heat into the atmosphere causing the temperature to rise. This is called the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect kept the Earth warm by trapping heat in the atmosphere while still letting light in, similar to the walls of a greenhouse. However, humans have started releasing more greenhouse gases which caused more heat to be trapped in the atmosphere.
 
For thousands of years, emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere have been balanced out by greenhouse gases that are naturally absorbed. However, since we started emitting more greenhouse gases, the natural cycle was thrown out of balance. This causes the climate to change in unexpected ways. Not only can climate change cause sea levels to rise, but the weather can also become more extreme. This means more major storms, more rain followed by longer droughts, a loss of water supply, and changes in plants and animals’ habitats. Now that we know more about the consequences of climate change and how it works, what can we do to help slow down climate change?
 
Since we are releasing increased greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we can help make a difference by lowering the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by doing the following:

• Use solar energy or just less energy
• Use mass transits (buses, trains, or carpool) to limit the amount of fossil fuels from each individual car
•   Reuse, reduce, and recycle
•   Turn off the lights when you leave the room or only use the lights when needed
• Use less heat and air conditioning and consider installing insulation to your walls instead
• Take shorter showers or use less hot water while taking showers
•   Change your lightbulb to a regular LED light bulb since they take up less energy than fluorescent light bulbs
•    Do not waste food and consider eating less meat in your meals
•   Bring awareness and educate people on global warming issues and ways we can minimize the damages
•   And much more…

Climate change is a global problem, and we must do our best to minimize the harmful effects. Every little thing counts! Whether you plant a tree, or just remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room can make a big difference. Let’s all take an active role in saving our beautiful Earth, a place we called HOME!

​