The most important catastrophe of our time is climate change, which is unfolding even faster than we anticipated. But despite this global threat, we are far from helpless. The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win, as Secretary-General António Guterres stated in September.
Climate change will have disastrous effects on every region of the world. Environmental deterioration, natural disasters, meteorological extremes, food and water insecurity, economic instability, conflict, and terrorism are all being fueled by rising temperatures. The Arctic is melting, coral reefs are perishing, the oceans are becoming more acidic, and forests are burning. It is obvious that carrying on as normal will not do. Now is the time for courageous group action as the cost of climate change approaches unstoppable heights.
The production of coal, oil, and gas results in the annual release of billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. With no indications of slowing down, human activity is producing greenhouse gas emissions at record levels. We are on course to maintain a “business as usual” trajectory, according to a ten-year summary of UNEP Emission Gap assessments.
The four warmest years on record occurred in the last four years. We are near to what scientists warn would be “an unacceptable risk,” according to a September 2019 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) assessment, and we are at least one degree Celsius above pre industrial levels. According to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, global warming should be kept “well below” two degrees Celsius, and efforts should be made to keep it even lower, at 1.5 degrees. However, if we don’t reduce global emissions, temperatures may increase by more than three degrees Celsius by 2100, further harming our ecosystems irreparably. Sea levels are already rising as a result of the melting of glaciers and ice sheets in arctic and mountainous areas. Nearly 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometres of a coast, and nearly two-thirds of cities with a population of over five million people are situated in areas at risk of sea level rise. Millions of people could be forced to relocate if nothing is done about entire districts of New York, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, and many more cities become submerged within our lifetimes.
Food and water security are impacted by global warming for everyone. The quantity of carbon that the earth can hold in its soil is limited by climate change, which is a direct cause of soil degradation. Today, up to 30% of food is lost or wasted while 500 million people live in areas where there is erosion. In the meantime, climate change reduces the quantity and quality of water for agriculture and drinking.
Food security is becoming increasingly uncertain as many places struggle to maintain crops that have thrived for millennia. These effects typically affect the weak and poor the most. The economic gap between the richest and poorest nations in the globe is predicted to widen due to global warming.
A serious threat to world peace and security is climate change. Due to increased competition for resources like land, food, and water, socioeconomic tensions are heightened and mass evictions are increasingly common as a result of climate change.
The climate is a risk multiplier that exacerbates current problems. Political upheaval and bloodshed are directly influenced by droughts in Latin America and Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, the World Bank predicts that more than 140 million people will be compelled to migrate within their regions by 2040 if nothing is done.
Although science has proven that climate change is real, it has also shown that it is still possible to stop the tide. This will necessitate major changes in all facets of civilization, including how we cultivate food, utilize land, move commodities, and drive our economy. While technology has played a part in climate change, new and effective technologies can help us cut net emissions and make the world a better place. More than 70% of today’s emissions currently have readily accessible technical alternatives. Electric automobiles are about to enter the mainstream, and renewable energy is now the cheapest energy source in many locations. Nature-based solutions give us “breathing room” while we work to decarbonize our economy in the meantime. With the help of these solutions, we can reduce some of our carbon footprint while also promoting important ecosystem functions including biodiversity, freshwater access, improved livelihoods, and food security. Improved farming methods, land restoration, conservation, and the greening of food supply chains are a few examples of nature-based solutions.
We can all advance to a future that is cleaner and more robust thanks to scalable new technology and solutions derived from nature. We can build a green future where suffering is reduced, justice is upheld, and harmony between people and the world is once again possible if governments, corporations, civil society, youth, and academia are together.
To read more blogs like this, click here.
Writer,
Md. Mehedi Hasan
Content Writing Department
YSSE