Climate change is an issue stemming from the Industrial Revolution with effects that are potentially damaging to mankind and its way of life. Climate change is a natural process, but man’s burning of fossil fuels over the course of a century and a half accelerated this process. The scale of this issue was not realized until the mid 1970s when it was discovered that the snow on various mountains and ice caps were melting and unprecedented droughts were reported. It is even more so an issue today as we face more frequent and intense heat waves, stronger storms than before, a rising sea level, and even islands starting to sink as a result of global warming. While the issue needs to be resolved, it is a grand challenge that will require great amounts of time and resources. However, some groups push on with physically and economically unfeasible plans while others completely turn a blind eye to the situation and deny its existence. There is no doubt that climate change needs to be managed, but we need to rethink the way we go about mitigating it.

Climate change ranges from the transition to an ice age to the current issue of global warming. Global warming has been noted since the First Industrial Revolution as being caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide being trapped in the atmosphere. However, global warming did not become a major concern until unprecedented droughts were reported in 1974 (American Institute of Physics.) This was the catalyst for a 40 year onslaught of research and massive political attention being directed towards the topic. Climate change has been reported since the start of the 19th century, but has not been taken as a threat until the mid 1970s.

Earth’s climate changes with the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. CO2 traps the Sun’s radiation and heat in the atmosphere, thus classing it as a greenhouse gas. In simpler terms, more CO2 in the atmosphere means that the Earth’s surface temperature increases while a lower amount of it results in cooler temperatures. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has always fluctuated naturally, bringing in periods of global warming in addition to ice ages. However, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increased sharply since the early to mid 20th century in correspondence with the advent of the automobile and the widespread usage of fossil fuels that followed it. Over the past century, the Earth’s temperature has increased by 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit (Down to Earth Climate Change.) While this may appear innocuous at first sight, this temperature increase is responsible for many unprecedented and threatening events. The Earth’s climate has been changing like never seen before and carries extreme consequences with it.