Traveling to Iceland was a dream for my father and I. So, during the spring of 2015, my dad and I traveled to Iceland and explored the country. By far the most enjoyable activity we did was hiking on a glacier. Now picture this: you are walking on the whitest snow while overlooking an amazing view of a little river peaceful washing into the nearest ocean. Now, while walking up this glacier, our tour guide informed us about Iceland and this particular glacier. The one fact that jumped out was how much this ice mountain shrunk over time. The glacier shrunk at least a miles over time. Each year the guide would put a beacon where the ice edge meets the land and it was unbelievable how fast it decreased in size. Our guide explained to all of the visitors that this is a result of climate change. Now, with that imagine of how deadly climate change is, our current EPA president thinks differently of climate than our tour guide. Thus, it is important for people to start understanding how serious climate change now before anything terrible happens to our world. 

The head of our EPA is discussing climate change in a meeting, Scott Pruitt claims, “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. So no, I would not agree that [carbon dioxide is] primary contributor to the global warming that we see” (Carroll, 2017). This quote was taken directly from an interview that a CNN host gave where the interviewer asked Mr. Pruitt about his thoughts on climate change and how anthropogenic it truly was. In this interview Mr. Pruitt uses correct facts to prove his point. However, the overall conclusion he excludes is incorrect. Now, this may be confusing, but there is an explanation to this madness.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal” (NASA, 2017). With this being said, here’s some popular evidence that NASA gathers over time. First, the sea level will rise. In the last century, the sea level rose 6.7 inches. There are two acumens explaining why the sea level rose. Water from the melting ice caps and the expansion of seawater as the water starts to heat up. [Clean transition]. Global temperature rises dramatically in the past 35 years. In fact, the hottest year ever recorded was 2016 with a natural increase in temperature by .99 degrees Celsius. That number may be a low value, but the slightest difference can cause an ecosystem to erupt with chaos. This is because there are specific niches in our biomass that require specific temperatures and pH. Thus, changing the temperature of will cause a shift in environments. Leaving animals to be a stressful environment where they would die. Other evidence to prove global warming is real is the warming of oceans. Scientists have found that the oceans are heating up .302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.  Speaking of the warming of the oceans, ice sheets have been heating over time. Simply meaning, they are just melting. In fact, according to NASA, ice sheets in Greenland lost about 150-250 kilometers between the years 2002-2006. And during the years 2002-2005, ice sheets in Antarctica lost around 152 kilometers of ice. And the last piece of evidence that hugely supports climate change being a real event is extreme events. Meaning, the highest temperatures recording are increasing since the 1950s; whereas, the lowest temperatures records are decreasing. All of evidence I listed gives validation to climate change being a real natural mechanism that has to be talked about global. This planet has already suffered enough and it’s time for people to be woke. It’s time for people to understand that climate change is a real mechanism that is being powered by human activity. But, before I go into examples of how climate change affects us presently, let's talk about what climate is.

Climate change and global warming indicate an increase in the moderate global temperatures. To be correct, global warming does occur naturally; however, it is believed and strongly supported that humans are a primary reason for increase in the average temperatures. The increase in temperature is primarily caused by greenhouse gases, for example, carbon dioxide and water vapor are greenhouse gasses. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are 7 indicators that would help the rising warming of the planet. These indicators include: an increasing in humanity, temperature over oceans, sea surface temperature, sea level, ocean heat content, temperature over land, and tropospheric temperature. And on the other side, there are 3 indicators that that will decrease: sea ice, glaciers, and snow cover. So, basically, to sum up what these factors mean is that climate change causes the increasing and decreasing of these indicators. Early, I mentioned that carbon was a greenhouse gas, but what does that mean?

The term greenhouse comes for the phenomenon the greenhouse effect. Now, the greenhouse effect describes the process of how the heat traps itself in our atmosphere. To make it simply, energy from our sun travels to the Earth. Because of the temperature of the energy, it easily passes through our atmosphere with very little problems. Once the energy passes through the atmosphere, it hits the earth's crust. Now, the crust absorbs some of energy which reduces the temperature of the leftover energy. The rest of energy is reflected off to the crust. However, because of the lower temperature this energy has, it cannot escape our atmosphere. So, the gasses, like carbon dioxide and water vapor, just absorb the gas. The two gasses are commonly referred to as greenhouse gasses. 

It is strongly supported that climate change does affect biodiversity. There is ample evidence to prove this. To be more factual, global warming, which is a natural mechanism, shaped different ecosystems for years causing species to be strive. Or, on the other hand, to cause an extinction which primarily only occurs when there’s a dramatic shift in the temperature average. Climate change can cause a rapid climate shift. According to UN’s Global Biodiversity, “Climate change is already having an impact on biodiversity, and is projected to become a progressively more significant threat in the coming decades. Loss of Arctic sea ice threatens biodiversity across an entire biome and beyond. The related pressure of ocean acidification, resulting from higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is also already being observed” (Shah, 2014). 

Climate change greatly impacts the Arctic. Since the Arctic and Antarctic have high latitudes, those locations have the highest rates of warming. With the temperature increasing at an expectational rate, it means more ice will melt. This will cause a catastrophic chain reaction for the organisms living there. A lot of different animals rely on those ice caps for a stable environment, such as polar bears. If those homes are taken away then those bears have nowhere to survive, which will cause their extinction. Now, imagine the organisms surviving in the water. The extra water from the ice caps could dramatically affect the pH, temperature, and other factors that contribute to where species can live. Disrupting these factors could lead to a huge problem because there are organisms who require very strict living conditions to strive in. Thus, if something is tampered with than it can lead these animals dying. The most classic example of water animals affected by climate change is corals. 

 Before talking about the corals itself, first it is important to understand the science behind the damaging of the oceans, specifically how the acidification of the oceans is increasing. The science behind the oceans becoming more acidic is not popular than it should because oceans acidizing is a very significant problem caused by climate change. But, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains the chemistry of ocean acidification in three claims: First, more CO₂ in the atmosphere means more CO₂ in the ocean. Second, the CO₂ in the atmosphere dissolves in the oceans which how the oceans become acidic. And finally, the new acidic environment results in a change in the chemistry of the oceans which damages aqua life. It damages marine life by canceling the ability for plants and animals to shell themselves with calcium carbonate. So, with this knowledge, researchers discovered that the excess CO₂ that humans wastefully dump into the atmosphere will be absorbed in the oceans. Now, let’s talk about the coral reefs.

With the acidization occurring in the oceans, it will lead to coral bleaching. The first coral reef affected by coral bleaching was recorded in 1998. Corals are an organism that need a very strict environment or the animals will die. Thus, if the pH changes dramatically, then it causes coral to stress. With the stress, the zooxanthellae, the organism that shares a symbiotic relationship with coral leaves which cause the zooxanthellae stress out. Now, if zooxanthellae leave the coral, the color of the coral turns white. The whiteness tells researchers that the corals are unhealthy and will lead to death by diseases due to the corals weak immune system. The death of the coral reefs will cause a chain reaction.

Coral reefs act as a habit for fish, turtles, sharks, eels, crabs, shrimps, urchins, sponges, and algae. If their home dies, then it will die. These animals can not just “find a new home” like humans can because that is not how the process information. These organisms will stress out and likely die. These are good enough reasons for the world to talk about climate change today and stop pushing it aside. Because at the end of the day, this earth does not belong to just humans; this planet shares itself with millions of other animals. And if humans do not educate themselves on the critical topic of climate change today, then catastrophic issues will arise and by then it will be too late to fix anything. Animals will go extinct, and some already have, third world countries will lose economic strengths, and, ultimately, this planet will forever be impacted by the damages.

Ultimately, worldwide nations need to start discussing outcomes for climate change before natural disasters happen because disrupting an ecosystem can cause a series of chain reactions that will lead to deadly results for the world. However, I understand that predicting the future will not always be 100% accurate. However, with the evidence I have shared with the reader should alarm them. Hopefully, I let you see that climate change is more than a personal issue; whereas, this is an issue that can hurt everything. Now, with that said, going back to the quote said by Scott Pruitt. His quote pushes climate change aside deeming it as a less critical issue. I hope you, the reader, understand that this is a problem. That the head of the EPA thinks so little of issue that can do so much. Him and Donald Trump refuse the theory of climate change when over 97% of the scientific community accepts climate change and human activity does increase the problem. So, with this in our heads, why should these men be allowed to decide the future of this planet when they do not agree with the people who dedicate their lives trying to understand?    
