Warning Signs From Mother Nature

Our livelihoods have altered the state of our planet and Mother Nature is biting back with nasty forms of extreme weather, calamities and threats to our health and resources. We speak to various individuals about climate change and their efforts to save the environment, before earth completely gives out on us, writes Fiona Kee

In recent months, we’ve experienced extreme weather in our country, from heavy downpours to unbearable heat waves. Like any other person, I paid no attention to it and shrugged it off. My response was probably one of nonchalance; not attributing it to our planet’s wellbeing. Call it ignorance or obliviousness, but severe weather fluctuations are signs of climate change, and it’s time we step up to the plate and do something about it. Words like ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ have become common in our daily conversations and lives, whether it’s watching the lat evening news, or scrolling through our phones. Although the terms have been used interchangeably, it’s important to know that global warming is just one aspect of climate change. According to the US Geological Survey, ‘global warming’ is the rise in global temperature due to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, while ‘climate change’ refers to changes in the measures of the climate over a long period of time.

And climate change is often caused by us. Besides burning fossil fuels, humans can cause climate change by emitting aerosol pollution—tiny particles that reflect sunlight and cool the climate—into the atmosphere, or by transforming the Earth’s landscape, i.e deforestation. These alterations will inevitably contribute to climate change, which many regions globally are already experiencing. On October 2018, The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report about a possible rise in global temperature by 2°C if drastic changes are not made. IPCC later stated that a decreased warming increase of 1.5°C is possible if everyone limited contribution to greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade.