The urgency underlying last Friday’s global climate strike was clear; we’re running out of time to save our planet. And while it’s true that there is still time to change course, global warming is already reshaping all sorts of places around the globe. Several examples illustrate the breadth of these changes, though the list is not exhaustive.
- Although natural disasters are inevitable, global warming makes them worse and more frequent. Rising temperatures increase the intensity and frequency of storms and floods, threatening to make the damage that Dorian caused routine. Global warming also prolongs and intensifies forest fires, irreparably damaging ecosystems from the Amazon to Yosemite.
- Global warming is also hurting animals directly. The Great Barrier Reef and other marine ecosystems around the world are suffering because of rising temperatures, animals are changing their breeding and migration schedules, and arctic animals are experiencing shorter hibernations and longer, physically exhausting swims as the ice sheets melt.
- And it’s not just animals and ecosystems, though they’re vitally important. Global warming is also threatening agricultural crop yields, polluting air, and threatening infrastructure (train tracks in Europe recently buckled during the record-setting heat wave).
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the not-to-distant future, island nations will sink, coastal cities will flood and become unlivable, and the subsequent wave of climate refugees will strain our already strained food supply, leading to resources shortages and potentially war.
The science is clear; global warming is reshaping place as we know it. Without meaningful action, the places that we, and animals, call home will no longer exist. The places and infrastructure that we rely on to keep society functioning will no longer exist. And the places that are crucial to the functioning of our planet, like the Amazon, will no longer function as needed.
The result? Not just a conceptual reshaping of place, but the total elimination of many places. Eventually, unless we start making real change soon, the place we all call home, Planet Earth, will meet the same fate.
Sources:
https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/impacts/global-warming-and-wildfire.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/world/great-barrier-reef-coral-dying-climate-change/index.html
https://www.livescience.com/23026-global-warming-changing-world.html
https://www.edf.org/climate/how-climate-change-plunders-planet
