The issue with climate change is that what’s really happening is obscured under a bombardment of articles and statistics, making it hard for most people to really understand.

Let’s break it down.

Climate change is defined by Google as: “A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular, a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.” So basically the increased use of fossil fuels, i.e. motor vehicles, industry, agriculture, and whatnot, are releasing carbon dioxide (which is very bad) and warming the Earth. The cutting of trees can also release mass amounts of CO2 (also a huge problem in the world right now). The average amount of CO2 in the air has been on a steady increase especially in the last few years alone. CO2 and other gases being emitted are being trapped in the atmosphere causing the greenhouse effect. A common misconception, especially for northerners, is that come winter we get hit with major snowstorms and everyone begins to think that global warming and climate change is not a problem because it’s still so cold. Well, the thing is, global warming is the cause of even more intense winters. Rising temperatures in the Arctic are causing the jet stream to become more of a wave, peaking and dipping in different areas, bringing colder Arctic air. (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31082015/yes-warming-arctic-means-cold-winters-elsewhere-Boston-US-Asia) This just goes to show that climate change means more than simply a hotter summer.

The main problem lies in the millions of people who hear that the oceans are rising and don’t see a problem, or those who turn a blind eye to the fact that the Amazon rain forest will probably be gone in 50 years, as will the Polar bears and probably many other arctic species. Have a trip to the Maldives on your bucket list? I’m sorry to tell you that might not be possible unless you plan on some extensive scuba diving because the entire island is sinking due to rising sea levels. Higher temperatures and more extreme weather are a given looking to the future. However, the first major steps in the fight against climate change that we’ve seen in a while were finally taken last October when the Paris Agreement was drafted. There may be hope for the future at last.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-5aceb360-8bc3-4741-99f0-2e4f76ca02bb