I have always been in love with nature. I love sitting outside at my grandma's house and watching the sun set behind the tall cornstalks. I love hiking in the woods and exploring all of the trees, flowers, plants, and animals God created. I love going to the beach and lying in the warm sand and touching the salty sea with my toes. I love sitting outside reading and soaking up the sun all day, even though it feels like a few seconds.
The sad thing about it though is that all of these things I love to do may turn into things I loved to do.
Our world is at a tipping point. Either we do something now, or we, along with all of the organisms that call Earth home, will pay the consequences. Climate change is a real thing, a real issue we are dealing with every single day of our lives, yet most people don't even consider climate change as a real concept.
We are experiencing changes that are unprecedented and will make lasting impacts on us. The oceans are expected to rise between one to four feet within the next 100 years. This number might not sound like that big of a deal, but the last time something like this happened was 40 million years ago.
While the day to day temperature may not be as warm or hot like some people think of as the main factor of climate change, the planet's surface temperature is rapidly increasing. Since the 1800s, the temperature has increased by 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit. This number, again, doesn't sound like it will do much damage, but this amount of increase will be enough to melt the ice caps, make the ocean levels rise, and produce storms that are unrivaled.
Diseases are starting to become more rampant and widespread, making the latest anti-vax campaign even more alarming. The measles, an extremely rare disease that typically only affects 1,000 people a year, prompted a county in New York to declare a state of emergency because so many people were being diagnosed with the disease.
There are many simple things we can do to help slow and prevent future climate change. We can walk or bike somewhere instead of driving. We can take shorter showers and turn the water off when we are brushing our teeth. We can reduce our usage of our electronics. We can be more conscious about what we are eating, maybe choosing a salad once in a while over a hamburger. We can recycle and use less plastic. The things we can do are quite simple, but they are very necessary if we want to protect our planet.
This article isn't meant to scare you; it's to inform you. Climate change seems like a scary thing, and it is, but it doesn't have to be. The more we do to protect our planet, the more improvement we will see. Our world is changing quickly, but the sooner we can understand this, the more we will be able to do to slow, and possibly reverse it.
Go outside and fall in love with nature. Fall in love with lying outside reading a book. Fall in love with hiking in the woods. Fall in love with exploring all of the beautiful animals, flowers, trees, and plants God created.
The more we go outside and explore our world, the more we will want to save it.
