For as long as I can remember I've always been an environmental nerd. My mom used to call me "nature girl." I have been and always will be an animal lover and often find myself in awe of the beauty that this world has to offer. The sad part about this is that it will all come to an end if climate change doesn't stop.

I'd like to say I'm optimistic and that I have hope for the future of this planet, but the pure and utter truth is that I don't. Many of our environmental standards have been deteriorated. Our scientists have been warning us about this for a long time, far too long for an educated society to ignore it any longer. As someone who cares deeply about this earth, I don't want to live on a planet that is slowly being destroyed. I can't imagine looking back in 50 years and seeing what has been done to the planet, but more importantly, the things that we didn't do to save it.

The purpose of the following graph is to show you the effect that climate change has already had on our planet Earth, and what it can potentially do, if left unchecked. We can, and we must, raise awareness about climate change. Doing that would change the mere glimmer of hope that I have for this planet into a reality.

I'm sure most people have heard that the level of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has risen steadily, but it needs to be seen. Within the past decade, the levels have risen incredibly larger than ever expected. Scientists consider the safe level of CO2 in the atmosphere of 350ppm (parts per million), and unfortunately, we are currently at 400ppm, according to co2.earth.x. Many of you might ask, "Why aren't our politicians, the people we elect to represent us, passing laws to prohibit the increasing levels of CO2?" The answer? Unfortunately, 53% of The House of Representatives, 56% of Congress and 70% of the Senate, deny there is any sort of climate change. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, James Inhofe and Paul Ryan have accepted huge donations from the huge corporations such as Koch Industries, BP, Shell and ExxonMobil. This funneled money to the politicians practically insured that the laws won't get passed to restrict their fossil fuel usage. Let's be real, the people that are preventing the solutions to this problem, are our own politicians.

There are severe effects that have already taken a toll on the world. The weather pattern has changed, sea levels have risen and the arctic is rapidly melting. Speaking of ice melting, Greenland is dwindling by the second. It is said that by the year 2100, the Greenland ice sheet can be completely eradicated, according to climatecentral.org. With its size and depth, the melting of it will have a catastrophic effect on the earth's weather pattern by then.

The thickness of Greenland's ice that has melted within the past 5 years

What a lot of people also don't realize is that what they eat affects climate change. The US' obsession over beef is the contribution of 12% of the world's temperature increase. The pure fact that 47% of our land is dedicated to cattle production is a catalyst for the straw that will break the camel's back. There are 98.4 million cattle in the United States that emit methane, which is 30x more potent than carbon dioxide, according to princeton.edu. I know that by living in a country where beef is a huge part of the culture, cutting back is hard, but if everyone cut their beef intake in half, there would be a huge difference and slow-down in the rate of climate change.

Even though I've always been passionate about this issue, I recently watched Before the Flood, which opened my eyes and exposed so many things that I didn't know about this topic. If there's only one thing that you get out of this article, I want you to watch this incredible documentary. It changed the way I view our earth and humanity as a whole. There are so many things that we can all do to help stop this destruction before it continues to rot our earth.

Please share this article and continue to educate yourself by watching Before the Flood. The future of this beautiful planet doesn't rely on the big corporations or political leaders—it relies on you.