As an environmental science major, I understand the scoff at hearing yet again about the dangers of climate change. Most of the general public, unfortunately, brushes it off and does not think twice about the real dangers of Climate Change. There are impacts ranging from polar bears to human health effects and they deserve our attention. Recently there has been a significant push for emission regulation and monitoring of the makeup of the atmosphere. Leonardo DiCaprio dedicated one of the most surreal moments of his life, finally winning an Oscar, to explaining the dire need to act now. This article will aim to explain some of the major effects that can be brought about by climate change if we are unsuccessful in regulating of our exponential track record for emitting harmful gasses into the atmosphere.

• Uncontrollable Sea-Level Rise- With a relatively small increase in the mean ambient temperature of the Earth, there are several problems posed. One of which is the melting of polar sea/land ice. Not only does this threaten the habitat of several arctic and Antarctic animals such as polar bears, which in the event of this catastrophe will struggle. The struggle becomes a problem when the habitat, and hunting ground of the polar bear disappears, where they must now swim longer and further to maybe have a chance of finding food. Secondly, most alarmingly so, sea-level-rise has roots in some significant threats to human health and safety. If the sea were to rise as projected 2-4 feet by 2100 if something isn’t done to stop it cities along the coast—which is where most cities are because of the development of civilization alongside our number one need, water—will be flooded. A video put out on Business Insider has a visualization of what the Earth would look like if all the ice were to melt, it can be seen here . With all this land now underwater, the most populated parts of the world would now need to relocate, but where will they go? If this were to happen there will be Climate Change Refugees trying to find a place to live in the already overpopulated world. This will begin to lead to conflict driven by the need and burden that these refugees would bring to places to which they move.
• Loss of Marine Life- Without making this sound like chemistry class I want to explain what will happen to the oceans if we as humans do not get our act together. Basically, if the ambient temperature of the Earth were to rise as little as two degrees centigrade the solubility of Carbon Dioxide in the ocean will dramatically rise. With this happening the Carbon Dioxide dissolves into the ocean and bonds with water to make Carbonic Acid. This lowers the pH of the water. Now here is the real problem, with a more acidic environment it will be more difficult for organisms that rely on Calcium Carbonate to create their exoskeletons like coral, and clams. If these organisms cannot create their exoskeleton they cannot survive, thus removing virtually a whole trophic level in the ocean which will lead to the death of more than a few of species. In fact, it has been projected that if there were much more than 2 degrees increase in temperature almost every calcifying organism in the sea will have trouble producing their shell, and we can pretty much kiss marine life goodbye.
• Ecosystem Shifting- As the acidification of the ocean was to the marine life, an ecosystem is the biggest threat to terrestrial life in the Post-Climate Change era. Ecosystem shifting regards to the change in traits of particular places on the globe. For example, since the Southwestern is experiencing a drought with intense periods of heat, organisms in the Mojave Desert have actually been recorded as to shift their location towards the north to escape the heat and drought. This may seem a small event but, however, this is occurring before any of the extreme effects of climate change are being seen. This classifies the organisms of the Southwestern United States as indicator species. This means that they are cautionary tales of what is to come. This can be seen with frogs in polluted lakes because of their especially porous skin, and lichens, which the presence of indicates near perfect air quality. This is only one of the regional effects on the United States; NASA has released a report stating just how Climate Change will affect each region in the United States (http://climate.nasa.gov/effects/).
• Increase in Frequency and Magnitude of Natural Disaster Events- Basic chemistry states that as ambient temperatures rise, the amount of evaporation, melting, and sublimation increases. With all this water being removed from standing water it becomes a part of our atmosphere. Now the effect of this water in our atmosphere is two-fold. First, the water in the atmosphere gives the probability of extreme weather events like flooding, rain, hurricanes, typhoons, and yes, even snow. This is why the southern United States is flooding because the intense heat of California, Nevada, and Arizona evaporates everything creating droughts, then the Coriolis Effect and NE winds carry the water in the atmosphere to the East Coast where intense snowfall occurs in New England, and flooding occurs in the south. In addition, in extreme weather this water-filled atmosphere provides an additional concern. The water in the atmosphere acts as a Greenhouse Gas where heat is trapped and subsequently increasing the temperature, and leading to more evaporation; this is what is known as a positive-feedback loop, but there is nothing positive about this. The word positive in this case means that the event occurring causes more of the same event to occur, like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Despite what you may have heard from the, unfortunately, large group that claims that climate change is a non-issue, it is. There is no more time left. When these claims were brought up in the late twentieth-century they were not taken seriously, and perhaps if they were, we wouldn’t be in the dire circumstances that we find ourselves in today. These are only a handful of environmental and human effects that will be seen, however, what will happen when the search for usable resources turns to violence, WWIII? The time to act is now, and stop denying the science. No one needs to be a scientist to understand that 2015 was the hottest year on record, and why is that? Because we have been continuously dumping GHG’s into the atmosphere since 1776 when the steamboat was invented. Climate Change is real and the excuse that the science is not conclusive is a complete fallacy. If you’re not a scientist believe one, don’t criticize them like some of the political participants we see from the right.