The Top Three Individual Contributors to Climate Change

China, India, and the United States; these are the most populated countries in the world, respectively. What happens if they are ordered as follows: China, the United States and India. The answer—the rank of the top three individual contributors to climate change. These three powerhouses produce almost 50 percent of global emissions that attribute to climate change and need to work together to reverse the path of climate change.

Climate change already has an observable impact. Rising temperatures, shrinking glaciers, shifting snow and rainfall patterns, frozen bodies of water thawing sooner than previously, and shifting plant and animal habitats have been observed and attributed to climate change, and that is so far.

Projected Impact:

• Hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to water stress
• Up to 30% of species will have an increased risk of extinction
• Increased coral bleaching, which inhibits carbon dioxide absorption and leads to ocean acidification
• Increased cost of food due to more complicated/shifting weather patterns.
• Increased natural disasters, including hurricanes and wildfires
• Substantial burden on health services

The impacts today will reach far into the future, affecting generation to come.

The Economics of Climate Change

Climate change is far reaching, impacting more than the environment. It is estimated that climate change will cost the world economy over $1.95 trillion a year in lost productivity by 2030, if we continue with this trend.

Perhaps the most impacted facet of industry would be disruption in the [global and local] supply chain. At the start of 2017, the Global Risks Report stated extreme weather events are the most likely events to disrupt a supply chain and that disruptions due to extreme weather has increased 29% since 2012. The report was just a foreshadow of the record hurricanes, flooding and wildfires that impacted business. Companies old and new need to embrace efforts to become more environmentally friendly and collaborate with governments to achieve these goals.

This not only helps the environment, but helps business as well. In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently stated that planning for and intertwining company growth with climate-change policy could raise the world economic output by 2.8 percent in 2050.

Sharing Responsibility

Three countries are at the forefront of the destruction of the environment and the economy. Therefore, these three countries need to act as one to help turn around and defeat climate change. Global powers need to give up the "X Country" first mentality and share their renewable energy technology and policy with others.China and India are continuously growing in population and developing as nations. This has a significant impact on climate because newly developing and/or poor countries rely on cheap, dirty, fossil-fuels. With combined effort, the top three polluting countries can counteract and invest in green technology. This will help reduce the cost of clean energy, leading to cleaner developing and poor countries. It just makes sense. The slogan "Think Globally, Act Locally" has been adopted by many, but never has there been a time where it rings true. It begins by thinking bigger than our respective countries and ends with a cleaner future.

The Path Ahead

With the Trump administrations choice to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement, while both China and India have committed to the Paris Climate agreement, the future of renewable energy has fallen on China. Although China has buckled down on their efforts by committing to addressing climate change through both policy and action, it won’t be enough without cooperation between the big three. One can only hope they will be the neon light that flashes "Green Energy" that the world may follow. [Not-so-fun] Climate Change Bonus Facts: Climate change is real. Despite the nay-sayers and climate deniers, we have measurable results that affect everyone, not only those who agree. It’s hard to argue with 97% of climate researchers.

Climate change has already killed. Studies have shown that the risk of dying from a heat-related illness has substantially increased over the past two decades and deaths due to high pollution levels have skyrocketed as well.We use more ecological resources than nature can generate—and it happens quicker every year.We all will die if we don’t do something now.