Climate Change as One of The Biggest Global Health Threats in 21st Century

Have you ever wondered if climate change was really a problem? Climate change is change in global or regional climate patterns, attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced using fossil fuels. Climate change has been described as one of the biggest global health threats in this 21st century.

To begin with, Rapid increase of temperature just last year nearly 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide was pumped into the air from all worlds nations combined. Global carbon dioxide emissions increased at a rate of more than two percent per year, due to the rapidly industrializing countries like China and India. The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century. .Sixteen of the seventeen warmest years in the 136-year record all have occurred since 2001, except for 1998. The year 2016 ranks as the warmest on record. Rapidly changing climate is making agriculture an even more vulnerable enterprise. With changes in rainfall patterns, farmers face dual threats from flooding and drought, both extremes can destroy crops.

For these reasons and more Extreme Events like Heat waves occur. Trends has continued in 2011 and 2012, with the number of intense heat waves being almost triple the long-term average.

Analyses show that human-induced climate change has generally increased the probability of heat waves. High temperatures lead to increased rates of evaporation, including loss of moisture through plant leaves which causes droughts. Many locations in Texas and Oklahoma have experienced more than 100 days over 100°F. Also there has been substantial increase in Atlantic hurricane activity since early 1980. The increase in activity is linked, to higher sea surface temperatures in the region that Atlantic hurricanes form in and move through.

Lastly Sea level Rise, When water heats up it expands, and takes up more space. Half of the past century’s sea level rise is attributable to warmer oceans taking up space. Glaciers and polar ice caps naturally melt back every summer and in winter the snow is supposed to balance out the melting. Higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting. Increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt at an accelerated pace. Every year more sheets of ice are melting and it will contribute to drastic sea level rise in the future.

In Conclusion, Climate change has been described as one of the biggest global health threats in this 21st century. Overall, I think agriculture, extreme weather events and sea level rise will mostly affect humans on earth greatly and jeopardize our way of living .Without the superpowers of the world coming together on an agreement to stop the burning of fossil fuels and changing to renewable energy we won’t solve this inevitable problem!