The Causes of Climate Change and Why We Need to Act Now

Climate change exacerbates many current diseases and disorders. Still, it may also aid in introducing new pests and pathogens into new areas or communities. Because of climate change, invasive species will become more common as disturbances, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and temperatures all rise. Climate change will also impact air quality, forests, human health, water resources, and energy use.

Causes of Climate Change

Greenhouse gas emissions from using fossil fuels is the principal human activity influencing the amount and rate of climate change.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by better transportation, food, and energy choices improves health, notably through a reduction in air pollution.

We Need to Reduce Emissions Globally

Changes in agricultural output could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via carbon sequestration.

Furthermore, agriculture can produce biofuels, which can replace fossil fuels and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in various sectors.

However, greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities are the primary cause of the Earth’s rapidly changing climate today.

Carbon dioxide is the principal cause of climate change, accounting for roughly 82% of greenhouse gas emissions.

To reduce a risk of infectious diseases, we should drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions keeping global warming to 1.5°C or below.

Given present concentrations and ongoing emissions of greenhouse gases, it seems expected that global mean temperature will continue to climb above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

The Effects of Global Warming Are Really That Bad

Even if attempts to reduce future warming are successful, some consequences will last for generations. Warming in the Arctic has added to permafrost melting, glacier retreat, and sea ice loss.

Water vapour is a powerful greenhouse gas, generating further heat; its short lifetime in the atmosphere keeps its increase generally in lockstep with warming.

Global Warming Increases Do Matter

Global warming is a reference to rising global temperatures caused mainly by increasing greenhouse gas quantities in the atmosphere.

Warming and increases in water vapour may cause cloud cover to rise or decrease. Amplifying or dampening temperature change based on changes in the horizontal extent, altitude, and characteristics of clouds.

Road building and agriculture, for example, can alter the reflectance of the Earth’s surface, resulting in local warming or cooling.

Fight Climate Change and Improve Our Future

Natural greenhouse gases, primarily water vapour and carbon dioxide absorb thermal radiation from the Earth’s surface. Keeping it much warmer than it otherwise would be.

Further significant rises in carbon dioxide concentrations are unavoidable, at least in the short term, as global usage of fossil fuels grows.

We emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, and damaging wetlands.

Scientists have a variety of methods for tracking climate change across time. All of which shows that today’s climate change is caused by the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Carbon dioxide, unlike other greenhouse gases, does not decompose in the atmosphere. Still, instead, it cycles between the atmosphere, terrestrial biosphere, and seas.

Only approximately half of the carbon dioxide generated today remains in the atmosphere, some of it remaining for centuries.

The Rise in Global Temperatures Is Not Good for Us

Warming global average temperatures, for example, may alter the movement of the jet stream, the principal air circulation affecting North American weather, perhaps leading to seasonal spells of extreme cold in some locations.

Vulnerable populations will face increasing heat exposure. The number of deaths from temperature extremes is predicted to rise in the future. In contrast, cold temperatures will likely cause fewer health problems in the long run.

It’s anticipated a 2° increase in average world temperature might cause sea level rise, decreased crop yields, higher rainfall leading to flooding, wildfires, and severe consequences.

Climate change includes rising average temperatures and extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, increasing sea levels, and various other consequences.

Changes in weather precipitation and sea level are anticipated to have far more significant human consequences than rising temperatures alone.

Future dangers are difficult to predict, but climate change significantly impacts multiple fronts that affect when and where infections appear, including temperature and rainfall patterns.

The Climate Change Temperature Is Rising

Higher polar temperatures melt sea ice, reduce snow cover, exposing an ocean and land surface that can absorb more heat, triggering more warming.

As global temperatures rise, so does the number of deaths and illnesses caused by heat stress, heat stroke, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.

Increased Temperatures Have a Devastating Impact on Coral Reefs

Rising ocean temperatures impact the population and variety of underwater species and contribute to coral bleaching. This can kill entire reef ecosystems, which support more than 25% of all marine life.

Temperature increases, changes in rainfall patterns, and a rise in the risk of extreme weather events will all affect the production of major food crops such as wheat, rice, and maise.

Climate change without adaptation will harm these crops in tropical and temperate regions for local temperature increases of 2°C or more. However, some places may benefit.

The more significant the amount of global warming, the greater the possibility of crossing tipping points. Which are thresholds beyond which inevitable repercussions cannot be prevented even if temperatures are reduced.

Although experts are unsure if climate change will increase the number of storms, ocean temperatures and higher sea levels are likely to intensify their severity and damage.

Longer-term consequences will increasingly be determined by the extent to which transformative action is taken now to cut emissions. To help prevent dangerous temperature thresholds and potentially irreversible tipping points.

There Will Be Major Impacts on Society

Climate change’s effects are global in scope and unparalleled in scale. Ranging from altering weather patterns that imperil food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding.

As a result of these effects, there could be more than 180 million people worldwide, primarily those that have lower-incomes, are at risk of being hungry.

Our Health and Climate Change

The people most likely to be affected by the health effects of climate change are those currently most struck by the impact of climate change, notably in poor nations.

Children, the elderly, the impoverished, and those with pre-existing health disorders are susceptible to the health effects of climate change.

There Will Be Devastating Effects on Health

And when air pollution rises, so does respiratory health, particularly for the 300 million people globally who suffer from asthma. There’s more airborne mould and pollen to annoy hay fever and allergy sufferers as well.

Water, energy, transportation, animals, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health are all suffering the effects of climate change right now.

Adverse health effects from climate change can have many economic and social ramifications, including direct medical costs, job loss, greater caregiving, and other restrictions on daily activities.

• Sea levels have risen as land ice melts and the warming oceans expand.
• As temperatures rise, the gap between food demand and supply will widen.
• It is mainly driven by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
• Greenhouse gases have the effect of raising global temperatures on average.
• Temperatures on land have risen roughly twice as quickly as the world average.
• Subsidies might instead be used to help with the transition to renewable energy.
• Deserts are growing in size, and heat waves and wildfires are becoming more prevalent.
• Temperature and humidity increases may be too severe for humans to adjust to in some areas.

In the short to medium term, the health implications of climate change will be primarily defined by population susceptibility, resilience to existing rates of climate change, and the degree and tempo of adaptation.

Climate change and other natural and man-made health stressors endanger human health and well-being in various ways.

The climate catastrophe threatens to destroy the last fifty years of development, global health, and poverty reduction efforts and exacerbate current health disparities between and within people.

Extreme Weather Events Will Increase

People are likely to be displaced more frequently because of increasingly frequent extreme weather, sea-level rise, and violence resulting from increased competition for natural resources.

Extreme weather occurrences, such as heavy storms and flooding, can cause injury, contaminated drinking water, and storm damage. All these might jeopardise essential infrastructure or cause population displacement.