M12.9: Climate change

1.   What do you personally find most troubling about climate change?

What I find most troubling about climate change is how it has impacted so many animals, marine life, and plants. After reading the sixth extinction I was shocked at how climate change has drastically decreased coral reefs and also many rainforests. Human activity is solely to blame for the rapid increase in temperature, yet there is not enough that is being done to reverse the dangerous effects. Another issue is how many are denying the impact of climate change and how businesses continue to emit large portions of gases into the atmosphere.

2.   As a public health professional, what do you think needs the greatest attention right now?

I would say the greatest attention needs to go toward spreading awareness and have people make small changes that will make a huge impact. We can change the way we eat by buying locally and eating organic, we can reduce and reuse and stop being so wasteful, and most importantly reduce our carbon emissions and use energy more wisely. I think if everyone makes a change we can drastically improve the current state of climate change which will in turn improve our air quality and our health, while also helping animals, marine life, and plants.  

3.   If you were visiting with a long-lost relative who had never heard about climate change, how would you describe it and its attendant human health and ecological threats?

I would explain to them that climate change is a change in the global climate patterns that is directly linked to human activity. I would explain the greenhouse effect and how gases like carbon dioxide are trapping heat near the surface, causing temperatures to rise. I would discuss the difference between weather and climate and how climate refers to the long-term average of weather measured over several decades. I would then explain how it is scientifically proven that our climate has risen and as well as the increased heat of our oceans. I would then state how some of the impacts of climate change that we can see are heat waves, sea-levels rising, ocean acidification, threats to habitats and animals, wildfires, and droughts.