5.8 million square feet of our planet is covered with ice. When all of the ice in the world melts, the global sea level will rise approximately 230 feet, which is high enough to cover London’s Tower Bridge. Because of climate change, it is inevitable that all of the ice in the world will melt. Because of the sea level rising, all coastal cities will flood, and disappear. Some of those being New Orleans, Miami, Tokyo, London, New York City, Houston, San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Washington D.C, Charleston, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Large amounts of melting ice releases tons of carbon dioxide.
Ocean directions will change, causing many sea animals to become extinct. The animals that don’t become extinct will have to leave their homes to find a new one, causing a decrease in human food supply. The sea currents will cause lots of rain in the deserts, and areas with normally lots of rainfall would dry out. Wind patterns will also change. With no ice to reflect the suns’ rays, the sun will suck up the oceans’ moisture, causing more clouds to form in the sky. The extra clouds will gather near the mountains and rain will soon flood them. Hurricanes will happen more often causing even more floods. Even the smallest earthquake on the coast could devastate nearby regions with a tsunami, swallowing cities. Because of all this, a global migration would strike, and the government will not be able to deal with it.
Climate change is striking. But, is there anything we can do about it? The article “Global Climate Change, Vital Signs of the Planet” by NASA states that “humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, global warming would continue to happen for at least several more decades, if not centuries.” What this is saying is that even if we completely stopped using things that are bad for the environment today, climate change would still happen for many years. This is because it takes a while for the planet to respond to these gases.
It has been said that we only have 5,000 years until all of the ice in the world melts. When this happens, everyone and everything as we know it will collapse. People will either drown, or choke to death because of the increase in carbon dioxide.
There isn’t much we can do to stop climate change, but there are little things that help. Most things that are causing the ice to melt are things like emitting greenhouse gases into the air. These gases come from companies, so there isn’t much we can do about it. Protesting these companies and stopping purchases of their items could shut them down, which could really help our planet. Using solar panels and recycling helps our planet. Using solar panels decreases the amount of energy we use. Recycling minimizes the amount of waste that goes to landfills and reduces the amount of virgin materials needed. The amount of plastic in our oceans is another world problem that affects our environment. It is estimated that 14 billion pounds of trash, mostly plastic, is dumped in our oceans every year.
It’s important to take good care of our environment so that our earth lasts as long as possible. Because there is nothing major we can do to try and stop climate change, it’s important to do the little things.
Article by Kaylee Tasin of Cabin John Middle School
Graphic by Sophia Li of Takoma Park Middle School