The shift in the patterns of weather due to emissions of greenhouse gases and human activities adds up to a larger change in the climate. Species of animals and plants have gone extinct due to the incapability of adapting to the changing climate and glaciers have shrunk resulting in to increase in the water levels of seas and oceans. The world has also witnessed an increase in the number and intensity of wildfires across countries like the USA and Australia due to an increase in temperature and drying up soils. Climate change has already affected the environment drastically but now it is taking a toll on the lives and lifestyle of the people across the globe.
Scientific researches stated that 97% of global warming is man-made. One of the biggest contributors is the burning of fossil fuels, coals, oil that has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Climate change is proved to be a serious threat to the economic stability of various developing countries and the economically weaker sections. An increase in the number of heat-waves has aggravated conditions of droughts. The prevalence of hot dry conditions has resulted in an increase in the frequency and length of wildfires. More concrete structures complicate the heat budget of the cities. In cities, buildings and roads are generally heated up to 50-90 degrees hotter during the day and the gradual release of heat from the buildings during the night result in the cracking of buildings and roads. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration compiled the Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters database that stated that over 600 deaths per year have been due to extreme heat in the US since 1980.
Climate change has had drastic effects on the economy of the world as well. It will also have an increasing impact on the economic front in the coming times. As per some studies, by 2050, the damages on a cumulative scale by climate change may probably add to eight trillion dollars (US) which would mean erosion of around 3% of the GDP of the world. This would have a debilitating impact, especially on the poorer nations. Some Oceania region countries like Kiribati are already looking for lands on rent in other nearby countries like Australia as their own countries would be submerged gradually under the rising oceans. It shows that the weaker and poorer nations who had almost nil contribution to pollution and atmospheric heating due to industrialization are paying the highest price in terms of their existence. It shows that climate change has the potential to wipe out economically weak countries. The aggregate effect of climate change is negative on economic growth. Rising sea levels resulting in hurricanes and floods are likely to harm economic outputs of the countries as businesses are mutilated and people suffer damages to their livelihoods, homes, and infrastructure. People living in the Sub-Saharan regions are already suffering from prolonged droughts due to a sharp rise in temperatures. Since 2018, western countries in the pacific and southeast Asia have experienced drastic heat-waves and storms that have resulted in thousands of deaths.
The economically weaker groups of countries are majorly affected by the change in the climate. Economically weaker sections generally work as farmers and as laborers. An increase in temperatures and unpredictable water levels destroy crops and the farmers lose their source of income and sometimes their source of food. An example was the unexpected high rainfall in 2015 just before harvesting seasons, which destroyed crops in regions of UP and Haryana. Impairment of businesses due to climate change also leads to unemployment of laborers and breaking up of sources of income. An increase in pollution levels in the atmosphere has become a major cause of the devastation of human health. It was evidenced in the recently expressed concerns by Delhi high court and the ministry of health after the dangerous levels of smog arose in 2017 in the Delhi NCR region. Global warming and CFC pollution had resulted in the depletion of the ozone layer due to which the UV-rays had increasingly penetrated the earth’s atmosphere and caused various skin diseases and genetic mutations. UV-rays can cause skin cancer and eye blindness. The increase in the atmospheric concentrations of smoke fumes and volatile harmful chemicals had been causing various respiratory diseases and lung cancer. People who are susceptible to poverty come on the brink of death due to various diseases caused by atmospheric pollution and the overall global warming.
The urgent need to address the issue of climate change has become even more dominant. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had warned that to avoid the catastrophe of global warming, the global average temperature should not exceed 1.5-2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To avoid such a catastrophe, greenhouse gas emissions should be halved and the number of people exposed to risks related to climate change and susceptible to poverty should be reduced. Climate change cannot only wipe out economically weaker sections in countries but it can also wipe out weaker nations and affect the entire world.
We all are the same human beings who want things every other human want, a safe environment, and a place to live and work peacefully. This has also been confirmed in some studies like survey by Gallup polls, which indicate around 60% -70% of people would prefer a safer and healthy environment over pure economic benefits. We as general people need to raise our voices to spread awareness to all the parts of the world so that everyone knows that climate change is real and is happening. The necessity of this movement is so large that it cannot be the responsibility of a single aware school-going girl cum climate activist-Greta Thunberg. Climate change has drastic effects on all species and we humans are responsible for it. The impacts are serious and we must act now as in reality climate change has the potential to wipe out human civilization.
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, Editor Opinion has made important contributions towards the essay.