climate change, its importance, how it affects the political, social, and economic aspects and the chemistry related to climate change

climate change, its importance, how it affects the political, social, and economic aspects and the chemistry related to climate change

Human activities have led to changes in the level of temperatures, patterns of wind, and other changes that occur due to the accumulation of harmful substances in the atmosphere for an extended period. The greenhouse effect has been a significant contributor to climate change since it has led to increased emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that contributes to global warming. Global warming has led to increased temperatures of the earth that have led to changes in seasons and affected human health and life. Deforestation, waste disposal, mining, thorough farming methods, and overconsumption are some of the activities by human activities that intensively leads to changes in the environment. Therefore, this paper will widely discuss the topic of climate change, its importance, how it affects the political, social, and economic aspects and the chemistry related to climate change.

The topic of climate change is crucial in people’s daily lives as it affects the air, water, food that people consume and contributes to some of the illnesses that people suffer from, such as cancer. For many years, human beings have been burning fossil fuels to produce power. They have added greenhouse gases that have significantly affected the environment by trapping the excess heat from escaping into the atmosphere. The excess heat has altered the lives of people; for instance, some of the diseases that people experience today are a result of air pollution and the excess warmth on the earth’s surface. Air pollution has led to respiratory illnesses such as asthma in adults and children. Respiratory diseases have led to more than seven million deaths globally. The excess warmth has affected the human body and mind; it has led to skin diseases when the human bodies get exposed to the harmful rays of the sun, and affects the mental health through anxiety and stress.

The quality of nutrients found in foods grown today has decreased due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide that has made the foods less nutritious. The fossils fuels produce excess carbon dioxide that accumulates in the atmosphere, plants use carbon dioxide to make food. When the available carbon dioxide is from harmful sources, it affects the quality of nutrients made. Consumption of such foods does not help the body, and in some cases, it causes diseases. Climate change has led to the expansion of seas and oceans, thus dislocating the people living at the shores. When the oceans expand, it occupies some parts of the land; therefore, those people have to relocate to other places. Expansion of seas and oceans has led to increased flooding as the rainwater does not get a place to flow into since the seas and oceans are already full. Thus damaging the homes of people, and they have to move to other places.

Chemistry can play a crucial role in preventing adverse climate changes. Consumption of less energy can get achieved through efficient industrial and technological activities. Vehicles that consume fewer fuels have been invented, and the consumption of non-methane organic elements has reduced over the years (Zhang et al. 2017). Through chemistry, novel chemical materials have high performance has been invented to be used at home and in vehicles to reduce and optimize the consumption of energy. Therefore, there is creation of new sources of energy using the biofuels instead of fossils fuels that is harmful to the environment. Their generation requires carbon dioxide, which is taken from the atmosphere, thereby bringing equilibrium of the global carbon dioxide to almost neutral. Chemistry is used to generate other green sources of energy from wind and sun that do not pollute the environment (Bardgett 2018). It is now possible to generate electricity from the sun, and the creation materials that resist corrosion and other mechanical conditions, thus reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases. To reduce carbon dioxide levels, people must increase the coverage of green plants such as the rain forest as they use carbon dioxide to make the natural molecules they need. They can also avoid desertification and deforestation to increase plant cover.

The changes in climate have greatly affected the environment; the plants, seas, oceans, wildlife, and people living in the environment have all been affected. The climate changes have affected the wildlife; for instance, the number of tigers has reduced due to the destruction of their habitats and poaching. Climate change has increased cases of fire and increased sea levels that affect the habitat of wildlife and kills some of the species. The Himalayas are warming up due to climate changes forcing the snow leopards to move to the warmer mountains. The move has led to their reduction as the new habitats are not favorable to the leopards, and therefore, they die due to global warming (Gergel et al. 2017). The north and south parts of the earth’s planet play a vital role in regulating the earth’s temperatures, and they are highly vulnerable to global warming. Changes in temperatures in the northern regions by about five degrees will affect the species living there as there will no longer be summer sea ice. The changes will affect the entire northern hemisphere as well as the species and their habitats. Climate change has affected Antarctica, where the ice found there, which is vital in controlling the global temperatures by reflecting the rays of the sun, thereby regulating global temperature. The ice has been melting due to global warming experience globally; thus it is difficult to control the temperature on the earth’s surface.

The changes in the climate have adverse effects on the oceans since they absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. The high amount of carbon dioxide increases the temperatures in the oceans affecting the species in the oceans, since the sea is already acidic. The acidic condition is not favorable to the species living there, and in most cases, they die, such as the coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2017). The fish that depend on the coral reefs die as well as the wildlife that feeds on the fish are also affected by climatic changes experienced in the oceans. Climate change also affects the forests, such as the sub-arctic forests are slowly retreating towards that north as the temperatures become warmer. The tropical forests, such as those in Amazon that have high levels of biodiversity, and are greatly affected by climate changes, and they have high levels of extinction.

The climate changes have affected the political, economic, and social lives of the people. Many countries have come together to find solutions to the global challenges brought by the changes in the climate. The various stakeholders have used the political perspective to analyze the different implications of the climatic changes. Climate change is a political issue and the stakeholders should view themselves as global citizens instead of the separate entities to ensure they come up with a worldwide solution.  The economic aspects experienced due to climate change are adverse, and the globe needs to find solutions to the problems affecting those (Dafermos Nikolaidi & Galanis 2018). It will ensure that they get the maximum benefits from their activities instead of using more funds to find remedies for problems brought by climate changes. The countries must create legislation that helps reduce pollution and dictate the ways that each company must dispose off their waste to ensure they don’t pollute the environment. Social life has also been affected as the life expectancy age has reduced due to the emergence of chronic diseases, some of which are associated with climate change.

Climate change is a global issue, and all nations must work together to reduce the effects experienced by finding solutions together. Each government has to play its part by controlling the emission of harmful wastes into the atmosphere and water sources. Since pollution in one country may affect the whole world, and therefore, effective remedies must get implemented.

References

Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Poloczanska, E. S., Skirving, W., & Dove, S. (2017). Coral reef ecosystems under climate change and ocean acidification. Frontiers in Marine Science, 4, 158.

Zhang, Z., Zimmermann, N. E., Stenke, A., Li, X., Hodson, E. L., Zhu, G., & Poulter, B. (2017). Emerging role of wetland methane emissions in driving 21st century climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(36), 9647-9652.

Bardgett, R. D. (2018, August). Plant trait-based approaches for interrogating belowground function. In Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Royal Irish Academy.

Gergel, D. R., Nijssen, B., Abatzoglou, J. T., Lettenmaier, D. P., & Stumbaugh, M. R. (2017). Effects of climate change on snowpack and fire potential in the western USA. Climatic Change, 141(2), 287-299.

Dafermos, Y., Nikolaidi, M., & Galanis, G. (2018). Climate change, financial stability and monetary policy. Ecological Economics, 152, 219-234.