The Westtown Times

opinion
The End of the World May Be Closer Than You Think
by Liv Thompson - November 15, 2018
You click on your translucent cell phone and the year 2035 displays itself on the screen. While imagining
the technological advances, social transformations and (possible) first woman president that the future may hold, we
must also consider the question that is looming over all of us, inspiring more feelings of confusion, uneasiness, and
lack of hope than ever: What will happen to our environment? The publication of the 2018 IPCC Report has the
answers. And while they may not be particularly cheerful, they long to be heard.
There is no question that climate change and warming are occurring and having an already detrimental
impact on the world around us. At this point, with the extent to which we have emitted harmful CO2 emissions into
our atmosphere for the last century, global warming is not a question of ‘if’, but ‘how bad’. According to the IPCC
Report, our earth’s temperature is projected to reach a 1.5 degree celsius incline in the next several decades, if we
continue down our current path of utilization of fossil fuels for energy. While I do not wish to worry you with my
overdramatic environmental fanaticism, it is necessary that our world begin to worry. Let’s close our eyes and take a
quick trip into our bleak future (that is, if we continue to reject and deny our responsibility to save our planet).
Since 2018, coral reefs have declined by 70-90% due to rapidly increasing ocean temperatures and
heightened water acidity (IPCC, 2018). The oceanic ecosystem has suffered tremendously, with numerous species
becoming extinct. Due to the sharp decrease in fish population and surplus of endangered species, fisheries around
the world have suffered, and certain species of fish are now rarely found in supermarkets or restaurants. Thousands
of fishermen have lost their jobs, and aquaculture is a dying industry. People around the world are questioning why
they hadn’t payed more attention to the distress of these complex systems a decade ago, when there still posed one
last opportunity to save the reefs.
Eastern Asia and Eastern North America experience widespread, detrimental flooding multiple times per
year due to climate change induced precipitation events. Coastal cities have become nearly abandoned, and taxes
have risen dramatically to cover the costs of flood damage. Several hundred million people have plummeted into
poverty in the last two decades; international relations have become damaged and unstable as the wellbeing of
developing countries continues to decline (IPCC, 2018). The ability for economic growth has nearly stunted.
Water quality is one of the most prominent issues facing the entirety of the world. Increasing acidity and
pollution from excessive fossil fuel usage has “increased water stress by 50%” (IPCC, 2018). Food scarcity is
beginning to pose a threat as livestock become infected with disease through unclean feed quality and a lack of clean
water. The price of clean meat products slowly creeps up as the supply lessens. While commonality of vegetarianism
has risen in the past decade, not nearly enough emphasis was initially placed on the importance of limited meat
consumption. Climate change has affected nearly every aspect of life- unbeknownst to the majority of the world just
20 years ago- including health conditions, natural ecosystems, and social equality. The world has shifted
permanently for the worse. You wish you were able to make a change, but it is too late.
Scary, right? Thankfully, we have time to reverse this dismal path we are currently set on, in order to avoid
the deterioration of the earth as depicted above. Ultimately, it begins with an administration, as well as population,
that’s willing to prioritize energy conservation and sustainability over immediate economic satisfaction. Utilization
of low-emission energy sources, in addition to implementation of new technology designed to reduce our
environmental impact, is all it takes to save our earth. Let’s get started.

Source:
Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Moufouma-Okia, W., & Péan, C.
(Eds.). (2018). Summary for Policymakers: Global Warming of 1.5C. Retrieved
from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change database.