The time has come, to take a stand, its for our earth, its for OUR land. The time has come, a fact’s a fact, the heat is on, and there is no turning back. Our world is under threat and Australia is not doing enough to halt the catastrophic consequences that even a two degree Celsius change in the climate will have not only on humans but also the entire world’s environment and ecosystems as well as the millions of different species that inhabit them. Did you know that if sea levels rise 63cm, 130 million people will be flooded per year due to the low lying islands and coastal communities?
That our own Great Barrier Reef is already experiencing bleaching due to the 0. 4 degree increase in water temperature? Need I go on? We need to stand together as a nation and embrace the fact that climate change is real and needs to be laid to rest with the help of the world to ensure the prosperity of our planet for future generations. Firstly I can’t emphasize enough that climate change IS an increasing problem that the entire world faces although many of us don’t even understand what climate change is.
The world naturally produces carbon emissions, as CO2 gas is a key player to the survival of all species. But, by using fossil fuels to make electricity we produce even more carbon emissions than normal which are then released into the atmosphere. The build up of greenhouse gases, which includes carbon dioxide, forms a layer that stops the gases and heat from escaping into space, causing a rise in sea and air temperature. If Australia alone has as much as a 1 to 2 degree Celsius shift in temperature around 30 to 50 species of native flora and fauna can possibly become extinct.
The greenhouse skeptics argue that the world’s climate has a spike in temperature every few hundred years. Scientists have taken this into account but the skeptics refuse to accept that the temperatures have never been as high as they are today. Why? Because of all this new and improved technology that has made daily life more convenient such as cars or the Internet. The only problem is all these things use electricity that is made by burning the fossil fuels.
There are newer greener energy sources available these days and Australia should be joining the growing list of other countries using them. Secondly, I think we all need to stop and think about how global warming will individually affect each and everyone of us. The rise in temperature melts the icecaps and causes sea levels to rise and pose a threat to low lying islands and the majority of the world’s population who live near coastal areas. Tourism will suffer a huge blow meaning a drastic loss of income to millions of people.
If that alone isn’t bad enough the world’s ocean will absorb the carbon dioxide from the air and lead to ocean acidification. The heat exchange that occurs between the ocean and air will cause large-scale winds resulting in extreme weather conditions that will damage infrastructure and human housing. The rebuilding costs will hurt the Australian hip pocket and leave many more people poorer and possibly homeless. The cost of acting on reducing emissions now may be somewhat expensive but will be nowhere near as much as in the future when it is too late to act in prevention.
We will instead be salvaging broken homes, lost possessions and dead bodies from the rubble of old townships due to more frequent cyclones, floods, bushfires and tsunami’s. This is why we can’t wait until later; this is why we need to stamp out this epidemic now. Thirdly the Australian governments may be coming up with future plans to be put into place to combat climate change but it is clearly not happening fast enough as global warming is impacting us. The Gillard government is making plans for the future such as the carbon tax that aims to reduce emissions by 2021.
Many people were completely outraged by the proposal of raising the cost of living, but they don’t know its only and extra $9. 90 a week. If that is the price to pay for us to ensure our children’s future then I think there is no question in what we need to do. Just making a carbon tax isn’t going to be effective though. Instead of moaning over this small fee why don’t we help to try and adapt to this change and therefore go green? We ALL need to contribute in making our electricity usage smaller and effectively reduce the carbon emissions that we as a nation produce.
There are many different ways that we can do this, such as buying power boards that can go on standby and turning off things at the wall. Not only will it reduce electricity use it will also reduce the money we part out to the companies for electricity. We need to realize this IS going to affect our future. If we want to be walking on eggshells trying to find ways to swerve the impacts of global warming then we are going in the right direction. But I think we can all agree none of us want that, we want to live freely and without consequences much like our recent ancestors have.
Finally I would just like to remind you all that even if climate change isn’t going to affect US in our lifetime, it is going to affect our future generations. You’re setting up your grandchildren to face the consequences we haven’t even attempted to stop, such consequences that could very well kill them. Do you want to be known as the people who doomed their children just because they are afraid of change? We only have one planet that is at the perfect state in which we could live on. So I ask you this, why would the smartest species on that perfect planet become dumb enough to continue to use resources that destroy it?
