Is Climate Change Real?

Yes.

In short, climate change is very, very real. Although our new president doesn't believe in climate change (for some reason that I will never understand), I can promise you that it is extremely real. Whether you'd like to deny it or not, climate change is one of the biggest problems in society today.

Climate change doesn't only effect the United States, it effects entire world. Hence the term "global climate change." The world has heated up, literally, in the past hundred years. In 2014, the earth’s surface temperature was around 0.74º Celsius (about 33º Fahrenheit) warmer than the average was in the twentieth century. I know that doesn't sound like much and I know one hundred years sounds like a hell of a long time, but 33º is such a large change from where the average used to be. I don't know about you, but I seriously think that that is one crazy statistic.

Evidence of climate change isn't only shown by the fact that the world has gotten much warmer, on average, than it used to be. The polar ice caps are melting, people! In 2009, the minimum level of ice cover in the Arctic was 24% which is significantly low the past average for the Arctic. Melting of the ice caps is bound to continue since the average has gone down so much in less than ten years. If you step back and think about the statistic I just presented, how crazy is that. Climate change is destroying our environment so much that we're impacting a place where only 4,000,000 people live, 4,000,000 out of the almost 7.5 billion people living on this planet today. That is less than 00% of the population!

The Arctic has been effected by climate change much more than the Antarctic has, although the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed 2.4º Celsius since 1950. The Antarctic Peninsula is just north of Antarctica, but is not the only part of the Antarctic to be effected. The ice sheet on the west Antarctic is also losing mass. This occurrence shows how much the warmer water in the ocean has effected the polar ice caps on the earth. Although the Antarctic has not been in as much danger as the Arctic has, it is still suffering from climate change.

Now, I'm sure you know that we're not the only thing effecting climate change on Earth. The sun is also effecting the slow-paced rise in temperature... but honestly that's partially our fault too, so... oops? There is something in the atmosphere that I'm sure most of you have heard of at this point in your life. This "thing" is called the ozone layer. If you're not entirely sure what the Ozone Layer does, I'll explain it in a short and concise way. The ozone layer protects us, and the Earth, from the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Now, here's another tidbit of information about the wonderful ozone layer that allows us to survive with the sun beating down on us.

WE MADE A HUGE HOLE IN IT.

You know how people have said that using products like hairspray and spray deodorant are bad for the environment? Well, it's true. Although the aerosol cans no longer harm the environment like they used to, the damage has been done. From the 1920s all the way up to the 1970s, a chemical called chlorofluorocarbon (also known as CFC) was used to allow the product to be sprayed from the can and into the air. CFC and other man-made chemicals are a huge cause of the lovely hole we have in our ozone layer, today. This hole, obviously, does not help with climate change since the sun's UV rays are now directly heating Earth up rather than a bit of protection from this layer in the atmosphere.

I hope you noticed how I said "it's true" and not "it was true" that these cans harm the environment. Although they no longer have the same effect they used to, these products still contribute to global warming. Since carbon is released from the product every time it's used, greenhouse gases are released into the air.

I don't know how, or why, people still deny climate change... but the evidence is pretty substantial. Climate change is real. Climate change is a problem. And climate change can no longer be denied by those who think it was made up. Where did anyone even get the idea that climate change was made up? Anyway...

Climate change is real.