Saving Our Planet
By Hannah Boesche
A current real-world issue today is climate change. It has been the center of news headlines, political campaigns, classrooms, social media, and more. Many people, however, think climate change is a “hoax” and blow it off. It is essential that people are informed about the crisis of climate change and how we can help.
According to NASA climate change is defined as “a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional, and global climates”. We are already experiencing effects of climate change such as extreme weather. We have suffered severe droughts, powerful storms, extreme heat waves, and more. According to Ocko (2021) “Earth has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, before industry started to boom. A warmer world-even by a half-degree Celsius- has more evaporation, leading to more weather in the atmosphere. Such changing conditions put our agriculture, health, water supply and more at risk”.
A study by Bergquist et al. (2019) focused on the impact of personal experience with an extreme weather event, the impact of this experience on beliefs about climate change, and intentions to take actions that can help prepare for the consequences of climate change. A total of 209 participants answered the first survey during 8th-10th of September 2017 (before hurricane Irma) for 35 cents. They were also invited to take a follow-up survey in exchange for $2 during the 20th-28th of September 2017 (after hurricane Irma). The results showed that after experiencing Irma, participants reported stronger negative emotions when thinking about climate change compared to before. After Irma, participants were more willing to pay higher prices, higher tax prices, and accept cuts in standards of living than before Irma. Participants were also more certain that Irma was caused by climate change after experiencing compared to before.
Another study by Lineman et al. (2015) focused on determining public knowledge and awareness of terms relating to global warming and climate change. The participants in this study were the general population using Twitter and people who used Google search. They used Google Trends and public databases of Google queries to identify the public awareness of the terms climate change and global warming. The results found that people searched global warming more frequently than climate change. The sentiment analysis of tweets showed that people felt more negative about the term global warming than climate change. They also found that people who tweet about global warming use words like “ice, snow, Arctic, and sea”. On the other hand, tweets referring to climate change usually had the words “word, science, environment, and scientist” commonly used.
We can do things to help decrease the rate and limit the amount of damage we do to our precious Earth. There isn’t one solution to stop climate change. There are multiple things you can do to help the planet. To help save our planet, we need to work together as people and figure out what steps we are willing to take. Working together is the only way we can make an impact. I believe the first step, and possibly the best step, to a solution is the awareness of the facts. After that, it is just little things that help make our Earth cleaner.
A major source of climate change comes from people’s gas emissions. An easy way to slow down the dangerous levels of gas we put into the air is to walk, ride a bike, carpool, or take public transportation whenever possible. Not only will it help the Earth but walking and biking can also improve your health and wellness.
Another way to limit eliminate climate change is to save energy whenever you can. A lot of electricity and heat are used today that are powered by coal, oil, and gas. Some ways to eliminate energy use is to use LED light bulbs, use lights only during the night, buy energy-efficient appliances, wash with cold water, and hang things to dry instead of using a dryer.
I believe the simplest thing we can do to help limit climate change is to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Lots of things we buy are made from factories that put carbon emissions into the air. Transporting the goods from factory to store also produces carbon emissions. To help, we can buy fewer things, shop second-hand, and recycle.
To help stop climate change there is no one right answer. We can all do little things that can help make our planet safer and cleaner. Whether you are spreading awareness about climate change, saving energy, using public transportation, or walking or biking, or reducing, reusing, and recycling you are helping our planet become safer and cleaner one step at a time.
References
Bergquist, M., Nilsson, A., & Schultz, P. W. (2019). Experiencing a severe weather event increases concern about climate change. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 6. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00220
Lineman, M., Do, Y., Ji, Y. K., & Gea-Jae Joo. (2015). Talking about Climate Change and Global Warming. PLoS One, 10(9)http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138996
Ocko, I. (2021). This is why fighting climate change is so urgent. Environmental Defense Fund. https://www.edf.org/climate/why-fighting-climate-change-so-urgent
“Overview: Weather, Global Warming and Climate Change.” NASA, NASA, 24 Aug. 2021, https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/.