Climate Change: The World If We Don’t Act…
By Luke Miller-McMillan and Eilidh Henderson
By 2050, the world could be drastically different. Even in own your area. What if we did nothing about the climate? What if we continued to let the world heat up and destroy itself? What if WE don’t do anything?
Sadly, the future would not be too bright without change. Extreme weather could be the norm yearly for people living in Scotland and the UK with things such as longer and hotter heatwaves and extremely heavy downpours. This might not seem like much upon first glance. But, in fact, it only takes two days for the temperature to be above 30 degrees for a public health warning to be triggered. In the 90s this only happened around once every 4 years, however, by 2070 it is predicted that this could happen 4 times a year! This affects farming and the ocean in terrible ways.
But, it’s not just the heat that could be a problem. Snow could be a thing of the distant past with floods becoming more common in a warmer winter. Total rainfall is expected to increase and this could affect the things we have built such as bridges and sewers which were designed for historical rainfall levels with them experiencing significant pressure. In 100 years, snow might not even be a theme of Christmas anymore! Tragic.
But seeing as we know what the world would look like without change, what about if we do make a change?
Changes in our lifestyle and the way we act could see temperatures rise to no more than 1.5 degrees by the year 2100 compared to the current predicted rates at between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius. Big cities in the UK could see the mass plantation of trees putting the carbon dioxide back into the soil and giving the air more oxygen.
For this to happen we need countries to take this more seriously and for everyone to make a joint effort on changing our climate. Some countries have more to do than others but climate change affects everyone and it is very important to future generations.
For example, CEN journalists visited a Glasgow University environmental science exhibition and took particular interest on a company called ‘QUANTIC‘. They showed us a technologically enhanced camera which highlighted where an emission of methane gas was coming from. They explained how useful it could be by attaching the camera to drones and using them to fly over certain sites and spot any methane gas leaks. This could be extremely useful as it could stop a lot of pollution among certain areas as methane does contribute to global emissions. The people at QUANTIC were very passionate and ambitious about the change they could make to the climate.
Examples like this show that we can make a difference but it is important that everyone’s voices are heard and taken seriously as especially young people can and will be the most damaged by climate change if nothing is done about it.
References
https://time.com/5824295/climate-change-future-possibilities/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-d6338d9f-8789-4bc2-b6d7-3691c0e7d138
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/what-the-world-could-look-like-in-2050-if-we-do-everything-right-on-climate/
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dry+summer&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiclLr84Y30AhVQZhQKHWyEDbYQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=dry+summer&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIECAAQQzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABhttp:/https://www.all4women.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/27/dry-summer.jpg
