Sometimes the mountain can seem too high, the hurdles too great to leap…the weight of climate change can make us feel helpless, make our small actions seem pointless, but Newtons’ first law states that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion. – therefore the more we do the more effect our actions will have.
Science continues to deliver us with facts that if we don’t act upon climate change, then the damage done to our planet will be irreversible.
The problem is urgency, it will take 300 years before Australia becomes too hot to be habit-able and the best part of a century before cities are submerged by rising sea levels, how do we get people who are struggling to live their lives now make changes that they won’t affect them personally?
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that sea levels will rise by 16 to 25 inches (40 and 63 centimetres) by 2100. The pacific island of Tuvalu is experiencing one of the worst effects of climate change and scientists have predicted that in the next 50 to 100 years the whole island will be inhabitable. If the Maldives experiences a 45cm, 1.5ft rise in sea level, it will lose around 77% of its land area by 2100, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Science and Development Network says that many island nations might need to relocate before the end of the century.
But action taken now can change that outcome. Most of the Netherlands is already below sea level but it’s not disappearing, because the Dutch are building coastal defences.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams to considering reshaping Manhattan - by adding nearly 2,000 acres of artificial land to the borough's southernmost tip to reduce the possibility of flooding caused by climate change.
We could decide to handover a planet that is inhabitable to our children’s children, a selfish act that would see a generation looking after themselves irrespective of their actions, or we could decide to preserve our planet and make it a better place to live right now.
We can’t all afford to have solar panels installed or buy a new electric car, but we can make simple changes. We can vote for governments who put quality of life at the top of the agenda, we can refuse to be sucked into the consumer society where you need to buy things to be happy and we can stop being cavalier with the earth’s resources.
The world is interconnected, no matter how small the change might be we can improve our own quality of living while giving our planet a better chance of survival.
How are you making a difference in our world? #MyPlanet
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