What Are the Biggest Environmental Concerns? - Climate Change

Despite the claims of President Trump, climate change is very real and very dangerous for our planet. The earth’s average surface temperature has risen a whopping 0.9°C since the late 19^th century and shows no sign of slowing down. The majority of the warming has happened in the last 35 years, with the 5 hottest years on record occurring since 2010.

What causes climate change?

What’s the main cause of climate change? Us. Human activity is the biggest contributor to global warming.

With a recent UN report giving us just 12 years to make ‘unprecedented changes’ to stop global warming, time is running out to make a difference. The good news? We can still make a difference.

Greenhouse gases are the main cause of climate change. The increasing amount of greenhouse gases being released into the air is causing a layer around the earth, trapping the sun’s rays and redirecting them back to the surface. The biggest culprits are burning fossil fuels, farming and deforestation.

How bad is climate change?

Evidence put forward by NASA suggests that climate change is affecting the globe drastically in a number of ways:

• The temperature of the top 700m of ocean has increased by more than 0.4°F since 1969.
• Greenland lost an average of 281 billion tons of ice sheets per year between 1993 and 2016.
• Global sea level rose by 8 inches in the last century, with the rate in the last 2 decades nearly doubling that of the last century.

With no changes, climate change will continue to grow and could extremely impact our environment worldwide in as little as 12 years.

What can we do?

As the globe gets hotter and hotter each year, its no surprise that people are beginning to take notice and make changes. Its not yet too late to make a difference and even the slightest changes can make a huge impact…

Reduce car emissions

Whenever and wherever possible opt for greener transport options, such as walking, biking and taking public transport.

Switching off

Save yourself some money as well as saving the environment with energy efficient electrical items. Unplug unused electricals and start using warm or cold water to wash clothes.

Education

Most importantly, we can’t make changes if we don’t know what changes are to be made. We need to start by educating everyone, worldwide, about the drastic impact climate change is having, and will have, on our environment.

Find out more

Want to know more about the biggest environmental concerns? The final post in our series will provide a summary of the top 5 environmental concerns facing us in the coming years. Alternatively, for an insight into the environment closer to home, check out our article ‘Why monitor dust in the workplace?’.