Climate Change Facts You Need To Know

Communities around the world are feeling the impact of climate change fueled by warmer temperatures, including longer droughts, more hurricanes and bigger wildfires. Humans have already warmed the earth by 1.1 degrees Celsius, and temperatures are expected to keep rising.

Less than 10% of misleading posts on Facebook describing climate change as “hysteria” or a “scam,” or similar terms, get marked as misinformation, according to a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

To eliminate climate myths, we must avoid repeating them and instead repeat the facts about climate change early and frequently.

Let’s find the facts of climate change together

1. Climate change is real, and the evidences is very clear.

These days 77% of Americans say human activity plays at least some role in climate change, while 22% still believe we play no role, according to a Pew Research study conducted in April.

The report, released Aug. 9 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is the group’s first review of climate science research since 2013. Climate change has affected every corner of the globe, and even if emissions were instantly cut to no more than what the Earth’s soil, plants, and seas could absorb naturally, some of the consequences currently in motion would be irreversible within centuries or millennia, according to the report.

From a scientific perspective, the data is clear, Deborah Brosnansaid, president and founder of Deborah Brosnan & Associates, an environmental risk reduction firm. She added that “every Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report only strengthens the evidence and confidence in the findings — namely that rising CO2 levels (now at 419 ppm) are causing profound impacts to the world’s climate and life on earth.”

Increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere can promote plant development, but this isn’t always a good thing. Too much CO2 causes global warming, which has a wide range of severe consequences. According to Taylor Perron, an earth scientist, increased plant growth may cause more problems for vegetation.

We’ve lost around 28 trillion tons of ice since the mid-1990s, with the current melt rate standing at 1.2 trillion tons per year. Between 2011 and 2020, annual Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level since at least 1850 and late summer Arctic sea ice was smaller than at any time in at least the past 1,000 years.

Higher sea levels are caused by melting ice sheets and glaciers, as well as warmer oceans. Sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than in any previous century in at least the last 3,000 years, and this trend is expected to continue for a very long time. If warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next 2,000 years global mean sea level will rise to between two and three metres above current levels.

2. Weather and climate are different entities.

Weather varies by location and changes over the time of minutes, hours, days, and weeks. There are many elements that may change the environment at a certain place, including air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and many others.

While weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, climate describes what the weather is like in a certain place over a long period of time.

When scientists describe climate change, they frequently refer to averages of rainfall, temperature, humidity, sunlight, wind, and other weather parameters that occur over a long period of time in a specific location.

Overall, global climate depends on the amount of energy received by the sun and the amount of energy that is trapped in the system.

3. Solar and wind energy are now cheaper to produce than fossil fuel energy

The use of fossil fuels for energy is a major contribution to climate change. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are one solution to this problem. However, misinformation suggesting that renewable energy is too expensive to implement continues on the internet.

According to an International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) assessment, nearly two-thirds of wind and solar projects completed globally last year will be able to provide cheaper power than even the world’s cheapest new coal plants.

In less than a decade, the cost of large-scale solar power has dropped by more than 85%, while onshore wind has dropped by nearly 56% and offshore wind has dropped by nearly 48%. Renewable energy costs will continue to fall in the future years. Over the next two years, three-quarters of all new solar power projects will be less expensive than new coal power plants, and onshore wind prices will be one-quarter less than the cheapest new coal-fired option.

4. There are more extreme weather events happening now

The world is “changing before our eyes” as a result of climate change, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned. Some of extreme weather events happened in 2021 for your references are as below:

In Madrid: Storm Filomena dumped record-breaking amounts of snow on Madrid in the first weeks of 2021, and elderly People were advised to stay at home as temperatures dropped. The city’s transportation was forced to a “standstill” by the biggest snowfall in 50 years.

In UK: The three-day period from January 18 to January 20, 2021, will be one of the wettest on record. Homes in Cheshire were flooded, while inhabitants in Manchester and Merseyside were evacuated. Significant snowfall caused traffic interruption after Storm Christoph passed.

In Fiji: The Guardian said that Cyclone Ana “pummelled” Fiji near the end of January, “only a month after category 5 Cyclone Yasa tore across the country’s northern islands. It forced over 10,000 people to seek safety in 318 evacuation centers across the country, has left behind a “difficult recovery.”

In some areas of Texas, US: Temperatures fell to -13°C in several locations, keeping many vulnerable people in freezing weather. Approximately 3.5 million households and businesses were without power.

In China:

China was hit by a dust storm that was widely confused as a sandstorm. According to specialists, the tiny particles can go “much, much further” than sand and cause health problems if they are “drawn deep into the lungs.”

In July, severe rainfall and flooding in China’s Henan province killed over 300 people. Twelve people lost their lives in a Zhengzhou metro train, with witnesses telling how water spilled through the cabin doors, making breathing difficult.

In New South Wales: Rivers and dams will overflow as a result of severe rain and downpours. The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) urges residents to take care their physical and mental health.

In Indonesia: In April 160 people died in Indonesia after a tropical cyclone. Landslides and flash floods displaced at least 22,000 people.

In Russia: Temperatures reached 34.8℃ in June, the highest for any day of the year so far, according to Russian media. Other cities such as Penza, Vologda and Petrozavodsk also broke heat records during the month.

In Germany: Floods destroyed homes and bridges along the Ahr River in July, while water “engulfed streets and swallowed homes” in the German village of Schuld, according to CNN.

Reference sources: 

https://www.cnet.com/news/5-facts-that-debunk-climate-change-misinformation/

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/weather-vs-climate

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/most-new-wind-solar-projects-cheaper-than-coal-report

https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/953574/worlds-most-extreme-weather-events-2021