It Doesn’t Take a Climate Scientist to See Climate Change is Happening Alarmingly Fast
As a concerned citizen who is an active and vocal environmental advocate, I follow the news on the climate crisis regularly, and with great interest. My social media and news feeds are flooded daily with articles, reports, studies, interviews, podcasts, and the like, most of which are becoming exponentially more and more urgent. I can’t possibly digest it all, but I read what I can and share a lot of it in hopes that someone who follows me might be motivated to join me in learning more, talking about it, and taking action in some way.
I am not a scientist. I actually hate that phrase, because it has been adopted by the right in this country as a lame argument for justification for inaction on solutions to the climate crisis, while allowing environmental regulations to be decimated and fossil fuel interests to cling to life. But I digress.
By trade, I am a graphic designer. As such, my clients trust me to use my education and decades of experience in the industry to provide them with solid, professional marketing, design and branding solutions for their businesses. They trust me the same way I trust my doctor to give me proper treatment – the same way I trust my trash hauler to show up every Thursday morning – the same way I trust climate scientists who say we are in the midst of a climate emergency. You have to let the professionals do their job.
Over the last several years, more and more studies and reports have been released explaining in grave detail how perilous our climate situation actually is. But you do not have to be a geologist, biologist, botanist, entomologist, glaciologist, climatologist, or have decades of climate science and countless hours of research behind you to see for yourself the very real, and very devastating effects of the climate crisis.
Just in the last few weeks:
June was the hottest month in recorded global history:
France experienced its hottest temperature ever recorded:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/europe/france-record-temperature-heatwave-intl/index.html
Delhi, India recorded its hottest temperature ever:
https://www.businessinsider.my/india-heat-wave-kills-experts-areas-maybe-too-hot-live-2019-7/
An estimated 40% of India’s population – that’s over 400 million people – will not have access to drinking water by 2030:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/this-city-in-india-is-running-out-of-water/
Lake Erie water level is at an all-time high:
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2019/07/lake-erie-breaks-all-time-record-water-level-again.html
Ohio corn, soy and other crops have been devastated by heavy rains:
Anchorage, AL set an all-time high temperature record:
Atmospheric CO2 concentration is at an all-time high:
https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2
Some will say “Well, we had heat waves, droughts, forest fires, and bad storms when I was kid too!” Yes, you did. But you didn’t have the consistent, sustained ferocity we are now seeing on a regular basis from constant record-breaking sever weather events, all over the globe, each one seemingly more powerful than the last. All of which can be attributed to man-made climate change, and a high concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
We can put our heads in the sand and dismiss the severe weather we’ve seen in recent days and weeks as simply anomalies and chock them up as the occasional wrath of mother nature. But how many times to you need to be slapped in the face to get it? How many warning signs do you need? What will it take to compel you to act? I like to think humanity is smarter than to remain so tragically apathetic. I pray that, on a large scale, and soon, we wake up to the reality that the climate we are living in today is the new normal and we must act now to have a chance at avoiding the devastating effects a hotter planet will most certainly throw at us.
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Written by: Eric Hancsak
Founder of GoGreenGo.org
Eric owns a graphic design company in historic Hudson, OH, where he lives with his wife and son. He is a Climate Reality Leader trained by Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project, and was appointed by Hudson City Council to a seat on the Hudson Environmental Awareness Committee.