By: Jesus Cruz Valdez
OwlFeed Journalist

Though this may be a story that should be in the News section, I’d like to instill my thoughts on the subject of climate change.

Climate change is a colossal complication in the world today. This change is caused by human activity. Humans leave a massive carbon footprint: we pollute the air, we pollute the oceans, we kill off animals. We destroy so much just to build something simple. We abuse this world so much, we don’t deserve it.

We have polluted so much that our world temperature has risen by 1.62 degrees since the late 19th century. The temperature is slowly rising. 

On the topic of rising, the “global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century,” studies from NASA said. They also go on to say in these two decades the rate doubled from the last century. The sea level is increasing at an accelerated rate.

At this rate, islands will end up flooding. Animals and ecosystems are vanishing.

Multiple islands are being overtaken slowly by this rising sea level. One mammal that has gone extinct due to climate change is from the rodent family, the bramble cay melomys.

The cause of this rising sea level is the melting of the polar ice caps. About 127 billion pounds worth of polar ice caps have melted from the period 1993 to 2016. The cause of the polar caps melting is global warming. Global warming is the rise of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. 

The carbon dioxide levels have increased exponentially since the 1950s. According to Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old-girl who spoke to the United Nations, the carbon dioxide levels are “already down to less than 350 gigatons.” These levels are still about 50 gigatons more than the 1950s. 

The reason why there is so much carbon dioxide is because we burn fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are used as an energy source. Though we expect our plants to filter, plants can’t filter out as much carbon dioxide we are putting into the environment. 

It is a bit idealistic to say we all need to come together to help this planet but we can start by putting up solar panels and windmills for our primary energy source.

We can’t expect that this issue is going to resolve itself. We can’t keep abusing this planet and ignoring what’s happening around us. We have to do something.