ELTHAM HIGH SCHOOL ANTHOLOGY   

The effects of Climate Change can be seen all across the world, for example the rise in sea levels, ocean temperature and also the Earth’s average temperature. Clearly climate change is real because experts and scientists continue to say this is a real and serious issue, a problem that mankind should be taking very seriously. I believe that we need to invest more money to reduce the effect climate change, and by the end of the speech, it will be clear more needs to be done. One of the biggest and worst effects of climate change is the rising sea levels which affects us on a global scale. During the 20th century, the sea level rose 17 cm. However the rate from 2000 to now has nearly doubled that of the last 100 years, with a rise of another 34 cm. This trend tell us now the sea rises about 1.6mm per year. So in the next 95 years (2100) we can estimate the oceans to rise between 0.8 to 2 meters. That is enough to swamp many of the cities along the Australian and U.S east coast. Some people think if we continue of the path we are on and continue to do nothing to prevent climate change, there will very possibly be a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet. That would push sea levels up to rise about 7 meters, enough to completely submerge London. A city that has a population of about 8 to 9 million, as well as the submergence of the rest of the U.K. The reasons why the sea levels are rising are because it is the partially attributed to the melting of the ice caps and glaciers, but more to the changes in the gases contained within the sea. The gases are being stored in the sea because of how humans are putting huge amounts of carbon into the sky by us burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels. Then which the sea absorbs those gases which causes the sea levels to rise. It is clear the effects of climate change are devastating, so it time for more to be done to help solve this serious issue. Another big effect of climate change is the rise in Earth’s average temperatures and rise in ocean temperature. Global temperature rise tracking has been going on since the 1800s. Scientists believe with the rise in global population with about 1 billion people per 15 years since 1970, there has also been a steady rise in the global temperature which has most occurred in the 1970s. This shows that having a big and growing population makes the Earth’s temperatures rise. The 20 warmest years in recorded history has occurred in the past 12 years and that is not even the worst thing. The worst thing is that surface temperatures are going to continue to increase. The main reason why the atmosphere is getting hotter is because of having a population 7.4 billon people living on this plant. Having a bigger population means that there is more carbon that goes in the sky, which is bad for the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When the sun energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere half of it stays and the other half go back into space. But having a bigger population means there is more carbon that stays into the sky, which builds up a pollution blanket that surrounds the planet. As result, more energy is being trapped rather than going back into space. This enhanced greenhouse effect heats the sky and the oceans. If we don’t anything to help stop climate change, the Earth’s rise in temperature will keep rising and if this happens, 50% of all plants and animals could become extinct by the end of the 21st century. It is clearly absolutely necessary to do more to end global warming to save our environment. Some people believe that climate change is fake because there are some arguments that explain how this can’t be true. For example people argue that the arctic ice has increased by 50% since 2012. The sea ice did actually increase by 50% in 2012, but however this was still the sixth lowest amount of Arctic ice to ever be recorded. The average amount of ice in 1980 was double the amount of ice recorded in 2012. This event actually tells us that the Arctic is shrinking with along the rest of the world’s ice. Also, studies conducted by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometres of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica has lost about 152 cubic kilometres of ice between 2002 and 2005. Clearly our world is being badly affected by global warming, and it is time to make a change. In conclusion I believe that we need to reduce the effect of climate change because the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time. So therefore, if we don’t do anything to help climate change the world is going to be a lot different. So if you like the world as it is now, we should protect it from climate change.