Climate change, sometimes referred to as global warming, is one of the most discussed and researched topics of the last few decades. Climate change, if not stopped, is going to lead to catastrophic consequences for the environment and humanity. Climate change is the consequence of rapid global industrialization, which resulted in tons of various industrial gas emissions into the atmosphere of the Earth. The reason for climate change is the so-called “greenhouse effect.” Its principle is similar to how a greenhouse works. The energy coming from sunlight is partially reflected and partially absorbed. Some part of reflected sunlight is reflected back to the Earth due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Hence, the rapid industrial revolution, which comes along with massive greenhouse gas emissions, resulted in the greenhouse effect. Even though climate change is a process that takes a long time, its consequences can already be seen, and even more, consequences are about to be faced by humanity. Climate change is going to influence every aspect of human life, including our living conditions.
One of the positive aspects of climate change is that it forces humanity into sustainable development. Sustainability is the term used for a clean, green way of doing things. In other words, sustainability is about meeting the need of the current generation without compromising the conditions of the future generation in meeting their needs. Climate change triggered humanity to shift all types of businesses’ approach into the environmentally friendly way. Sustainability has three main pillars, environmental, social, and economical. Green building certification systems are the outcome of sustainable development in a construction area. These systems set the requirements for the construction companies to follow in order to meet the sustainability standards, which means being harmless to the environment. These sustainability requirements include the whole construction process and the future use of the building as well. Thus, climate change pushed humanity to rethink its relationship with the environment and to enhance social and economic aspects of our lives as well.
Climate change is the source of huge changes threatening our ecosystem, flora, and fauna, which will significantly affect the living conditions of humanity. The adaptation for the coming changes is the main challenge for humanity, which will have a significant influence on the way we live. Scientists, engineers, and policymakers are doing their best to prevent the severe consequences of global warming. Scientists claim that global warming leads to the frequency of extreme natural disasters. Especially cities located on the coast of the oceans are much likely to experience more frequent tsunamis. Also, people living in mountainous regions should be ready for unusual earthquakes. Moreover, a rise in sea level is another negative consequence of global warming. A rise in sea level is directly related to the increase of water volume due to glaciers melting in the North Pole. The rise of sea level will completely destroy some island, and result in huge floods endangering the existence of whole cities. The disappearance of the cities will result in global homelessness and big population movements (Heshmati, 2020). Thus, humanity should now be prepared to tackle those threats that global warming will cause in the future.
One of the ways to fight global warming is to decrease greenhouse gas emissions via using low-carbon energy technologies. Nowadays, engineers from all around the world are working on the development of alternative sources of energy. These include solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal energy, etc. Solar panels are gaining popularity among countries with a lot of sunny days in a year. People of those countries are covering the roofs of their houses with solar panels, which supply the whole house with electricity. Wind turbines, being one of the cheapest price energy sources, are also an effective way to generate carbon-free energy, especially in windy countries. Geothermal energy is generated via deep underground water sources, which move turbines and generate electricity. Also, recent developments in low-carbon energy technologies resulted in smart, energy-efficient homes. Smart systems using artificial intelligence allow automatic control of household electricity consumption, thus, resulting in reduced energy use. Also, some scientists suggest that switching to lower animal-based food consumption and the promotion of a vegetarian lifestyle can positively affect the consequences of climate change.
To sum up, climate change is accelerating very fast and bringing huge changes to humanity. The main challenge for humanity is to prevent and adapt to the changes that global warming brings. The sustainability approach is one way to decrease anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing the level of climate change. Sustainability includes minimizing global warming and enhancing human living conditions in terms of environmental, social, and economic aspects. Also, climate change, if not prevented, will result in huge natural disasters, such as flooding, extreme weather conditions, the disappearance of the cities, which will result in global population movement. One of the ways to prevent such disasters from happening is to develop various carbon-free technologies, such as solar panels, wind turbines, etc. Also, implementation of those technologies in real life at a country level is important to prevent global warming. Thus, climate change is influencing human’s living conditions via sustainability approaches, possible future population movements due to natural disasters, and new technologies that are becoming an essential part of human life.
Reference
Heshmati, H. M. (2020). Impact of Climate Change on Life. In Environmental Change and Sustainability. IntechOpen.