Reflection: Environmental
Problems
After reading chapter
13, one of the points that stuck out most to me is how delicate our climate is
in terms of temperature. A shift in our
average earth temperature by a small 2 degrees Celsius would change the way we
know our world as it is. This may not
seem like much, but when you are dealing with the average temperature of the
planet, this is very significant. As it
is, we are losing our ice shelves at an alarming rate. Loss of our ice shelves will create a higher
sea level. Ten percent of the world’s population
lives in coastal cities. If we were to
see even just a 20 ft. increase in sea levels, we would cease to have cities
such as Manhattan. Our landscape would
change so dramatically that it would be visible in space. This is a huge issue for many reasons, not
only would we lose land or islands, we would also have very large populations
being displaced.
The second point that
stuck out to me was the fact that we would have millions of environmental
refugees. What would become of all the people
who have lost their homes, their jobs, land, and livelihood? There really is not an evacuation plan in
place for this sort of disaster. Who
will take in these people, transport them, house them, help feed them, and help
relocate them. Will there be jobs
available? The current population of
Manhattan is a bit more than 1,600,000 people.
To put that into perspective, the entire state of Idaho has a total
population of just under 1,600,000 people.
This is just one city! Cities
from New York to Florida, from Louisiana to California, and all the way up to
Seattle would be affected. And this is
just in America. There are some
countries that would definitely have it worse off.
I know that when it
comes to environmental issues, it may seem as though there is an overwhelming amount
that needs to be done in order to make a difference. Maybe in some ways this is true. But I honestly believe that if everyone were
to change one or two things for the better that the impact would be great. I just hope that people will take the issues seriously,
and try to become more aware of how we are impacting our planet, and our own well-being.
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