Climate change is a real thing that is happening. Some of it is natural, and some is caused by the human population. What’s left of natural climate change isn’t all bad, but it’s not all good either.
To further expand on that, Milton Science Teacher Mr. Tanner Walter said that there is a difference between global warming and climate change, and some people do not realize that, so the terms global warming and climate change tend to be used interchangeably.
Mr. Walter explained why someone might not notice climate change. “That’s tricky, because climate change is over a long period of time. When we’re measuring climate change, we’re looking at prior events, like the industrial revolution to current day,” he said. “It’s very hard to measure small changes because there are so many factors that go into it, which is not really going to show the effects of climate change.”
When looking at the data, Mr. Walter said that the industrial revolution was the biggest cause of climate change. “ And that is because we put oil into the atmosphere. So obviously if we are putting more oil and wood into the atmosphere, that is going to create the greenhouse effect,” he added.
Mr. Walter said that it is not too late to prevent more climate change from happening because there are so many actions society can take. However he added there is one big issue, and that’s money.
Worldwide, Mr. Walter said that people should start using nuclear power plants instead of coal power plants and natural gas power plants. “The only problem with nuclear power plants is we don’t know what to do with the waste, and that’s not necessarily a very big worry. Plus, nuclear waste doesn’t go away,” he explained. “Everybody’s always worried about the three big bad events in nuclear history. There was Fukushima in Japan, and then Chernobyl in Ukraine, but also the Three-Mile Island nuclear incident here in Pennsylvania.”
Natural climate change has caused the most extinction, Mr. Walter said “because volcanoes release all of the greenhouse gases that cause most of our mass extinctions.”
Mr. Walter said he thinks some climate change was difficult to prevent because of the industrial revolution. After that the human population skyrocketed. As the population increases, CO2 and greenhouse gases are going to rise with more people, he explained.
” It’s never too late to save the planet. Anything we can do can only help,” said Science Teacher Ms. Kathy Bower.
Climate change has impacted Ms. Bower’s life because she said she has an autoimmune disorder and when temperatures rise, her autoimmune disorder gets worse, so when it’s hot, hard to stay out of the sun and the heat, she explained.
With this she has noticed some changes in her local environment, specifically one major change at a beach she has been going to for the past 26 years, “The last couple of years the part of the beach is slowly disappearing, meaning the ocean is closer to the dunes due to higher tides. Plus the ocean’s average temperature has been much warmer for longer periods then even five years ago,” she said.
She also had some ideas to control the issue. “There is money that is being wasted for ridiculous things in this country, and there is money out there that can easily be used to help the environment but there are too many people who rely on materialistic things,” she said.
Also, if she could have gone back in time, Ms. Bower said that she would have composted and recycled more, plus used less plastic and water to prevent how bad climate change has gotten.
“I fear we may run out of resources and the thought that only the wealthy can afford basic necessities,” she said. “This is a beautiful planet but I fear it is going to look very different for our future children.”
“Climate change is hooked to very political views, so it depends on who is representing our country and their beliefs. Even that is a problem,” Ms. Bower added. She said she does not have specific statistics, but she has read that temperatures are rising and polar ice is disappearing. She worries that more devastating natural disasters are happening, she added.
Ms. Bower also said that there are many things we could do to help climate change, but they tend to be pricey. “There are many things we could do that cost money but in the long run would save the planet,” she explained. She said she recently switched to a hybrid car to not rely on gas as much.
