By Robyn Forbes

Climate change is a real, global, pressing issue–one needn’t look too far to see the effects it is having on our environment. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea level has been rising over the past century and the rate at which it’s happening is rising as well, leaving parts of South Florida in great danger of being swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite how scary that might sound, it’s not the greatest of our worries. Climate change is affecting a lot more than we would be inclined to notice on a daily basis, and those effects can hardly be contained or denied. Unless we do our part to combat the changes, they will continue to take place in rapid succession, playing out as a quite costly domino effect.

The production of greenhouse gases, or carbon emissions, is a primary cause of climate change and it can do major harm to ecosystems. Ecosystems located in colder climates are suffering especially. As the general global temperature continues to rise and arctic glaciers melt, animals that are accustomed to the chilly environment are forced to deal with warmer temperatures and are running out of icy living space rather quickly.

The danger isn’t just in creatures running out of habitable space, but also in running out of food. When small animals, like fish, that act as prey for larger animals, such as polar bears, become endangered, the food chain will begin to fall in on itself. In nature, everything is correlated: Global warming emissions can lead to a change in climate, which will throw the food chain out of balance, leading to the endangerment and possible extinction of a certain species, which might result in invasion by another species not native to that area.

Apart from the effects it’s had on ecosystems and animal habitats, climate change has led to an overwhelming amount of rather vicious natural disasters in recent years. A report conducted by the World Meteorological Organization, the world is about five times as disaster prone as it was in the 1970s due to climate change risks. This year’s Atlantic hurricane season is now recorded as being in the top ten most active seasons on record, with September being the most active month on record ever. Climate change is causing these natural disasters to occur a lot more frequently and with such power that we hardly have time to recover before the next one strikes.

This year, Mexico saw the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in a century, which took many lives. Wildfires have been rampaging through the Pacific Northwest eating up homes and forests and leaving the atmosphere badly polluted with smoke. Though climate change doesn’t cause wildfires, it does have a way of worsening the damage they do. Global warming-induced heat waves make it a lot easier for fires to get started and a lot harder for them to be put out. The damage caused by these disasters lingers long after they have passed and can be just as harmful as the disasters themselves.

After these natural occurrences have done the dirty work so to speak, someone must clean it up. The amount of money it costs to handle cleanup, rescue efforts, reconstruction, and the provision of supplies for one disaster is quite pricy.
FEMA is struggling to cover the costs of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria which will cost anywhere from $155 billion to $370 billion each. Climate change is costing us a great deal and is even threatening global food production and overall food quality.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, many crop yields are expected to decline because of severe weather events and changes in rainfall, among other factors. The destruction caused by climate change and its resulting natural disasters also takes a toll on many people’s mental health. After disasters such as major hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires, there have been heightened cases of anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder.

The horrid effects of climate change that we are seeing now are primarily a result of human interference with the planet’s natural processes. The problems we are creating aren’t just harmful to the environment, but will ultimately become our own fatalities. The effects of climate change can only be swept under the rug for so long; eventually, we’ll end up tripping over the ever-growing lump we ourselves have created beneath it.