Major Impacts Of Climate Change
Clean Water
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No matter who you are, or what your preferences are, every living creature in the world needs to have access to water to survive. However, the privilege of clean water has become less and less available due to the growing issue of climate change. Across the globe, every 2 out of 3 people are living in areas of severe water scarcity according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Organization. This could get worse and worse with the simplest movement of a global temperature. According to the WWF Organization, climate change affects the cleanliness of water because it affects rainfall patterns which could then cause natural disasters such as drought or flooding. Now the question is, do you want to keep your water clean?
Clean Air
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When you are outside, taking a stroll on a beautiful sunny day, you want to think the air is refreshing, healthy, and clean. However with the growing use of burning fossil fuels, use of electricity, transportation, and heat the air is not becoming as purified as one may hope to believe according to the WWF Organization. The air quality has an impact on everyone’s life. Air pollution can lead to serious complications, such as asthma, heart and lung disease, and chronic respiratory diseases according to the World Health Organization. No one wants this for themselves, their family, friends, etc. This is why we all must do everything we can to keep our air healthy and clean.
You Could Be Spending More Money
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According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (2017), “climate change is expected to reduce crop and livestock yields during the next century, pushing up the price of food”. This means you would be spending more money at your grocery store or restaurants.
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As we discussed above, climate change could cause an increase in health issues. This would then lead to more spending regarding health care and health insurance if you or a loved one was impacted by extreme heat, allergies, water, and insect-borne diseases, lack of clean water, and nutritious foods.
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There could also be more money being spent regarding issues like natural disasters; hurricanes, floods, droughts, etc. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2017) “the year 2016 was an unusual year, as there were 15 weather and climate events with losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States. These events included drought, wildfire, four inland flood events, eight severe storm events, and a tropical cyclone event. These fifteen events led to 138 fatalities and caused $46.0 billion in total, direct costs”.
It is Hurting our Environment
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If climate change keeps making a negative impact on our planet it could lead to abnormal changes in temperature, making some areas extremely hot with high temperatures and some with colder and lower temperatures (Bradford, 2017). According to Bradford, there could also be more hurricanes. “Additionally, scientists are confident that hurricanes will become more intense due to climate change” (HarperWave, 2014). Also adding on to hurricanes and extreme high and low temperatures according to Climate Central, “scientists project that extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts, blizzards, and rainstorms will occur more often and with greater intensity due to global warming” (Bradford, 2017).