Letter: Now is the time

Climate change is a huge issue that is present in the world today. Climate change has many effects on our daily lives and will continuously worsen as time goes on if we don’t do anything to solve it. Some problems climate change has created are declining Arctic sea ice, global temperature rise and warming of oceans. These are just a few among many issues, but they are very destructive. We need to set some boundaries on our greenhouse-gas emissions and fix this threatening issue.

Declining Arctic sea ice has caused many issues in the Arctic, such as animal population decreasing. Arctic sea ice is now declining at a rate of 13.3 percent per decade. Many animals are dependent on sea ice for survival. Another huge problem that is occurring due to climate change is global temperature rise. The global temperature has risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. This has caused many issues, such as droughts and natural disasters. If greenhouse-gas emissions such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone continue, the global temperature is predicted to increase by about 4 to 12 degrees by the year 2100.

Some people argue that climate change isn’t real because the weather goes up and down in trends. This is inaccurate, because if you look at a graph of the weather, the global temperature goes upward as a trend.

Humans today are emitting huge quantities of carbon dioxide at a rate faster than even the most destructive climate changes in Earth’s past.

Climate change is an issue that greatly affects our world today. To prevent climate change, we simply need to lower our greenhouse-gas emissions. To do this, we need to cut down on our manufacturing. This issue cannot be put off any longer. We need to do something about it now.

Thank you for your time.

Amanda Norvell

Ninth-grade student at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, Avon