Climate change

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the World Meteorological Organization, and NASA, 2018 has been the fourth warmest year on record. It appears that the climate keeps getting worse with no foreseeable hope of being able to tackle anthropogenic global warming. As of 2019, the world is only twelve years away from what the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers “catastrophic” damage. If the world’s average temperature is increased by 2 degrees celsius relative to preindustrial levels,  there will some very destructive ramifications. Some of the major consequences of increasing over that 2 degree celsius mark include an increase in floods, droughts, extreme weather events, and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

There have been attempts such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris agreement to prevent the worst effects of anthropogenic climate change. However, even with these attempts, there has not been enough done to truly prevent the real damage that is predicted to happen.

“Think to begin combating climate change, we need to take small steps to change the way we operate on a daily basis,” said Morgan Seeman, 12. “One of the first steps would be to eat more ethically. So not eating meat or dairy. A lot of greenhouse gas emissions come from the meat and dairy industries. Eat locally if possible-this cuts down on the emissions from transporting food place to place.”

One of the major problems when trying to tackle this issue is that change is not being enforced strictly enough. Without decisive action within the next year, it is unlikely that the world will come to an effective strategy on how to combat climate change. Personally, I believe that an issue as paramount as climate change  needs to be on the table before anything else. Furthermore, the current systems of world governments prevent the immediate change. The slow democratic process across the western world makes it so that policy is passed too late.

“Carbon dioxide levels are higher than they have been in nearly 500,000 years. In the future, the carbon dioxide levels are predicted to double,” said Mr. Matthews, the earth and space science teacher.  “The question we should be asking is not if climate change is happening, but if it is too late to do anything to prevent further progression.”

While not the most desired choice, an entity with a very strong centralized power may be needed to stop climate change. A type of world government that would have power over all of the world’s nations would be abler to overrule any nation’s laws that pertain to doing damage to the planet is really the only effective option. Multilateration agreement, like the Paris Agreement, are not likely to  do enough to solve the problem. Drastic measures need to taken.

If humanity wants to continue strive past the 21st century, there needs to be a one world government.