{"id":2161,"date":"2021-01-20T10:15:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T10:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2021-01-20T10:15:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T10:15:32","slug":"climate-change-and-how-you-can-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/2021\/01\/20\/climate-change-and-how-you-can-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change, and how YOU can help."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s getting hotter and hotter every year! No, its not a\nreference to Nelly\u2019s \u2018It\u2019s getting hot in herre\u2019, so do not take off your\nclothes. I\u2019m talking about climate change. Now, I am not as influential as Leonardo\nDi Caprio, a major activist for climate change but I will try my best to talk\nabout it. What is climate change? It\u2019s in the name, the changing of the earth\u2019s\nclimates and weather patterns. The abnormal weather patterns around the world are\ncausing detrimental effects to each country as it is changing for the worse by\ngetting more extreme and unpredictable. At the beginning of human civilization,\naround 7000 years ago, most of the earth\u2019s climate change was because of small\nchanges in the Earth\u2019s orbit but now, the earth\u2019s temperature is increasing by more\nthan 95% of the expected increase. Scientists in the world have agreed that\nclimate change is real and is primarily caused by human activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have probably already read this stuff during your high\nschool but let me enlighten you again. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide\ntrap heat in the atmosphere and regulate our climate. In simpler terms,\ngreenhouse gases are like blankets, the thicker the blanket, the warmer the\nplanet gets. These gases exist naturally but with the increase of motor vehicles\nand factories, these greenhouse gases are in excess. The burning of fossil\nfuels also contribute to the increase of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence can be seen as the global temperature rise in the\npast 35 years, with the five warmest years ever recorded. 2016 was the warmest\nyear ever recorded, the temperatures of oceans also rising as it absorbs much\nof the heat and greenhouse gases with about 700 meters of ocean showing warming\nof more than 17 degrees celcius since 1969. Sea levels are expected to rise\nbetween 10 and 32 inches or higher by the end of the century. Hurricanes and\nstorms are likely to become stronger, flood and draughts will become more\ncommon with large droughts called \u201cmegadroughts\u201d set to plague the U.S for\ndecades. The decrease of mass in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets which\nis about 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016 and the rate of\nAntarctica\u2019s ice mass loss having tripled in the last decade, glaciers\nretreating almost everywhere around the world in places such as the Alps,\nHimalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa, and obviously the rise in sea\nlevels. Some diseases will spread, such as mosquito-borne malaria and the Zika\nvirus. Ecosystems will continue to change, some species will move further north\nto survive but others such as polar bears will not be able to adapt and could\nbecome extinct. POLAR BEARS? EXTINCT? These are just the few effects of climate\nchange and if we do not do anything to prevent it, scientist say that climate\nchange will be irreversible by the year 2040. That is just 11 years away people!\nThe only people that climate change will effect is us, the coming generation.\nOur future is the only one that is compromised, which is why we are the only\nones that have the motivation to prevent this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As climate change is getting serious, humans have also gotten\nserious. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by the\nWorld Meteorological Organization (WMQ) and United Nations Environment . to provide an objective source of scientific\ninformation. In 2013 the IPCC provided more clarity about the role of human\nactivities in climate change when it released its Fifth Assessment Report<\/a>. It is categorical in its conclusion: climate change is real\nand human activities are the main cause. Other efforts such as the United\nNations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement\nas well as the Climate Summit 2019 have also been done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways that we can help combat climate change.\nYes, even the thing that seems the most insignificant can help stop climate change.\nThe first and most important thing you can do in the coming years is you can\nstart using renewable sources of energy. As the push for cleaner and healthier\nenergy is rapid, the cost of renewable energy is dropping everyday proving that\nthis is the best choice for the environment and also your wallet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next, use public transportation on your daily travels. In Malaysia,\ntransportation accounts for 24% of climate-polluting emissions, second only to\nthe oil and gas industry. A few ways to reduce your transportation emissions\nare to take the train or LRT, ride a bicycle, car pool or use an electric or\nhybrid vehicle. Another thing to do is also fly less. Planes run on fossil\nfuels, and no one has figured out an alternative. Although there have been some\nefforts using solar panels to fly around the world we are still decades away\nfrom commercial flights running on solar energy. A study shows that a normal transatlantic\nround-trip flight can release around 1.6 tonnes of C02<\/sub> \u2013 almost as\nmuch as the average yearly emissions of one persons in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, use your energy wisely. Malaysia is one of the top\nenergy consumers in the world. By getting more energy efficient, you will\npollute less and also get the benefit of not breaking your bank. The small\nchanges you can do to use energy efficiently are to change your light bulbs to\nenergy efficient light bulbs, unplug any electronics that are plugged in such\nas computers, TV\u2019s or microwave, use cold water if your washing machine allows\nyou to change the temperature of water, hang dry clothes instead of using a\ndryer as they consume a lot of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, studies have shown that animal agriculture and\nmeat consumption also contributes to climate change. Surprising, I know. It is responsible\nfor about 13% to 18% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally. Although\nit does not contribute as much as fossil fuel combustion, it still is one of\nthe major contributors. The biggest problem being the production of beef. We\ncan combat this by eating for a climate-stable planet. The four simple changes\nyou can make to your diet to reduce its climate impact are by eating meat-free\nmeals, buying organic and local foods produce whenever possible, do not waste\nfood because it comes at the price of contributing to climate change, and\ngrowing your own food which seems harder than it really is. If you cannot go\ncompletely meat free, you can start by reducing your consumption of animal\nprotein by half, you can cut your diet\u2019s carbon footprint by more than 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopping also contributes to this which is why you should\nchange your shopping patterns. The clothing sector represents around 3% of the\nworld\u2019s global production emissions of CO2, mostly because of the use of energy\nto produce attire. The hectic pace of \nfast fashion contributes to this figure as clothe are discarded or fall apart\nafter short periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think that these contributions do not make any\ndifference when it comes to climate change, here the proof to show you\notherwise. Scientist have found that when once person makes a\nsustainability-oriented decision, others tend to do too. Some examples are patrons\nat a US caf\u00e9 who were told that 30% of Americans that had started eating less\nmeat were twice as likely to order a meatless lunch. Besides that, an online\nsurvey showed that respondents who know someone had given up flying because of\nclimate change also said they flew less as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now that you have heard my side, I hope that this will\nmotivate you to work towards preventing climate change as well<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s getting hotter and hotter every year! No, its not a reference to Nelly\u2019s \u2018It\u2019s getting hot in herre\u2019, so do not take off your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[169,128],"tags":[224,225],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2199,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/2199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambassadors.ucsiuniversity.edu.my\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}