COVER STORY
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he issue of climate change has been one of increasing importance in mainstream media over the past few decades. However, in recent years, a new emphasis has been placed on the situation. Images of sea levels rising, polar bears stranded on melting ice caps and smog billowing from industrial centers have been seen through scenes on TV, in the classroom and online. It can be daunting to come to terms with the fact that the planet is changing, and that it is in danger, but it is critically important that those with the resources to make a difference try to in any way they can. Blocking out the static of politics aside, it is important to learn the facts about climate change. Knowing the basic terms used to describe climate change will help facilitate discussion about ways to create change.
CLIMATE VOCABULARY
Climate change is the term which describes a change in global or regional patterns, according to NASA. For centuries scientists have tracked the periods of warming and cooling which the planet has undergone. Climatologists identify five
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distinct periods, according to History.com. These periods allowed for agricultural development, the movement of people and animals around the globe and other historically significant events in the development of the planet as it is known today. Many people speculate that recent climate trends reflect another period of natural warming and that human activity has nothing to do with climate change. Only 52 percent of Americans believe that climate change is caused by human activities, according to a Yale Climate Communication study from 2016. However, Earth-orbiting satellites, ice cores in the Arctic and other new technologies have enabled scientists to collect data which reveals the truth. In 1900, approximately 500 million metric tons of carbon were emitted, compared to in 2014 nearly 10 thousand-million metric tons were emitted, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This number is only increasing. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning that once it is released it becomes trapped in the atmosphere which in turn warms the Earth. A second important term to know is
ecological footprint. An ecological footprint reflects the impact a person or community has on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources, according to the Global Footprint Network. Someone’s ecological footprint is influenced by the clothes they buy, their diet, their commute and the sustainability of their home. The average American’s ecological footprint is 8.6 global hectares per capita, according to the Global Footprint Network. If every person on the planet lived like the average American, it would take 8.6 Earths to sustain the Earth’s population indefinitely. “Every time I give the Ecological Footprint quiz people are just astounded because Sion and the United States in general doesn’t realize how big our footprint is,” science teacher Kaci Flippo said. “We don’t realize how much it takes to ship our food in, ship our oil in and even just the fact that all the products we use come from so many different places.”
