Are warmer Summers because of climate change?
This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.
As we are drawing closer to the summer months, we are starting to feel the heat.
An average temperature of 20 °C is expected this summer in the UK.
Last year we had temperatures as high as 35 °C.
It all seems nice when you think of it.
But are these warm temperatures a result of Global Warming?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer:
It's our fault.
While it might be lovely to think that we’ve given ourselves a nice warm summer, that might not be the case.
The rising temperatures are affecting the entire world; Europe being affected the most.
If these trends continue to above an extra 1.5 °C, the changes might be irreversible.
- The polar ice caps will melt, flooding low lying land, like most of the UK.
- Then major water currents will change, causing a vicious cycle of warming.
- Plants and animals will die out, leaving us with an unstable food supply, eventually killing us.
If all of this sound harsh, that's because it is, an unstable climate could spiral us into extinction.
If you want to escape this grisly fate, there are many ways to stop this from happening.
For example, you could:
- Get an electric car, rather than using petrol/ diesel cars that pollute the air a lot, trapping heat in the Earth.
- Switch to renewable energy supply, the fossil fuels we currently use create tons of emissions.
- Switch to using energy in off-peak times, this puts less strain on our current energy infrastructure, meaning CO2 isn't polluting the air when lots of people use their supply.
- Use a bike, as cars pollute too much, even electric, as they require electricity, which sometimes comes from fossil fuels.
- Advocate for wars to end, war using lots of fuel and produces lots of harmful gas, if you play your part, this won't happen.
- Turn off the light when you leave the room, however obvious it might seem, it still plays a part in reducing emissions.
As we aren't at this stage yet, we still have time to fix it.
The closing of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran has us think, is oil really worth it, or are the better alternatives?
Some food for thought over summer, would you want to watch the world burn, or do you want to help cool it back to stable temperatures?
