The Climate Crisis and its Causes 

The severity of the climate crisis has been on a steady increase for over a century and a half. But what exactly is this term we hear about so much? The climate crisis is the increase in global temperatures and the effects that have. While this may sound like global warming, there is a difference. While global warming is the gradual heating of the Earth through greenhouse gasses, the climate crisis includes all the effects because of this warming. Effects such as melting ice formations, sea-level rise, increased droughts, more frequent wildfires, and higher severity of ocean storms force people to relocate from their homes and make more places susceptible to natural disasters.

The biggest trigger for this climate crisis is the burning of fossil fuels. When fossil fuels are burned, they release carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and these gasses stay in the atmosphere where they form a kind of blanket. When sunlight enters the atmosphere, it gets trapped by this layer, whereas it would usually be radiated back out into space. As a result, the Earth becomes heated, like a greenhouse, hence the name greenhouse gasses. These greenhouse gasses cause global warming, which is one-half of the climate crisis. The majority of these emissions come from the economic sector, and can be divided into three major categories. From highest to lowest, these categories are electricity/heating, transportation, and agriculture.

Burning fossil fuels is a cheap way to generate electricity, though not the best for the environment.  During the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels were the only reasonable way to power the newly built generators. When greener technology came around, the switch was too expensive and unreliable, so people never bothered to convert, and it has stayed that way since. 

As for transportation, the story is generally the same as electricity. Gasoline was the efficient way to keep a car moving, and it stayed that way for many years, until the 21st century. In today's society, electric vehicles are on the market, but these cars are very expensive and less credible, which has also slowed down the conversion to greener transportation.

Agriculture releases a surprising amount of carbon emissions. The source directly releasing greenhouse gasses is nitrous oxide emissions from solids, fertilizers, and manure/urine from grazing animals. The nitrous oxide coming from these sources goes directly into the atmosphere and contributes to greenhouse gasses. Cows, sheep, and goats contribute to the amount of methane produced. They are ruminant animals, which means they have multiple stomachs to digest food, and because of this increased processing of food, gas comes more frequently from the... back end. This gas is called methane, and both nitrous oxide and methane are even worse for the environment than carbon dioxide.

What Governments are Doing

Governments have recognized these major problems in our society, and are striving to fix them. In December of 2015, the Paris Climate accord was proposed. The aim is to limit the global temperature rise to a minimum of 2 degrees celsius (preferably around 1.5 degrees celsius), in the hopes that we can revert global temperatures to pre-Industrial levels. The goal is to achieve a climate-neutral world by the 2030s, meaning that the number of harmful emissions being released into the air is the same as the amount being removed. This reversal of the climate crisis will take many decades, and it will still affect us in the coming years, so in these five-year periods, countries are also required to provide what they will do to combat the consequences of already existing carbon emissions. Since December of 2015, almost all the countries of the world have signed a formal approval to meet the standards of this agreement. 

The US, China, India, and Russia make up over half of all of the worlds’ carbon emissions alone. Despite the efforts being made by these countries, assessments rule these major carbon emitters as “insufficient”, or even “highly insufficient”. The US set a very ambitious goal for the next five years and is working to achieve that, but the US just recently signed back onto the Paris agreement under President Joe Biden after former President Donald Trump withdrew participation in late 2020. Despite this, they are on track to meet their goals. India too has strived to make changes to its carbon emissions as well, but currently are deemed as “highly insufficient”, as they are trending to increased carbon emissions due to their high reliance on coal. Their large population makes the switch harder. The same issue is true for China, who is also seen as “highly insufficient”. While it is on track to achieve its goals, the goals they have set for itself are not at all sufficient to meet the conditions of the agreement, and they need a steep comeback plan to be on track for the 2030 deadline. And finally, Russia. This country has been given the label “critically insufficient”. They are trending to be the major contributor to the climate crisis in the coming years, and do not seem to be slowing down. The problem is that Russia wants the melting of the polar ice caps, as that gives them access to seat routes without having to go though other countries' maritime territory.

In summary, the climate crisis is a growing problem in today's society. Increased flooding, rising sea levels, melting of ice formations, harsher sea storms, and many more events will cause the displacement of people and disruption of the lives of humans. In addition to that, the damages that result from this dilemma are estimated to be $2 billion a day. But the Paris Agreement is a way for governments of countries to build up regulations and set goals to stop the increasingly apparent effects of the climate crisis before the deadline of 2030. Should the goal of having global temperatures be limited to pre-industrial times (1.5 degrees), all of these effects would be negated over time, and lead to a greener, and cleaner, future for all of humanity.