Effects of climate change

Hey guys,

Sorry I’ve been silent for so long. I broke up with my boyfriend three months ago and for a while I was struggling.

I am planning on writing a separate post on manipulative and toxic relationships as I do think it’s important and something that isn’t really talked about enough. But I’m definitely 100% happier now without him and ready to get back into all the environmental activism. I have loads of ideas for my blog and my Instagram and I’m also hoping to start a YouTube channel soon. I really appreciate all the support that I get!

Living in the Western World I think it is very easy to forget the effects that our actions have on the rest of the planet. We can send those clothes we only brought last week to a charity shop, or forget to recycle one time, or throw out our good quality stuff we don’t need anymore, and by the end of the week we’ve forgotten about it. But these actions do have an impact on the rest of the world, and the climate crisis is a very real one, effecting very real people. Today, I thought I would write about some of the impacts of the climate crisis that you really should care about! No one is perfect, it’s impossible not to create a carbon footprint, but having the motivation to make even small changes in your life can make a big impact.

We are already seeing a lot of ‘climate migrants’ from less developed countries travelling to the western world because of the destruction climate change has made in their own countries. Developed countries produce more carbon emissions, but it is developing countries who are feeling the effects. Is that fair? The climate crisis is also linked to social issues such as race. When I first heard about the concept of “environmental racism” I couldn’t understand it, I thought it was ridiculous to accuse problems with the environment of being racist. Can the weather be racist? Can natural disasters be racist? Can air temperature be racist? To answer simply, no it can’t. But after some research I realised that the concept of environmental racism is much deeper than that. There may be no individual that we can accuse of racist acts or hold responsible but it is true that people of colour and countries of colour are generally the ones that are feeling the effects of climate change more than the predominantly white western world. I would like to do more research into the concept of environmental racism and maybe there will be a full blog post on it to follow but it definitely is a concept to look into and consider when consuming. Especially when considering the fact that it is more often than not, the same people struggling with the effects of our consumption who created, grew and made the goods that we consume in the first place.

Closer to home, climate change is already creating problems within the UK, such as localised flooding. We all know, or have been told or taught at some point in our lives that climate change and greenhouse gases are casing the atmosphere to heat up. Whilst it is true that a changing climate could have multiple causes, it’s almost undeniable that the burning of fossil fuels is a large percentage of it. You’ve probably also been told that the floods and natural disasters you see on TV are a result of climate change. The earth’s atmosphere is heating up, and this means that it can hold more water, leading to increased rainfall and localised flooding, causing devastation for people all over the world!

Flooding in coastal regions is also a massive problem. 4 in 10 people live within 100km of a shoreline and are at risk of flooding if sea levels continue to rise, leading to more devastation and climate migrants. Even if we cut emissions now, scientists predict that sea levels would still continue to rise until the year 2100

The climate crisis is also causing damage to marine ecosystems as well as our own on land. As the world heats up so does the sea causing it to expand and sea levels to rise. Some places, such as the north and south pole heat up a lot quicker than others causing ice caps to melt. The ice in the artic is 65% thinner than it was in 1975. As well as threatening the habitats and lives of animals living on the ice caps, this also causes fresh water to flow into the sea reducing its saltiness and changing ocean currents, having negative effects on the ecosystems. Oceans also absorb 25% of the carbon dioxide that humans release into the air causing the ocean to become more acidic and being harmful to marine life such as coral.

The climate crisis is very real and causing some very damaging problems in the modern world, to fix them we need radical change!

Thank you for reading! I hope this blog has made you think more about some of the effects of climate change and inspired you to do some more of your own research and join the movement against climate change.

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I’m incredibly grateful for all the support I get. This is a passion project, I get no personal gains from it but I’m grateful to anyone who stands behind me and supports my cause.
Please check out my sources below for more information:

Instagram – ellasecojournal / ella_baxter27

Twitter – EllaBaxter2001

Sources:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate-change/effects-of-climate-change

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zx234j6/revision/3

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220125-why-climate-change-is-inherently-racist