By Amaiya Diaz

Over the years, climate change has affected the world in many ways. One way that many people may not take into consideration when thinking about the consequences of climate change would be natural disasters. Natural disasters have been devastating to people all around the world. Ranging from wildfires to flooding, it’s hard to be able to adapt and prepare for the catastrophes you could be vulnerable to if you are not ready for a natural disaster to hit. However, these natural disasters might not be so natural anymore. They have been impacted by the human-made emissions and the carbon dioxide that have been recently released into the atmosphere. This has also caused global warming to become a hazard all across the Earth, being a threat to the people, but mostly the oceans.

Over the last century, the global temperature has risen two degrees Fahrenheit. To many, this doesn’t seem like a big deal since it’s such a small number. Yet, just two degrees could completely change the Earth’s sea levels, causing flooding all across seaboards. This will cause the water supply in many cities to be salinized, and unable to be consumed by humans without proper sanitation. Hundreds of thousands will be forced to relocate since their towns would be eroded, flooded, and inhabitable. 

With all of this, there are also parts of the world that are being affected by climate change in a completely opposite way. States in the U.S.A. have been experiencing extreme droughts over years. New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, and Texas experienced these severe droughts. Some of these states have a large agricultural sector, yet these droughts could reduce the yields of crops and further influence the consumer prices and feed. Droughts also cause the water levels in ponds, rivers, and lakes to lower, which would eventually cause a decrease in water sources, reduce fish and animals in the area, lower the soil quality, and cause vegetation to dry out. This will cause a lack of resources for humans everywhere, and will only get worse as the global temperature rises. 

All in all, the problems with water across the globe has always been a problem, but never like it is now. However, countries are trying to help the environment and lessen the effects of climate change. The United States will halve the amount of CO2 emissions. The Paris Agreement also is gonna help limit the global temperature to 1.5℃, also trying to change the impact the countries have on global warming. Yet even with all our efforts to end global warming, it’ll take a long time to reverse the effects of climate change before it becomes more catastrophic than it already is.