15 Why Do We Care?
In Part 1, we have seen that many of the climate indicators show that there is a significant change. We are setting records for high temperatures, sea levels are rising, ice sheets and glaciers are melting, and the oceans are absorbing a lot of the excess heat.
In Part 2, we have seen that there is an increase in greenhouse gas emissions over time. The buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is likely to contribute to the warming of the planet due to the greenhouse effect. We have also seem that the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions are electricity generation, transportation, and industry, contributing to more than three-quarters of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
As electricity, transportation, and industry are all important human activities, there can be some trade-offs between the benefits of these activities and their impact on climate change. Before, we explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, In Part 3, we will analyze some of the extreme weather events and their freqency over the past few decades.
15.1 Floods
source: Strike Eagle, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
source: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons