How Does Global Warming Affect Me?

Perhaps you are reading all this and wondering what the big deal is. After all, these are big concepts. If you don't live in a part of the country impacted by hurricanes, maybe you feel you don't have much to worry about. Or perhaps you live in a very cold part of the country and you would welcome global warming. But nothing could be further than the truth-global warming affects us all.

We only have one planet and one place for us all to live. So far, scientists have not found any other planets that are habitable without massive intervention that is beyond our economic means. So, we are stuck here on earth and we need to make sure that we are actively preserving this beautiful planet.

Climate change means more than warmer winters. (And, for the record, many of those bitterly cold winters and huge storms parts of the country have been getting are the direct result of global warming.) Climate change means that certain regions will no longer be able to sustain farmlands or grow the same crops. It means changing precipitation and regional climates that can affect human and animal health and welfare. Some changes that might happen would include expanding desserts, drier soils, more intense rainstorms and faster evaporation of the water from them. None of these results are good for the health for the planet or its inhabitants.

The above-mentioned diseases will be harder and harder to contain and control, and some of them can be very deadly. In the United States, we don't have to worry too much about insect-born diseases. We are used to the luxury of spending time outdoors without fretting. But that may soon change as more and more of the populace becomes prone to unusual illnesses.

Here's another startling statistic: 800,000 people a year die from sicknesses caused by air pollution, half of those in China, which is second after the United States in carbon dioxide emissions, according to the World Health Organization.

Other changes from global warming that will have an extreme adverse impact on us include more frequent and intense heat waves and prolonged drought, and more wildfires. Some predict that the Artic Ocean will be ice free by 2050, and more than a million species worldwide will be driven to extinction by that same year. Already many animals have begun changing their habits and habitats, moving closer to the poles.

While we are already seeing the results of climate change and global warming in our own lives, it is our children and grand children who will be living in a vastly altered landscape. Do we want to be known as the people who stood idly by and did nothing to improve the lives of future generations? The Native Americans have long had a philosophy that everything they do should be considered in light of the impact it will have on all the generations to come. Tread lightly on the planet is a philosophy that we can all follow.