essay on climate change and lifestyle

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What lifestyle changes will shrink your carbon footprint the most.

How to take steps that will make a difference

You can reduce your carbon emissions, but the most influential changes will depend on your circumstances.

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By Christie Aschwanden

May 14, 2020 at 6:00 am

Three years ago, Kim Cobb was feeling “completely overwhelmed” by the problem of climate change. Cobb spends her days studying climate change as director of the Global Change Program at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, but she felt paralyzed over how to be part of the solution in her personal life. The barriers felt immense.

She decided to start small. On January 1, 2017, she made a personal climate resolution: She would walk her kids to school and bicycle to work two days a week. That change didn’t represent a lot in terms of carbon emissions, she says, “but it was a huge lesson in daily engagement.”

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In the beginning, her modest goal seemed daunting, but she quickly discovered that the two simple activities nourished her physical and mental well-being. She wanted to do them every day. “It’s no longer for the carbon — it’s for the fact that I genuinely love riding my bike and walking my kids to school,” she says. And that made her wonder: What other steps was she thinking of as sacrifices that might actually enrich her life?

A November 2019 survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication suggests that Cobb isn’t alone in her worries about climate change. Fifty-eight percent of the U.S. residents surveyed were “alarmed” or “concerned” about global warming. Cobb has turned her concern into action. It’s not too late to reduce the damage caused by global warming, but it will take drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, says Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown , a San Francisco–based nonprofit research organization that identifies ways to reduce carbon emissions.

To keep global temperatures from rising too quickly, we need to re-engineer our society away from fossil fuels. A 2015 study calculated that to rein in warming, about 80 percent of global reserves of coal, 50 percent of natural gas reserves and 33 percent of the world’s oil must be left unused.

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We can’t get to drawdown, the point at which levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere start to steadily decline, with one easy fix, Foley says. Action is required on multiple levels — government, industry and individuals — and across multiple systems, including energy, transportation, housing and food. We need to do all of the things, says Foley, whose organization has identified more than 80 climate “solutions” available now. These range from renewable energy technologies to plant-based diets to mass transit. “To get to drawdown, we need them all,” Foley says.

When it comes to the changes that individuals can make, “the most effective thing that you can do depends on your specific circumstances,” says Christopher Jones, director of the CoolClimate Network at the University of California, Berkeley. His group has produced maps that estimate a household’s carbon footprint based on ZIP code and lifestyle.

The graphics below, based on CoolClimate Network calculations , will help you find your biggest levers for cutting emissions, which for U.S. households are, on average, the equivalent of 48 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Each action shows the tons of carbon dioxide equivalent saved per year:

Relevant assumptions are shown in italics.

Transportation

How you get where you’re going is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and the size of your transportation emissions usually depends on where you live, Jones says. City dwellers have more access to public transportation, while people in the suburbs tend to drive a lot more. For people who drive long distances, getting the most fuel-efficient car, a hybrid or an electric, may be the best way to curb emissions. Carpooling when possible, combining trips and leaving the car home once a week also help.

Action: Replace a 25 mpg car with …

An electric car.

A hybrid car (55 mpg)

A fuel-efficient car (40 mpg)

Assumption: Driving 12,000 miles per year

Action: Alternate commuting alone in a car with …

Carpooling two days/week.

Telecommuting five days/month

Assumptions: Car gets 25 mpg, commute is 25 miles round trip, carpool with one other person

Action: Replace 25 miles of driving per week with …

Assumption: Current car gets 25 mpg

Taking the bus

Assumption: Bus is diesel engine

Action: Practice “eco-driving”

Reduce rapid acceleration and braking and reduce top cruising highway speed from 70 to 65 mph.

Assumption: Driving 12,000 miles per year, fuel economy 25 mpg

Action: Change air filters regularly and keep tires properly inflated

These two actions raise efficiency by 3 percent each

If you fly, there’s a good chance that aviation emissions are your biggest lever. Once people can travel again, consider vacationing closer to home and look for alternatives to business travel, such as videoconferencing. Take ground transportation instead of flying whenever possible. When flying can’t be avoided, take the advice of Dan Rutherford, shipping and aviation director at the International Council on Clean Transportation: Fly like a NERD. Choose a New(er) aircraft; book Economy class; take a Regular, medium-sized plane instead of a less-efficient small regional or jumbo jet; and select a Direct flight.

Action: Eliminate one round-trip cross-country flight per year

Assumption: Based on approximate round trip from New York to San Francisco

The average U.S. home uses three to four times the electricity of a European one, Foley says. That’s mostly due to inefficient appliances and lighting and insufficient insulation. Those are all things that homeowners can address. Installing solar panels takes a big chunk out of your emissions. But if panels are too costly or just not feasible, purchasing renewable energy from a clean energy provider can offer the same emissions savings. Though options, like installing solar panels, are only available to people who own their home, there are plenty of other things that both renters and owners can do.

Action: Change your source of electricity

Purchase green energy from a clean energy provider.

Install solar panels at your home

Assumptions: Household uses 10,700 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and 100 percent of electricity comes from a clean energy provider or from solar panels

If home improvements are in your budget, go for optimized insulation, weather stripping and energy-efficient windows and appliances. Install thermostats that adjust the temperature based on when you’re home and awake. And, of course, bigger houses take more energy to heat, cool and light, plus more space means more stuff. “The majority of emissions regarding shelter come from the stuff you buy,” Jones says. If downsizing is an option for you, it’s worth considering.

Action: Replace 10 incandescent lightbulbs with LEDs

Assumption: Lights are on five hours per day

Action: Reduce your trash output by 20 percent

Assumption: Household throws out 0.5 cubic yards of trash a week

Action: Turn off the lights when not in use

Assumption: Shut five lights at 40 watts each for four hours per day

Action: Turn the thermostat …

Down 5° f in winter.

Up 5° F in summer

Assumptions: Home is about 1,850 square feet, heated with electricity

Action: Put desktop computer in sleep mode nights and weekends and turn off monitor during those times

Assumption: Remember to do this 50 percent of the time

Action: Install low-flow showerheads

Assumptions: Household takes two showers per day for eight minutes each; savings comes from heating water.

Action: Plant five trees in your yard

Assumptions: Some of the savings comes from reduced AC use as the result of shade from the trees.

Action: Line dry two loads of laundry per week

Assumptions: Machine-drying four loads of laundry uses 690 kilowatt-hours of electricity

The biggest lever to cut food emissions is to stop producing more food than we need. The United Nations estimates that the annual carbon footprint of global food waste is 4.4 gigatons of CO 2  equivalent. Americans, specifically, waste about 25 percent of the food we buy. According to Project Drawdown, adopting a vegetarian diet can also cut emissions, by about 63 percent, while going vegan can reduce them by as much as 70 percent. Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and meat and dairy production are the big contributors. Even cutting back on animal products can make a difference.

Action: Cut five servings a week of …

Beef, pork, lamb.

Other (processed meats, nuts …)

Poultry and eggs

Fats, oils, sugar and processed foods

Do individual choices matter?

When Cobb looked at her carbon footprint, she found that flying represented about 85 percent of her emissions. So she joined a community of people on Twitter who resolved to fly less, and she committed to cutting her business and personal flights by 30 percent. With the group’s support, she dropped another 30 percent the next year, but it wasn’t always easy. Her pledge didn’t make her many friends within the academic community initially. But the goal of flying less has become more mainstream, at least among her colleagues, as she’s shown it can be done.

“It started as an individual action,” she says, but her decision to forgo certain work travel created new opportunities for virtual conferences and other flying alternatives for her colleagues, too. “It has transformed into a collective-scale action to shift cultural norms,” Cobb says.

Social influence can drive change, says Diana Ivanova, a research fellow at the School of Earth and Environment at University of Leeds in England who reviewed emissions reduction options in April in Environmental Research Letters . If you see other people taking steps to shrink their carbon footprints, “you may feel more empowered to enact changes yourself.”

Researchers call this transmission of ideas and behaviors through a population “behavioral contagion.” That’s where individual action can be a potent force for change, says Robert Frank, a Cornell University economist. “Installing solar panels, buying an electric vehicle or adopting a more climate-friendly diet don’t just increase the likelihood of others taking similar steps, it also deepens one’s sense of identity as a climate advocate,” Frank writes in his 2020 book, Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work . Those actions can also encourage other meaningful actions, like supporting candidates who favor climate-protecting legislation.

Some of the most significant action is happening at state and local levels. Your mayor and city council have a lot of power to reduce the community’s carbon footprint, says Cobb, who found herself getting more involved with each success. She was elected traffic chair of her neighborhood board in 2017 and is now working on improving biking infrastructure to make cycling safer for everyone.

Individual actions can create ripple effects, says ecological economist Julia Steinberger of University of Leeds. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg helped spread awareness about aviation emissions, and now overnight train lines between European cities are reopening. “It wasn’t a big industry-wide decision or government regulation. It was a bunch of people deciding, we don’t want to fly anymore,” Steinberger says.

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Climate Change: Influence on Lifestyle in the Future Essay

The global climate is changing and the human contribution makes this change negative. Rapid industrialization, so vital for humanity, pollutes the environment and it is possible to predict that in the nearest future water, air and land will be so polluted that humans will not be able to use natural resources for consumption purposes. The global community understands that there is an urgent need to address this issue and find a way to reduce environmental pollution nevertheless, it seems that very little has been accomplished till today. The global community tries to find ways to clean up the environment, but initiatives are not supported and people show little care about the world they live in.

Global climate change will influence my lifestyle in the future: maybe I will be forced to drive less, or the petroleum will become so expensive that I am not able to afford it. I cannot predict how my life will change, but I think it will be changed. I, as a user of the car, believe that every time of transportation does negatively influence the environment and changes the global climate. At the same time, I am sure that society will not pay enough attention to the problem until the condition of the environment is so much damaged that it becomes critical to a healthy lifestyle.

According to the report Transport and Climate Change , transport is a significant contributor to climate change in developed, as well as developing countries. Modern transport systems are damaging to the global environment. Transportation results in noise, vibration, and air pollution which is damaging for the health and well-being of people ( Transport and Climate Change ).

Of course, the usage of cars will never be abolished and I will be able to drive my car as I do now, however, the climate change caused by transportation emissions might force the government to introduce laws about the acceptable level of emission and impose taxes on drivers of “dangerous” car. Therefore, climate change might lead to the situation when I and other people will have to switch to ecologically friendly cars.

If the climate is changed and there is a threat to humanity (far future, I think), people will be ready to do something to prevent the global catastrophe. I would be worried as well and would support the initiatives of using environmentally-friendly vehicles.

One of the interesting and easy solutions is offered on the Canadian Climate Change Control site: “An easy, cost-saving way to slash these emissions is to carpool. If all commuters shared a ride with one other person just one day a week, traffic congestion and polluting emissions on our roadways would be cut by 20 percent. Twice a week and the health benefits would double to 40 percent, along with reduced wear and tear on our roads” ( Carpooling Drives Emissions Down ). Such minimization of the emissions sounds realistic to achieve, and it is easy to follow by the drivers. Even though there is no research providing information about the willingness of people to use transportation in this manner, I am sure my usage of transportation would follow this pattern when climate change took place.

If to imagine the life in future, let’s say in 25 years from now), it can be the case that the number of cars used by people will increase dramatically (current tendency – cars become cheaper, income level increases, more people can buy cars). As the result, the emissions into the air will also increase, the pollution will intensify and climate change will follow. I believe that most of the families in Canada and the USA have two or more cards, which are used on the daily basis. Climate change might force my family and others to use one car only.

Climate change will most likely take place and I cannot change the situation, however, I can contribute to decreasing the level of pollution by myself because I do not want climate change to influence my life in the future. I can drive less and ask friends to pick me up when we are going somewhere together. These are small initiatives, but if other people join me, maybe climate change will not take place.

If nine years ago Pucher warned Canadians about being more “advised to preserve their more balanced transport system and to avoid the serious social and environmental consequences of extreme auto dependence so obvious in the United States” (30), today such warning is still timely. My driving habits will change when the climate changes, and I will have to drive less, even though it can be avoided if environment-friendly cars are used.

I do not deny the importance of minimizing the pollution of the environment and preventing climate change, however, I do not see it possible to change the lifestyle of modern people at the moment who are used to cars and other transportation despite the harm they cause to nature. Nevertheless, the failure to convince the global community to change lifestyle voluntarily will lead to forced change when the climate becomes more severe.

The environment is an important factor and needs to be taken care of as soon as possible but the environment can not be changed if our economy is not doing well. Overall, the climate change in the future will make it so that I may have to either carpool, buy an ecologically friendly car or even walk to local destinations.

Works Cited

Carpooling Drives Emissions Down . Climate Change Central. 2007. Web.

Pucher, John. “Back on Track: Eight Steps to Rejuvenate Public Transport in Canada.” Alternatives Journal 24.1 (winter 1998): 26+.

Transport and Climate Change . Climate Network Europe. 2007. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2021, September 23). Climate Change: Influence on Lifestyle in the Future. https://ivypanda.com/essays/climate-change-influence-on-lifestyle-in-the-future/

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IvyPanda . 2021. "Climate Change: Influence on Lifestyle in the Future." September 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/climate-change-influence-on-lifestyle-in-the-future/.

1. IvyPanda . "Climate Change: Influence on Lifestyle in the Future." September 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/climate-change-influence-on-lifestyle-in-the-future/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Climate Change: Influence on Lifestyle in the Future." September 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/climate-change-influence-on-lifestyle-in-the-future/.

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Climate Change Essay for Students and Children

500+ words climate change essay.

Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. This happens due to many internal and external factors. The climatic change has become a global concern over the last few decades. Besides, these climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways. These climatic changes are having various impacts on the ecosystem and ecology. Due to these changes, a number of species of plants and animals have gone extinct.

When Did it Start?

The climate started changing a long time ago due to human activities but we came to know about it in the last century. During the last century, we started noticing the climatic change and its effect on human life. We started researching on climate change and came to know that the earth temperature is rising due to a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. The warming up of earth surface causes many ozone depletion, affect our agriculture , water supply, transportation, and several other problems.

Reason Of Climate Change

Although there are hundreds of reason for the climatic change we are only going to discuss the natural and manmade (human) reasons.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Natural Reasons

These include volcanic eruption , solar radiation, tectonic plate movement, orbital variations. Due to these activities, the geographical condition of an area become quite harmful for life to survive. Also, these activities raise the temperature of the earth to a great extent causing an imbalance in nature.

Human Reasons

Man due to his need and greed has done many activities that not only harm the environment but himself too. Many plant and animal species go extinct due to human activity. Human activities that harm the climate include deforestation, using fossil fuel , industrial waste , a different type of pollution and many more. All these things damage the climate and ecosystem very badly. And many species of animals and birds got extinct or on a verge of extinction due to hunting.

Effects Of Climatic Change

These climatic changes have a negative impact on the environment. The ocean level is rising, glaciers are melting, CO2 in the air is increasing, forest and wildlife are declining, and water life is also getting disturbed due to climatic changes. Apart from that, it is calculated that if this change keeps on going then many species of plants and animals will get extinct. And there will be a heavy loss to the environment.

What will be Future?

If we do not do anything and things continue to go on like right now then a day in future will come when humans will become extinct from the surface of the earth. But instead of neglecting these problems we start acting on then we can save the earth and our future.

Although humans mistake has caused great damage to the climate and ecosystem. But, it is not late to start again and try to undo what we have done until now to damage the environment. And if every human start contributing to the environment then we can be sure of our existence in the future.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [ { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What is climate change and how it affects humans?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Climate change is a phenomenon that happens because of human and natural reasons. And it is one of the most serious problems that not only affect the environment but also human beings. It affects human in several ways but in simple language, we can say that it causes many diseases and disasters that destroy life on earth.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Can we stop these climatic changes?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Yes, we can stop these climatic changes but for that, every one of us has to come forward and has to adapt ways that can reduce and control our bad habits that affect the environment. We have to the initiative and make everyone aware of the climatic changes.” } } ] }

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Essay on Climate Change Affect Everyday Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on Climate Change Affect Everyday Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Climate Change Affect Everyday Life

Understanding climate change.

Climate change means the change in usual weather found in a place. This could be a change in how much rain a place usually gets in a year. Or it could be a change in a place’s usual temperature for a month or season. Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions.

Climate Change and Weather

Climate change affects our daily weather. Because of climate change, some places may see more rain, while others may see less. This can cause floods or droughts. It can also make the weather more unpredictable, which can be hard for farmers who rely on regular weather patterns.

Effects on Health

Climate change can also affect our health. Hotter weather can lead to heat strokes and dehydration. And because of changing weather, mosquitoes and other pests can spread diseases to new places. This can lead to more people getting sick.

Impact on Food

Climate change can affect what we eat. Changes in weather can make it harder for farmers to grow crops. This can lead to less food being available and prices going up. This can make it harder for some people to afford healthy food.

Climate Change and Animals

Climate change affects animals too. Some animals may not be able to survive in hotter temperatures or may not be able to find enough food. This can lead to some types of animals becoming extinct.

In conclusion, climate change affects our everyday lives in many ways. It affects our weather, our health, our food, and the animals around us. It’s important for us to understand climate change so we can try to slow it down and protect our planet.

250 Words Essay on Climate Change Affect Everyday Life

What is climate change.

Climate change is a shift in weather patterns over a long period. It’s mainly caused by human actions, like burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. These actions release gases into the air that trap heat, causing the Earth to warm up.

Effects on Weather

One way climate change affects our everyday life is through weather. As the Earth warms, we see more extreme weather events. This means more heatwaves in the summer, and stronger storms and floods. These events can damage homes and roads, making it hard for us to go about our daily lives.

Impact on Health

Climate change also affects our health. Hotter weather can lead to heat strokes, especially in the elderly and the very young. Changes in weather can also cause allergies to get worse, as plants produce more pollen in warmer temperatures.

Changes in Food

The food we eat is also affected by climate change. Farmers rely on certain weather conditions to grow crops. If these conditions change because of climate change, it can be harder for them to grow the food we need. This can lead to higher food prices, or even food shortages.

Actions to Take

Even though climate change is a big problem, we can all do something to help. We can use less energy, recycle more, and plant trees. By taking these small steps, we can help slow down climate change and protect our everyday lives.

In conclusion, climate change affects our everyday life in many ways. It changes our weather, health, and food. But by taking action, we can help fight against it.

500 Words Essay on Climate Change Affect Everyday Life

Introduction.

Climate change is a big problem that affects our world. It happens when the Earth’s weather patterns change over a long time. It is caused by things like burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. This problem is not just about polar bears or melting ice caps, it is about our everyday life. Let’s see how climate change affects us.

Changes in Weather

One of the most obvious ways climate change affects us is through changes in weather. We see more heatwaves, heavy rains, and severe storms. These can damage houses, crops, and roads. They can also make people sick. For example, heatwaves can cause heat stroke, a serious health problem.

Food and Water

Climate change can make it harder for us to get food and water. Changes in weather can hurt crops and livestock. This can lead to less food and higher prices. Droughts, caused by less rain, can make it hard to get clean water. This can lead to health problems, especially in poor countries.

Health Issues

Climate change can also lead to more health problems. Warmer weather can help mosquitoes and ticks spread diseases like malaria and Lyme disease. More heatwaves can lead to more heart problems and breathing problems. More heavy rains can lead to more floods, which can spread diseases in water.

Impact on Animals and Plants

Climate change affects animals and plants too. Some animals, like polar bears, are losing their homes because of melting ice. Other animals may not be able to find enough food. This can lead to fewer animals and less biodiversity, which is bad for the planet.

Climate change is not just a problem for the future, it is a problem for now. It affects our everyday life in many ways. It changes our weather, makes it harder to get food and water, and can lead to more health problems. It also hurts animals and plants. We need to take action to stop climate change. This can include things like using less energy, recycling more, and planting trees. By doing these things, we can help protect our planet and our everyday life.

The above essay gives a brief overview of how climate change affects our daily life. The changes are not just environmental, but also impact our health, food, water, and the biodiversity around us. It is important that we understand these effects and take action to mitigate them. Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution. We all have a role to play in this fight. By understanding the effects of climate change on our everyday life, we can better appreciate the urgency of this issue and the need for action.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Improving economic policy

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• decarbonisation
• climate change
• monetary policy
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Climate change and lifestyle choices

Do we need drastic changes in our lifestyles so that we can meet our climate ambitions by 2050?

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This piece was originally published in the Money Review section of Kathimerini and El Economista .

In the European Union, support for fighting climate change is very strong. Almost all (93%) of EU citizens see climate change as a serious problem according to a recent survey , and 79% consider it a very serious problem. Europeans want their governments to do more to move to cleaner energy. A staggering 92% – and more than eight in ten individuals in each EU country – agrees with the objectives of the EU’s net-zero strategy, the European Green Deal .

Under the Green Deal , which is without doubt the most ambitious such initiative globally, climate neutrality would be achieved by 2050. Achieving that requires reducing greenhouse-gas emissions as much as possible, as well as removing any remaining emissions either naturally or even mechanically . Such a goal will require effort from everyone.

In terms of top-down internal measures to get to the goal, the EU plans to speed up its emissions reduction and dedicate a large share of post-coronavirus economic recovery money to the Green Deal’s objectives. But, as perhaps the most obvious global public good, climate change mitigation fundamentally requires global cooperation. Regulators and markets need to work together to price carbon , finance green investments and phase out brown assets. And all that must be done while ensuring that this transition is fair, both between and within countries, so that the burden of adjustment is borne not just by a few, but is proportional to everyone’s means.

The big sustainability push will no doubt generate incentives for consumers and investors to move into greener behaviours. But is that enough? Can price incentives be enough to generate behavioural changes? Or, do we need drastic changes in our lifestyles so that we can meet our ambitions by 2050?

Indeed, in the same survey that found support for climate action, almost all (93%) of respondents said they appreciated that lifestyles need to be adjusted and that they had already “taken at least one specific action to fight climate change” . This adjustment came mostly in the form of recycling or cutting down consumption of disposable items. But can recycling plastic or eliminating the use of drinking straws, be the sum total of how our lifestyles need to adapt?

Efforts to promote necessary lifestyle change in the US, EU, Canada and Australia have arguably so far focused on actions that achieve rather minimal emissions savings in terms of individual carbon footprint. Things like upgrading light bulbs or recycling, which rank relatively low in terms of impact. High impact actions require much more substantive behavioural changes.

By far the highest impact, by a factor of almost 30 compared to the second highest, can be achieved by having fewer children. The developed world may in fact be aging, but according to the Pew Research Center, the world population will continue to grow until the end of the century before it flattens. China has just introduced a third-child policy to deal with its aging problem. But irrespective of where each nation is in terms of population growth, young couples rarely take family-planning decisions based on climate-mitigation considerations.

Reducing the use of cars, or at the very least switching to energy efficient cars, can make a tangible difference. The most impactful action after having fewer children is abandoning cars altogether. Achieving this at any meaningful scale requires rethinking infrastructure, from public transport networks to how and where to build residential areas. Not an easy task. But any policy that encourages switching to more efficient or electric cars can deliver tangible emissions savings. Importantly, a gradual change may help individuals adapt their lifestyle.

Other actions that deliver high gains in terms of personal carbon-footprint reductions are avoiding long-haul flights, buying green energy and switching to a plant-based diet. Not all are as easy to incentivise or require the same effort in terms of lifestyle change. Consider diet. In Europe, 10% of the population consider themselves vegetarians. But we also see that 50% of European consumers are actively reducing their meat consumption, although admittedly also for health reasons. Can diet change be done at sufficient scale to drive the necessary sustainability?

In the middle-impact category is recycling, a very popular action widely applied. But also middle-impact are actions such as washing clothes in colder water and air-drying clothes. If you have a family and live in a Northern European country that would mean a very radical lifestyle change!

How ready are we to not only respond to price incentives given by the government, but also to radically change our lifestyles in any of the above ways, to tackle the gravest challenge ahead of us? While technology also adjusts, this is a question we should all answer.

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How Climate Change Is Affecting Our Lives

We’re going to make an educated guess here. When we talk about who climate change affects, we’re guessing your first thought isn’t me . Or your friends and family today.

You’re not alone. If you’re like most people, you maybe imagine your grandchildren or even great-grandchildren having to deal with record heatwaves. Or people far away struggling in the face of rising seas.

But the (rather inconvenient) truth is that the climate crisis is already affecting most of us right here and right now. From the second we wake up in the morning, to the minute we doze off at night. And we have to do something about it.

We all know that global temperatures are rising – and we know why.

>> What is the Greenhouse Effect? <<

For centuries, humans have been burning fossil fuels to power their lives. This process releases additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping heat that would escape into space otherwise.

We’ve known for decades about the damage all that extra heat is doing to the Earth. Now, a recent UN-backed report on climate change highlights just how dangerous that process has been. The planet has already warmed 1 degree Celsius and temperatures could rise even more – significantly changing life as we know it.

We’re already seeing the first impacts of this crisis. But here’s the good news – we still have time to turn things around .

Here are three ways that climate change is already affecting people’s lives:

Climate action is just what the doctor ordered. And we mean that quite literally. Medical professionals have increasingly been  sounding the alarm about the risks and consequences of continually burning fossil fuels.

Here’s the problem. The same dirty fossil fuel emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect can lead to respiratory diseases – such as asthma – in children and adults. And they can be quite dangerous. Air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization .

By trapping heat into our planet, carbon emissions also damage the human body and mind in other ways. We’ve all heard about the risks of heat strokes. But did you know that warmer temperatures are linked to a 2 percent increase in mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, and even PTSD?

There’s really no place like home. But for many living in coastal communities, sea-level rise could lead to an unwanted (and sudden) move.

As our globe warms, glaciers melt and ocean water expands, leading seas to rise about 7 to 8 inches on average since 1900 – about 3 inches of that since 1993. The added volume of water creeping up coastlines slowly swallows land and homes and fuels more flooding inland (to name just a few impacts).

For example, in the United States, from 2005 to 2015, the median annual number of flood days more than doubled on the East Coast between Florida and North Carolina, thanks in part to rising sea levels.

In Miami, even residents that live far away from the beach could be forced to relocate. Lower-income, people of color, and immigrants could lose their homes to wealthy residents who want to move away from the coast and into neighborhoods safe from the water, driving property values and rents up and out of reach of regular people. This is called “ climate gentrification ,” and it’s a hot topic within the environmental justice movement.

3. Food 

No two people in this world are exactly the same. But there’s something that we all do, regardless of our culture, language, or personality. We all eat. So it’s hard to ignore the impacts of climate change on food.

The same CO2 accumulating in our atmosphere thanks to fossil fuels is actually changing the composition of fruits and vegetables that we eat, making them less nutritious . Extra CO2 is speeding up photosynthesis and causing plants to grow with more sugar and less calcium, protein, zinc, and important vitamins.

According to Harvard researchers , if we don’t reduce carbon emissions right now, this could spell big problem for our diets. By the middle of the century about 175 million more people could develop a zinc deficiency and 122 million people could become protein deficient as a result of these changes to plant physiology.  

Climate Facts: Climate Change and Food Food for thought: Want to know how climate change affects you? Just take a look at your plate. #YEARSproject (via Years of Living Dangerously) Posted by Climate Reality on Friday, November 17, 2017

Climate change is not only hitting close to home – it’s knocking on the front door and demanding to come in. But we’re not going to let that happen. We know a lot about the climate crisis and we know how to fix it – by switching to cleaner sources of energy and reducing carbon emissions.

That’s why we’re training everyday people like you to make a difference and together make our leaders act on climate.

Join one of our upcoming Climate Reality Leadership Corps trainings to learn how you can make a difference.

During this moment of physical distancing, we’re excited to join together and raise our voices for change. Because even with the threat of coronavirus outside our doors, we are still working to give our children a better world to live in.

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Our team is growing all the time, so we’re always on the lookout for smart people who want to help us reshape the world of scientific publishing.

Home > Books > Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development

Impact of Climate Change on Life

Submitted: 05 June 2020 Reviewed: 18 October 2020 Published: 25 November 2020

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.94538

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Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development

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Climate is changing in an accelerating pace. Climate change occurs as a result of an imbalance between incoming and outgoing radiation in the atmosphere. The global mean temperatures may increase up to 5.4°C by 2100. Climate change is mainly caused by humans, especially through increased greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is recognized as a serious threat to ecosystem, biodiversity, and health. It is associated with alterations in the physical environment of the planet Earth. Climate change affects life around the globe. It impacts plants and animals, with consequences for the survival of the species. In humans, climate change has multiple deleterious consequences. Climate change creates water and food insecurity, increased morbidity/mortality, and population movement. Vulnerable populations (e.g., children, elderly, indigenous, and poor) are disproportionately affected. Personalized adaptation to the consequences of climate change and preventive measures are key challenges for the society. Policymakers must implement the appropriate strategies, especially in the vulnerable populations.

• climate change
• global warming
• animal survival
• human health
• vulnerable populations

Author Information

Hassan m. heshmati *.

• Endocrinology Metabolism Consulting, LLC, Anthem, AZ, USA

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

Climate change has always happened on Earth but its rapid rate and important magnitude occurring now are of great concern. Climate change occurs as a result of an imbalance between incoming and outgoing radiation in the atmosphere. The global warming associated with climate change is different from past warming in its rate. It is anticipated that there will be a rise in global mean temperatures of up to 5.4°C by 2100. There is overwhelming evidence showing that human activities have contributed to climate change over the past century while changes in solar activity and volcanic eruptions have played a minor role. Over the last several decades, humans have engaged in large-scale transformation of natural systems causing a net accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ].

Climate change is recognized as a serious threat to ecosystem, biodiversity, and health. It is associated with alterations in the physical environment of the planet Earth and affects life around the globe [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].

Adaptation to the consequences of climate change and prevention of aggravation of climate change are key challenges for the society. Policymakers must implement personalized strategies, especially in the vulnerable populations [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].

Climate, from Ancient Greek “klima” (meaning inclination), is defined as the weather averaged over a long period (the standard period is 30 years).

The instrumental record of climate change is based on thousands of temperature and precipitation recording stations around the world.

3. Climate change versus global warming

Climate change and global warming are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings and refer to different physical phenomena. Climate change includes warming and side effects of warming (e.g., heavy precipitation and increased wind speeds) while global warming refers only to long-term Earth’s rising global mean surface temperature.

4. Climate change causes

Climate change occurs as a result of an imbalance between incoming and outgoing radiation in the atmosphere. The increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere raises Earth’s mean surface temperature. The levels of greenhouse gases are higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years. As temperature increases, more water evaporates from the oceans and other water sources into the atmosphere, causing further increase of the temperature [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ].

Atmospheric carbon dioxide comes from two primary sources, natural and anthropogenic (human-induced). Natural sources of carbon dioxide include most animals which exhale carbon dioxide as a waste product. Anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide have been primarily driven by human activities since the early 20th century (industrial revolution), mainly fossil fuel burning (e.g., burning coal, oil, and natural gas), but also agricultural emissions and deforestation. The top 5 countries responsible for emissions of carbon dioxide are China, United States of America (USA), India, Russia, and Japan [ 4 ]. In 2017, the USA emitted approximately 5.1 billion metric tons of energy-related carbon dioxide for a global worldwide emission of approximately 32.5 billion metric tons. Deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil (loss of the equivalent of almost one million soccer fields of forest cover each year), mainly for agricultural purposes, is significantly contributing to climate change.

5. Climate change consequences

Climate change causes a cascade of side effects for the physical environment of the planet Earth and the living organisms on the globe ( Figure 1 ). All the changes in the physical planet Earth’s environment affect the life of plants, animals, and humans. Coral reefs, forests, and coastal human communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Some of the effects of climate change may be through the enhancement of the susceptibility to chemical pollution [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].

Climate change causes global changes of the planet.

Although most impacts of climate change are likely to be adverse, some health benefits may result in some regions. For example, warmer winters may reduce the number of temperature-related health events and death.

5.1 Physical planet Earth’s environment

According to the core accretion theory, planet Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago (approximately one-third the age of the universe) by accretion from the solar nebula [ 38 ].

Planet Earth has faced climate change throughout its long history. The current climate change has multiple negative impacts on the physical planet Earth’s environment. It affects the frequency and severity of extreme events and natural disasters [ 1 , 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 19 ].

5.1.1 Temperature

Temperature records from modern thermometers (with temperature scales) have been available only since early 18th century. By studying indirect parameters (chemical and structural signatures), scientists can infer past temperatures.

At the creation of the universe, the temperature of the universe at 10 −35 second old was around 1 octillion°C. Within less than 2 minutes, the universe temperature cooled down to around 1 billion°C. Over at least the last several million years, planet Earth shifted between ice ages facing long cold periods (glacial) and warm periods (interglacial), on 100,000-year cycles.

The current climate change is associated with increased Earth’s temperature (land surfaces and upper layers of the ocean) ( Figure 2 ) [ 1 , 4 ]. Land surfaces are heating faster than ocean surfaces. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, leading to increased overall average precipitation [ 4 ]. Over the past 70 years, the Earth’s temperature has increased by approximately 0.7°C [ 4 ]. Since 1950, the number of cold days and nights has decreased while the number of warm days and nights has increased. Since 1976, the rate of warming has been greater than at any other time during the last 1,000 years. For any given period, there are extreme temperatures. In the past 20 years, Earth’s lowest air temperature was −94.7°C (recorded in Antarctica in 2010) and hottest air temperature was 70.7°C (recorded in Iran’s Lut Desert in 2005). The present global mean temperature is around 15.0°C. Currently, the surface temperatures are rising by approximately 0.2°C per decade [ 6 ]. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and based on different emissions scenarios, there will be a rise in global mean temperatures of 0.9 to 5.4°C by 2100 [ 4 ].

Climate change is associated with increased Earth’s temperature.

The rise in global mean temperature is not the same everywhere. There are regional variations in Earth’s temperature. Some areas will not even get warmer and may actually get cooler in the short term [ 4 ]. Warming is more pronounced at higher latitudes. The North Pole and Northern Hemisphere have warmed much faster than the South Pole and Southern Hemisphere. Greater temperature increases are expected in winter compared to summer and in nighttime versus daytime. Springs occur earlier and winters are milder.

5.1.2 Mountain glaciers and lakes

Climate change causes mountain glaciers to melt and accelerates the rate of ice loss on Earth in Greenland and Antarctica ( Figure 3 ). Some glaciers are sites of powerful sacred and symbolic meanings for local communities (e.g., in the Peruvian Andes, the Nepalese Himalayas, and the Chinese Meili Snow Mountains) [ 7 ].

Climate change causes melting of mountain glaciers.

Lakes around the world are freezing less and for a shorter duration. In few decades, thousands of lakes may lose their winter ice cover.

5.1.3 Sea levels

Climate change triggers rise in sea levels. The sea levels rise following either an increase in the volume of the water already in the ocean as water warms and expands or an increase in the mass of the water in the ocean mainly due to melting glaciers [ 4 ]. Since 1900, global mean sea level has increased by approximately 0.20 meter [ 4 ]. Over the last 25 years, the global mean see level rose on average by 0.003 meter per year [ 8 ]. By 2100, based on different emissions scenarios, sea levels are predicted to rise between 0.40 and 1.50 meters [ 4 ]. The sea-level rise will lead to disappearance of some islands and flooding with invasion of cities by water, leading to homelessness and population movement ( Figure 4 ).

Climate change triggers rise in sea levels .

The salty ocean water will challenge native plants and animals to adapt to the changing conditions. For humans, it causes salination of freshwater supplies and loss of productive farmlands [ 8 ]. Low-income countries (e.g., Bangladesh) are particularly impacted.

5.1.4 Hurricanes and rainstorms

Climate change promotes more dangerous hurricanes and heavier rainstorms due to warmer ocean water temperature ( Figure 5 ) [ 4 , 9 ]. The proportion of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has increased at a rate of 25–30% per 1.0°C of global warming [ 9 ]. Hurricane Katrina (Category 5, New Orleans, USA, 2005) was one of the deadliest hurricanes in recent USA history. The total number of direct or indirect fatalities following hurricane Katrina was 1,833 (reports from state and local officials in five states). The 2019 North Atlantic hurricane season had six hurricanes (including three major hurricanes, e.g., Category 3 or higher).

Climate change promotes more dangerous hurricanes.

5.1.5 Wildfires

Climate change causes more frequent wildfires. The dry, hot weather has increased the intensity and destructiveness of forest fires in several countries (e.g., Brazil, USA, and Australia) ( Figure 6 ) [ 10 , 11 ]. Wildfires can cause deforestation, serious property damage, exposure of large populations to prolonged periods of polluted and toxic air with potential health impacts (e.g., respiratory diseases), and death. Amazon (Brazil) has become more flammable and vulnerable to wildfires during recent droughts [ 10 ]. California (USA) has experienced devastating autumn wildfires in recent years [ 11 ]; over 100 fatalities were directly attributed to the most destructive and deadliest wildfires that occurred in 2017 and 2018.

Climate change causes more frequent wildfires.

5.1.6 Droughts

Drought is a complex and multivariate phenomenon influenced by diverse physical and biological processes. Drought is among the most expensive natural disasters. Climate change is responsible for more frequent and severe droughts (especially in subtropical regions), promoting the expansion of deserts ( Figure 7 ) [ 4 , 12 ]. This will lead to misery, hunger, starvation, and population movement.

Climate change is responsible for more frequent and severe droughts.

5.1.7 Ocean acidity

The ocean provides most of the life-supporting environment on planet Earth. The abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing the surface waters of the oceans to become more acidic as some carbon dioxide dissolves into ocean water forming carbonic acid [ 4 ]. Ocean acidification can alter marine ecosystems with damage to coral reefs (source of many benefits for human communities), fish, and other aquatic species [ 4 , 13 ].

Climate change impacts plant phenology. Different climate change components are involved including atmospheric carbon dioxide level, temperature, sea level, rainfall, weeds, and pests or microbes [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].

5.2.1 Survival

Plant survival is affected by climate change ( Figure 8 ) [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The increased land surface temperature with the resulting mild winters promoting pest proliferation (e.g., allowing more pine beetles to survive), the invasion of farmlands by salty water, the wildfires, and the droughts compromise life of plants and lead to destruction of forests and damage to human agriculture. According to some reports, agriculture is the most endangered activity adversely affected by climate change. The decreased farming activity will lead to food insecurity.

Climate change challenges plant survival.

5.2.2 Blooming, pollination, and fructification

Plant growth, blooming, pollination, and fructification are impacted by climate change [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. With the occurrence of shorter winters and warmer springs, plants bloom earlier for a shorter period and die younger ( Figure 9 ). Winter chill is essential for several fruit-producing trees. Insufficient chilling due to climate change can affect the productivity of fruit trees (e.g., less fruits, smaller fruits, and changes in color, texture, and taste of fruits) [ 17 , 18 ]. Around 75% of the production of seeds and fruits for human consumption depend on pollinators. Pollinators, especially bees, are facing unprecedented challenges for survival. With the lack of synchrony between plants and pollinators due to shift in seasons and the decline in the number of pollinators, the production of fruits is decreasing while the cost is significantly increasing.

Climate change is responsible for earlier blooming time of plants.

5.3 Animals

Climate change exposes animals to a variety of stressors, influencing metabolic and endocrine functions, with potential consequences for the survival of species [ 14 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. With climate change, more animal species are going extinct every year. Approximately 700 mammals and birds are impacted. The degree of vulnerability varies by the type of animal and different species will be affected in different ways. Species with low tolerance for rising temperature are vulnerable to extinction. The vulnerable/endangered animals include polar bears, koalas, elephants, sea turtles, cheetahs, panda bears, and penguins (non-exhaustive list).

Species affected by climate change will either need to move to more suitable locations (e.g., higher elevations and latitudes) or to adapt to changes at their current locations (e.g., habitat, feeding and breeding patterns). If unable, they may perish and become extinct.

5.3.1 Habitat

Climate change can cause habitat degradation or loss for several species (e.g., polar bears, koalas, and birds). Polar bears are dependent on sea ice. The increased temperature is causing the arctic sea ice to melt, damaging the polar bears’ habitat ( Figure 10 ) [ 23 ]. Koalas are dependent on eucalyptus tree. The increased temperature and drought are causing wildfire, destroying the koalas’ habitat [ 24 ]. Lake Urmia (Iran) is a bird habitat and used to be a popular tourist destination. The lake is drying up mainly because of climate change.

Climate change causes loss of habitat for polar bear.

5.3.2 Nutrition

Survival of species can be affected by water/food availability/quality beyond those that species can tolerate. Unpredictability/shortage of water and food caused by climate change may lead to greater prevalence of torpor and hibernation in small mammals and hypometabolism in large mammals.

Polar bears will have trouble finding food as the sea ice thins and melts earlier. With limited food supply, the polar bears rely on their stored fat. They have to swim longer distances in the water and many young cubs die because of their inability to swim. Koalas’ main food source is eucalyptus leaves. Each koala eats approximately 1 kg of eucalyptus leaves per day. Climate change reduces the amount of water in the eucalyptus tree. The increased carbon dioxide level causes decrease protein levels in the tree affecting plant nutritional quality. All these changes create dehydration, malnutrition, and starvation. Koalas are risking their lives by climbing down from their trees in search of water and food. This leaves them vulnerable to predators and the risk of being hit by cars. Koalas’ population has declined by more than 30% over their last three generations ( Figure 11 ) [ 24 ]. Elephants require 150–300 liters of water per day for drinking in addition to the amount needed for bathing and playing. Droughts can cause population decline ( Figure 12 ) [ 25 ].

Climate change is responsible for dehydration and malnutrition of koala.

Climate change causes decline in elephant population.

5.3.3 Migration, breeding, and gender determination

Warmer springs have promoted advanced timing of migration and breeding in most avian species in the last decades ( Figure 13 ) [ 26 ]. Rising sea levels threaten the sea turtle eggs as most turtles lay their eggs on beaches. Climate change can affect sex determination in several animals [ 27 , 28 ]. The sex of the sea turtles is determined by the nest temperatures. Cool temperatures produce more males while warm temperatures produce more females. Climate change alters the sea turtles’ gender population (females outnumbering males). Certain areas could end up producing only female turtles, with the possibility of local species extinction since there will be no mating partners for female turtles ( Figure 14 ).

Climate change promotes early avian migration.

Climate change leads to female sea turtle overpopulation and domination.

Climate change is a major threat to human existence. It has multiple deleterious health consequences leading to increased morbidity and mortality [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 8 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].

5.4.1 Temperature

The human core temperature averages 37.0°C and is tightly controlled within a range of 33.2°C and 38.2°C to ensure optimal physiological function. Extreme deviations from the normal core temperature, i.e., a decrease below 27.0°C (hypothermia) or an increase above 42.0°C (hyperthermia) can be fatal [ 5 ]. Climate change is resulting in increased exposures to intense heat in many parts of the world. With increase temperature, there are physiological reactions in humans creating risks for some organs and exposing individuals to increased morbidity and mortality (e.g., reduced performance and work productivity, behavioral changes, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, respiratory failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, and death) ( Figure 15 ) [ 5 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. The reduced work productivity (up to 10% in some hot areas) has large economic consequences. Without adaptation, the economic losses of reduced work productivity could be more than 20% of the gross domestic product by 2100. Children, elderly people, poor people, outdoor workers, workers required to wear protective clothing and/or personal protective equipment, and subjects with chronic health conditions are at higher risk when facing heat stress. In the USA, the annual heat-related death is approximately 1,500. The European heat wave during the summer of 2003 caused as many as 70,000 deaths.

Climate change through heat wave can cause increased morbidity and mortality.

On the upside, increased temperatures by allowing milder winters can lower the incidence and mortality of some winter-related events such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Also, hotter and drier conditions can reduce the incidence of some infectious diseases (e.g., malaria).

5.4.2 Nutrition

Climate change creates water and food insecurity/shortage with significant impact on hygiene, nutrition, and food safety in several countries ( Figure 16 ) [ 1 , 8 , 32 , 33 ]. In the absence of proper desalination of drinking water impacted by increased salinity following sea-level rise (especially in low-income countries like Bangladesh), the high exposure to salt through drinking water, food, and bathing can lead to several health problems (e.g., hypertension and skin diseases) [ 8 ]. In many regions, food production systems are negatively impacted by climate change [ 1 ]. According to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, 1.0°C rise in night-time temperature can reduce rice yields by 10%. With the ocean temperature rise, several fish populations may move to higher latitudes, affecting dietary protein supplies of millions of people.

Climate change can create human undernutrition.

5.4.3 Infection

Climate change through variations in temperature, precipitation/humidity, wind, and solar radiation influences the spread of some infectious diseases since these variations may impact the survival, reproduction, and distribution of disease pathogens and vectors/hosts as well as their transmission environment. Several infectious diseases are involved including malaria, dengue, and Lyme disease ( Figure 17 ) [ 3 , 34 ].

Climate change favors spread of infectious diseases.

5.4.4 Population movement

Climate change by creating unsuitable living conditions (e.g., desertification, sea-level rise, decline in freshwater availability, food shortage, health issues) will move many people (forced displacement, planned resettlement, migration). Poor communities are particularly impacted by the human movement. It is estimated that by 2050, up to several hundred million persons will be moved ( Figure 18 ) [ 32 ]. Population movement will expose countries to multiple challenges (e.g., social, health, and financial consequences and violent conflicts).

Climate change causes population movement.

5.4.5 Vulnerable populations

Overall, children, elderly, indigenous groups, poor individuals, outdoor workers, remote populations, and subjects with pre-existing conditions are disproportionately affected by climate change ( Figure 19 ) [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].

Climate change disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations.

Low-income and geographically vulnerable countries (e.g., Bangladesh) are most affected by the health consequences of climate change (at least in its earlier stages). However, in higher-income countries (e.g., USA), there is also a high vulnerability in some ethnic and socio-economic groups as demonstrated by the Chicago heatwave of 1995 and the New Orleans hurricane Katrina of 2005. According to the World Health Organization, the global mortality in 2004 as a result of climate change was around 141,000 of which 85% were children. The mortality of the European heat wave of 2003 affected mainly the elderly.

6. Climate change adaptation in animals

Adaptive evolution of phenotypes to climate change has been the subject of several investigations [ 26 , 39 ].

Animals react to climate change in three ways: to move, to adapt, or to die. Moving to a new territory is not always a simple solution and can create new challenges (e.g., interaction with unfamiliar species and more competition for food).

Some animals can adapt to changing conditions. An interesting example of adaptation to climate change is the case of polar bears. With the change in climate, polar bears who usually used seal pubs and other marine mammals as food, have started hunting animals available on land (e.g., snow geese and caribou). However, there is no proof that the change in diet can support the polar bear population in the long run. Another example of adaptation to climate change is with migrating birds. As spring arrives earlier, insects emerge earlier. Some migrating birds are laying their eggs earlier to match insect availability for their young.

7. Climate change adaptive and preventive strategies

Adaptation to deleterious consequences of climate change and prevention of aggravation of climate change are important components of the global response of the society [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 16 , 18 , 31 , 32 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 40 ].

Adaptation (spontaneous or planned) is especially important in developing countries. Policymakers must implement personalized adaptive strategies, especially in the vulnerable populations. The risk control to population health cannot be implemented efficiently at the local level alone. It requires coordinated international policy. Human beings rely on biodiversity and functioning ecosystems for water, food, and health. If other species are unable to adapt to climate change, the consequences for humans could be extremely serious. Adaptive strategies require investment and skills. Society needs to implement strategies to help wildlife adapt to the impacts of climate change (e.g., wildlife overpass and drinking stations). Identification of traits contributing to resilience and vulnerability of species will allow the development of efficient conservation action plans.

Prevention (long-term strategies) is a key approach. To spare species and protect humans, the greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced as soon as possible. If we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, our climate may reach a new and potentially acceptable equilibrium. Development and deployment of low-carbon energy technologies, policies to reduce fossil fuel burning, forest preservation, and reforestation should be promoted. Carbon sequestration, by capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide, can decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and reduce climate change. More energy-efficient homes and vehicles using alternative energies from sun, wind, and waves are needed. Increased use of public transportation, cycling, and walking should be promoted. It is also helpful if humans could reduce the consumption of animal-based food (red meat) and switch to plant-based diet (fruits and vegetables). This type of dietary change can have multiple health, environmental, and economic benefits.

Numerous countries work together under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The recommendation of the IPCC is to keep the global warming below 1.5°C to avoid irreversible damages. Unfortunately, in some countries, extensive political lobbying denying the contribution of humans to climate change and creating political barrier to pro-environmental policies has emerged. In 2015, all United Nations countries negotiated the Paris Agreement aiming to keep global warming well below 2.0°C [ 41 ]. Almost all countries signed the treaty. However, in 2017, the USA decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

8. Climate change cost

Climate change, through its multiple consequences, has a very high cost for the society and significantly affects the economic growth.

The estimates of total direct damage of hurricane Katrina were up to $125 billion and the cost of California wildfires of 2017 and 2018 exceeded $40 billion. It is estimated that the cost of climate change for USA economy can reach hundreds of billions of dollars a year by 2090.

Adaptive and preventive strategies need important financial investments. The cost of halting global warming and reducing greenhouse gas emission to very low levels by 2050 will be around $50 trillion. At the current greenhouse gas emission rate, the budget for keeping the global warming below 1.5°C would be exhausted by 2028.

9. Climate change and future of life on planet Earth

Climate change is a serious threat for our planet. The number of relatively undisturbed ecosystems is decreasing rapidly. Climate change seriously affects the viability of many plant and animal species, and human health. Climate change may become one of the major drivers of species extinction in the 21st century.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) releases regular reports on biodiversity written by hundreds of experts from all regions of the world. The reports found that biodiversity is declining in every region of the world, endangering economies, livelihoods, food security, and quality of life. In the words of the IPBES chair, “the time for action was yesterday or the day before”.

According to scientists, we have approximately a decade to keep carbon dioxide from reaching catastrophic levels that can cause irreversible damages. If no efficient preventive action is undertaken, by the year 2050, 15 to 37% of existing plant and animal species are predicted to become extinct and by the year 2100, half of all species may experience extinction.

10. Conclusions

It is widely accepted that the climate is changing in an accelerating pace. Climate change is affecting every aspect of life. It is recognized as a serious threat to ecosystem, biodiversity, and health.

Adaptation to health consequences of climate change and prevention of aggravation of climate change are key challenges for the society. The health sector should promote research, education (for health personnel), and information (for public and policymakers) on climate change and its consequences.

Adaptation requires multiple measures at various levels. Policymakers must implement personalized adaptive strategies, especially in the vulnerable populations.

Climate change impacts can be mitigated by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and by enhancing the capacity of Earth’s land surface to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Long-term investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency is urgently needed.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Current Climate Change and the Future of Life on the Planet

Since the Industrial Revolution, Earth’s climate has been changing fast. Human actions are the major factor promoting this intense pace. In particular, the massive use of fossil fuel (oil, charcoal, gas) releases a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the atmosphere, which concentrates, and warms the planet. So far, this climate change has not affected life on Earth too much. However, it is threatening the existence of several life forms that have to endure this climate change coupled with other human-induced changes (for example, deforestation). All these factors combined may soon affect us, too. For instance, the availability of food may be drastically reduced. In this article, we talk about the link between human activities and climate change, because humanity can still slow down its impact on the planet. There are many things everyone can do to help slow the climate change and life form extinctions in the near future.

Climate Is Changing Very Fast Today and This Is Not Natural

Do you know the difference between weather and climate? The weather is composed of a series of physical properties, like temperature, rainfall, wind speed, and many other characteristics that change according to seasons, days, or even hours. When we consider the weather over long periods of time (30 years or more) we are talking about climate. Our planet’s climate is constantly changing over time ( Figure 1A ). Some time periods in the past were considerably warmer and others considerably colder than today and similar changes will happen in the future.

• Figure 1 - (A) The changes in average temperature and CO 2 levels over the last 100,000 years.
• (B) The changes in average temperature and CO 2 levels between the years 1880 and 2016. In both (A, B), the blue-red line represents temperature changes and the green-brown line represents CO 2 variation. From these graphs, you can clearly see that: (1) climate change and CO 2 variation are closely related; (2) climate has been changing over thousands of years; and (3) Earth is warming fast since 1880. (C) Greenhouse gases are gases capable of warming the Earth and the Atmosphere. Release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (upward arrows) and removal from the atmosphere (downward arrows) are shown. Red arrows represent anthropogenic-related emissions, and green arrows represent natural emissions (Data for A and B come from NASA, USA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA).

Around 20,000 years ago, the last cooling phase ended, starting a warming period until around 8,000 years ago, during which Earth’s average temperature rose between 5.6 and 8.5°F (3.1–4.7°C) [ 1 ]. This means a change of around 0.06°F (0.03°C) every century. Between 8,000 years ago and the Industrial Revolution (around 200 years ago), temperatures were relatively constant. Since then, temperatures have been increasing again, and very quickly ( Figures 1A,B ). By 2100, scientists believe that the mean temperature on the planet will have raised an additional 3.6–8.8°F (2.0–4.9°C) compared with the temperatures at the time of the Industrial Revolution [ 2 ]. This means that the planet’s temperature rise in the next century will be about 100 times faster than what happened during the last 20,000 years. While past changes in climate were the result of several factors, like the amount of energy coming from the sun and the concentration of different atmospheric gases, this time humans are mainly responsible. And that is why we call the current warming the anthropogenic (or human-induced) climate change.

Since the Industrial Revolution, our species has been burning immense amounts of fossil fuel to support our ever-growing demand for energy. Primarily through this activity, over the last 200 years, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the atmosphere by about 46%. And CO 2 is not the only factor affecting climate. The use of fossil fuels, agriculture, industrial processes, and deforestation emit other substances (or prevent them from naturally decreasing) that contribute to climate changes ( Figure 1C ).

The anthropogenic climate change may not seem much to us now, but it will have a huge impact on humankind within the current and next few generations. The frequency and intensity of natural phenomena, like droughts and storms, will very likely increase with several consequences to humans ( Table 1 ). Even our shorelines will dramatically change as the oceans rise, primarily due to the melting of the ice caps. This may result in the abandonment of entire coastal cities, like New York, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, and Bangkok.

• Table 1 - Major direct impacts on human lives due to the anthropogenic climate change (Information adapted from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Climate change will also affect life forms on the planet. Several microbes, plants, and animals will probably become extinct. Just to give you a glimpse of how life can change in response to climate change, only 6,000 years ago the Sahara Desert, one of the driest places on Earth today, was covered by lush vegetation. This green landscape was a result of the more humid conditions back then [ 3 ].

So, What Happens to Living Beings When the Climate Changes?

Climate changes affect how living beings interact with each other and with the environment they live in. When faced with climate challenges, species have two main options (which can also happen in combination). The first is to migrate. For example, as the ocean surface temperatures increase due to the anthropogenic climate change, several species, from algae to fishes, are moving toward the poles in search of colder waters [ 4 ]. For migration to happen, species must be able to find another place where they can survive and prosper. This is easier, as you can imagine, for species that are able to travel long distances during their lifetimes, like whales and cougars. However, it can be very hard for species that cannot travel long distances or that do not disperse seeds very far or very often, like sloths and orchids.

The other way a species can survive is to evolve. Evolution can happen on a small scale. For example, over a few generations, alpine chipmunks ( Tamias alpinus ) at Yosemite National Park, California, USA, evolved longer faces over 100 years in response to climate change [ 5 ]. Evolution can also happen on a large scale, resulting in the origin of new species. For instance, brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) and polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) evolved from the same species of bear in a process that started around 480–340 thousand years ago, as the two groups accumulated more and more differences over time [ 6 ].

Sadly, when species cannot migrate or evolve in response to the changes in the environment, they become extinct. Human lifestyle and the rapidly increasing number of humans on the planet impose a series of challenges for the survival of several species ( Figure 2 ). Around two vertebrate species became extinct per year during the last 100 years, mainly due to human causes [ 7 ]. Some examples of the many harmful byproducts of our lifestyle are the intense deforestation due to agriculture and the pollution of air and water. Anthropogenic climate change deserves special attention, because it is different from other human impacts. Anthropogenic climate change has a global effect, even on areas that are seldom disturbed by other human impacts, such as some protected areas. In addition, anthropogenic climate change is happening too quickly for several species to be able to migrate or evolve. This means that anthropogenic climate change is a serious threat to species that are already struggling to survive on an extensively human-transformed Earth. The take-home message here is: humans are causing a long-lasting and devastating impact on life on Earth. To put it in numbers, it is possible that over 75% of all species, three out of every four species that currently exist, will be extinct a few centuries from now [ 8 ]!

• Figure 2 - (A) Vertebrate extinction rates since the year 1500.
• The dotted line (“Background”) represents the amount of extinction expected without human influence. You can see that the amount of extinctions caused by humans has increased over time, and is several times larger than the background extinction rate. (B) Major ways that humans are causing extinctions (Image redrawn from Ceballos et al. [ 9 ]).

Extinction of exquisite life forms is sad in itself, but the problem of extinction goes far beyond just the disappearance of these organisms. We rely on many of them to survive. The quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat, just to name a few, are directly related to the existence and the health of several other species.

In addition, we also study other lifeforms to find solutions to our own problems. For instance, the hook-and-loop fastener (a.k.a. VELCRO) was developed after studying the burrs (seeds) of a plant called burdock, which naturally attach to clothes. Several medicines have been discovered in different life forms and were only later synthesized in laboratories. There are countless inventions/discoveries waiting for us to find by studying nature, but they are only available while the species that can help us are still alive on the planet.

Be Part of the Solution!

All over the world, people are working together to lessen the effects of climate change and other negative human impacts on the planet. The Paris Agreement, which started in 2016, is a good example of this. This agreement is a global effort to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 3.6°F (2°C) in relation to the period before the Industrial Revolution. The basic idea is to drastically reduce global emissions of CO 2 and other substances that contribute to climate change. Currently, 185 countries out of almost 200 have joined in support of the Paris Agreement. The Danish city of Copenhagen has an ambitious plan, too. It wants to become a 2 produced is balanced by the removal of an equal amount of CO 2 from the atmosphere, resulting in zero net carbon emissions."> carbon-neutral city by 2025. To this end, among other things, the city is changing its energy production from fossil fuel to mainly wind- and animal/plant waste-derived energy, reducing the amount of trash produced, and transforming the city in a huge bicycle path. In several countries, scientists have been studying different ways to remove CO 2 from the atmosphere and turn it into something useful. Some researchers, for example, are studying how to use bacteria to turn CO 2 into fuel.

However, in a planet with over 7.6 billion people, we all need to change our ways of living to minimize anthropogenic climate change. There are many ways that each of us can do our part. A good first step is to calculate your family’s carbon footprint. The carbon footprint measures how much CO 2 we are emitting into the atmosphere over a certain period of time. You can calculate your carbon footprint using different calculators online. One of the many possibilities is https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator . And once you know your carbon footprint, try to reduce it! You will be amazed by how many things we do that impact the planet. The bright side is that there are also many simple ways to reduce our negative impact. Here are some easy things any of us can do to help prevent anthropogenic climate change: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/takeaction/ . A few of these easy actions include: do not buy things you do not need, unplug appliances and turn off the lights you are not using, take shorter showers, eat less meat, poultry, and fish, shop locally and from sustainable sources, and use your bike or public transportation instead of a car whenever possible. Simple actions like these can make a big difference if enough of us perform them! We should all try to reduce our carbon footprints as much as we can, because we will then reduce our impact on anthropogenic climate change and the related negative consequences for life on Earth.

Let us change the world in a cooler way!

Fossil Fuel : ↑ A source of energy formed by the transformation of the remains of dead plants and animals that were buried millions of years ago. Examples: oil, charcoal, and gas.

Migration : ↑ Movement of individuals from a species to find more favorable environments.

Evolution : ↑ The changes occurring over generations of life forms. It is usually most easily seen in the observable characteristics of individuals, such as size, fur color, and behavior.

Carbon Neutrality : ↑ The quantity of CO 2 produced is balanced by the removal of an equal amount of CO 2 from the atmosphere, resulting in zero net carbon emissions.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We are deeply indebted to the awesome young reviewers Rachel, Lorenzo, Matias, and the 48 students of the Manor Gardens Primary School. We are also very thankful to mentors Luisa and David, and editors Martha and Susan. They all provided insightful comments on a previous draft of this manuscript.

[1] ↑ Annan, J. D., and Hargreaves, J. C. 2013. A new global reconstruction of temperature changes at the last glacial maximum. Clim. Past 9:367–76. doi: 10.5194/cp-9-367-2013

[2] ↑ Raftery, A. E., Zimmer, A., Frierson, D. M. W., Startz, R., and Liu, P. 2017. Less than 2°C warming by 2100 unlikely. Nat. Clim. Change 7:637–41. doi: 10.1038/nclimate3352

[3] ↑ deMenocal, P., Ortiz, J., Guilderson, T., Adkins, J., Sarnthein, M., Baker, L., et al. 2000. Abrupt onset and termination of the African humid period: rapid climate responses to gradual insolation forcing. Q. Sci. Rev . 19:347–61. doi: 10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00081-5

[4] ↑ Poloczanska, E. S., Brown, C. J., Sydeman, W. J., Kiessling, W., Schoeman, D. S., Moore, P. J., et al. 2013. Global imprint of climate change on marine life. Nat. Clim. Change 3:919–25. doi: 10.1038/nclimate1958

[5] ↑ Walsh, R. E., Assis, A. P. A., Patton, J. L, Marroig, G., dawson, T. E., and Lacey, E. A. 2016. Morphological and dietary responses of chipmunks to a century of climate change. Glob. Change Biol . 22:3233–52. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13216

[6] ↑ Liu, S., Lorenzen, E. D., Fumagalli, M., Li, B., Harris, K., Xiong, Z., et al. 2014. Population genomics reveal recent speciation and rapid evolutionary adaptation in polar bears. Cell 157:785–94. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.03.054

[7] ↑ Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P. R., and Dirzo, R. 2017. Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A . 114:E6089–96. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1704949114

[8] ↑ Barnosky, A. D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G. O. U., Swartz, B., Quental, T. B., et al. 2011. Has the earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature 471:51–7. doi: 10.1038/nature09678

[9] ↑ Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P. R., Barnosky, A. D., Garcia, A., Pringle, R. M., and Palmer, T. M. 2015. Accelerated modern human-induced species losses: entering the sixth mass extinction. Sci. Adv . 1:e1400253. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1400253

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Six key lifestyle changes can help avert the climate crisis, study finds

Research shows that governments and individuals making small changes can have a huge impact in reducing emissions

• Six promises you can make to help reduce carbon emissions

People in well-off countries can help avert climate breakdown by making six relatively straightforward lifestyle changes, according to research from three leading institutions.

The study found that sticking to six specific commitments – from flying no more than once every three years to only buying three new items of clothing a year – could rein in the runaway consumption that is partially driving the climate crisis.

The research carried out by academics at Leeds University and analysed by experts at the global engineering firm Arup and the C40 group of world cities, found that making the six commitments could account for a quarter of the emissions reductions required to keep the global heating down to 1.5C.

The study was published on Monday alongside the launch of a new climate movement to persuade and support relatively well off people to make “The Jump” and sign up to the six pledges .

Tom Bailey, co-founder of the campaign said: “This ends once and for all the debate about whether citizens can have a role in protecting our earth. We don’t have time to wait for one group to act, we need ‘all action from all actors now’.”

Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its “bleakest warning yet”, saying the climate crisis was accelerating rapidly with only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages.

Half a century of dither and denial – a climate crisis timeline

Fossil fuel companies have been aware of their impact on the planet since at least the 1950s

The physicist Edward Teller  tells  the American Petroleum Institute (API) a 10% increase in CO2 will be sufficient to melt the icecap and submerge New York. “I think that this chemical contamination is more serious than most people tend to believe.”

Lyndon Johnson’s President’s Science Advisory Committee states that “pollutants have altered on a global scale the carbon dioxide content of the air”, with effects that “could be deleterious from the point of view of human beings”. Summarising the findings, the head of the API  warned  the industry: “Time is running out.”

Shell and BP begin funding scientific research in Britain this decade to examine climate impacts from greenhouse gases.

A recently filed lawsuit claims Exxon scientists told management in 1977 there was an “overwhelming” consensus that fossil fuels were responsible for atmospheric carbon dioxide increases.

An internal Exxon memo warns “it is distinctly possible” that CO2 emissions from the company’s 50-year plan “will later produce effects which will indeed be catastrophic (at least for a substantial fraction of the Earth’s population)”.

The Nasa scientist  James Hansen testifies to the US Senate  that “the greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now”. In the US presidential campaign, George Bush Sr says: “Those who think we are powerless to do anything about the greenhouse effect forget about the White House effect … As president, I intend to do something about it.”

A  confidential report  prepared for Shell’s environmental conservation committee finds CO2 could raise temperatures by 1C to 2C over the next 40 years with changes that may be “the greatest in recorded history”. It urges rapid action by the energy industry. “By the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even stabilise the situation,” it states.

Exxon, Shell, BP and other fossil fuel companies  establish  the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), a lobbying group that challenges the science on global warming and delays action to reduce emissions.

Exxon funds two researchers, Dr Fred Seitz and Dr Fred Singer, who dispute the mainstream consensus on climate science. Seitz and Singer were previously paid by the tobacco industry and questioned the hazards of smoking. Singer, who has denied being on the payroll of the tobacco or energy industry, has said his financial relationships do not influence his research.

Shell’s public information film Climate of Concern acknowledges there is a “possibility of change faster than at any time since the end of the ice age, change too fast, perhaps, for life to adapt without severe dislocation”.

At the Rio Earth summit, countries sign up to the world’s first international agreement to stabilise greenhouse gases and prevent dangerous manmade interference with the climate system. This establishes the UN framework convention on climate change. Bush Sr says: “The US fully intends to be the pre-eminent world leader in protecting the global environment.”

Two month’s before the Kyoto climate conference, Mobil (later merged with Exxon) takes out  an ad in The New York Times  titled Reset the Alarm, which says: “Let’s face it: the science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil.”

The US refuses to ratify the Kyoto protocol after intense opposition from oil companies and the GCC.

The US senator Jim Inhofe, whose  main donors  are in the oil and gas industry,  leads  the “Climategate” misinformation attack on scientists on the opening day of the crucial UN climate conference in Copenhagen, which  ends in disarray .

A study by Richard Heede, published in the journal Climatic Change, reveals  90 companies  are responsible for producing two-thirds of the carbon that has entered the atmosphere since the start of the industrial age in the mid-18th century.

The API removes a claim on its website that the human contribution to climate change is “uncertain”, after an outcry.

Exxon, Chevron and BP each  donate at least $500,000  for the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.

Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of Opec, which represents Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Iran and several other oil states, says climate campaigners are the  biggest threat  to the industry and claims they are misleading the public with unscientific warnings about global warming.

Jonathan Watts

Bailey said as the world reaches the edge of ecological collapse , it needed a workable alternative to this ‘universal consumer society’ in the next decade.

“The research is clear that governments and the private sector have the largest role to play but it is also equally clear from our analysis that individuals and communities can make a huge difference.”

The Jump campaign asks people to sign up to take the following six “shifts” for one, three or six months:

Eat a largely plant-based diet, with healthy portions and no waste

Buy no more than three new items of clothing per year

Keep electrical products for at least seven years

Take no more than one short haul flight every three years and one long haul flight every eight years

Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can – and if not keep hold of your existing vehicle for longer

Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, like moving to a green energy, insulating your home or changing pension supplier

The campaign was officially kicked off on Saturday and Bailey said there was already a growing movement emerging in response to the evidence with Jump groups up and running around the country.

“This is not just new information, or a normal behaviour change ‘campaign’, but a fun movement that is working to go way beyond the usual ‘greenie’ suspects,” said Bailey. “A movement that is able to engage all types of people … engaging and being led by communities of colour and the economically excluded.”

Bailey said there has been a widespread belief in climate circles in recent years that individual action was relatively ineffective and the only option was to get out on the streets and demand system change from governments and corporations.

“Obviously this is still hugely important but what this research shows is that there is a role for a new joyful climate movement which can help lead the way to less stuff and more joy.”

Some of the shifts the campaign calls for are, at least partially, dependent on systemic change – the prohibitive cost of train fares might leave individuals with little choice but to use short haul flights for essential journeys; public transport maybe expensive or nonexistent in areas of the country, leaving people with no choice but to use their car.

Bailey was the lead author of Labour’s plan to decarbonise the UK’s energy sector at the last election. He has worked in the green energy sector in the UK, US and China for the past 15 years, and said individual actions could have a cascade effect, leading to community level action and ultimately contributing to systemic change.

Although not everyone would be able to commit to all the pledges, just “making a start” could have a big impact, he said.

“This isn’t going back to the stone age, it’s just finding a balance. Less consuming in relatively rich western countries can mean more creativity, comedy, connection … Live for joy, not for stuff.”

The research is based on a study by academics at Leeds University, Arup and the C40 group of leading cities which assesses the impact of consumption by people in the world’s leading cities.

Analysis of that data has found that six steps set out above could cut global emissions by between 25% and 27%.

Ben Smith, director of climate change at Arup, who led the analysis said that as scientific evidence mounts, it was clear that all sections of society had to act.

“Our research shows that all of us, from politicians, city and business leaders to individual citizens, have important roles to play. And it is clear there’s lots that we can do as individuals, and that this is one of the easiest and quickest places to start”.

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Essays on Climate Change

Climate change: essay topics for college students.

Welcome to our resource page designed for college students seeking inspiration for their climate change essays. The choice of topic is a crucial first step in the writing process, reflecting your personal interests and creativity. This page aims to guide you through selecting a compelling essay topic that not only captivates your interest but also challenges you to think critically and analytically.

Depending on your assignment requirements or personal preference, essays can be categorized into several types. Below, you will find a variety of climate change essay topics categorized by essay type. Each topic is accompanied by an introductory paragraph example, highlighting a clear thesis statement, and a conclusion paragraph example that summarizes the essay's main points and reiterates the thesis.

Argumentative Essays

• Topic: The Effectiveness of International Agreements in Combating Climate Change

Introduction Example: Despite the global consensus on the urgent need to address climate change, the effectiveness of international agreements remains a contentious issue. This essay will argue that while such agreements have made significant strides in promoting global cooperation, they fall short in enforcing tangible changes due to lack of binding enforcement mechanisms. Thesis Statement: International agreements, though crucial, are not sufficiently effective in combating climate change without enforceable commitments.

Conclusion Example: In summarizing, international agreements provide a framework for climate action but lack the enforcement necessary for real change. To combat climate change effectively, these agreements must be accompanied by binding commitments that ensure countries adhere to their promises, underscoring the need for a more robust global enforcement mechanism.

Compare and Contrast Essays

• Topic: Renewable Energy Sources vs. Fossil Fuels: A Comparative Analysis

Introduction Example: The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is often touted as a pivotal solution to climate change. This essay will compare and contrast these two energy sources, highlighting differences in environmental impact, cost-effectiveness, and long-term sustainability. Thesis Statement: Renewable energy sources, despite higher initial costs, are more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective in the long run compared to fossil fuels.

Conclusion Example: Through this comparative analysis, it is clear that renewable energy sources offer a more sustainable and cost-effective solution to powering our world than fossil fuels. Embracing renewables not only mitigates the impact of climate change but also secures a sustainable energy future.

Descriptive Essays

• Topic: The Impact of Climate Change on Coral Reefs

Introduction Example: Coral reefs, often referred to as the rainforests of the sea, are facing unprecedented threats from climate change. This essay aims to describe the profound impact of rising temperatures and ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems. Thesis Statement: Climate change poses a severe threat to coral reefs, leading to bleaching events, habitat loss, and a decline in marine biodiversity.

Conclusion Example: The devastation of coral reefs is a stark reminder of the broader impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Protecting these vital habitats requires immediate action to mitigate the effects of climate change and preserve marine biodiversity for future generations.

Persuasive Essays

• Topic: The Role of Individual Actions in Mitigating Climate Change

Introduction Example: While the role of governments and corporations is often emphasized in the fight against climate change, individual actions play a crucial part in this global challenge. This essay will persuade readers that personal lifestyle choices can significantly impact efforts to mitigate climate change. Thesis Statement: Individual actions, when collectively embraced, can drive significant environmental change and are essential in the fight against climate change.

Conclusion Example: In conclusion, the cumulative effect of individual actions can make a substantial difference in addressing climate change. By adopting more sustainable lifestyles, individuals can contribute to a larger movement towards environmental stewardship and climate action.

Narrative Essays

• Topic: A Personal Journey Towards Sustainable Living

Introduction Example: Embarking on a journey towards sustainable living is both a personal challenge and a contribution to the global fight against climate change. This narrative essay will share my journey of adopting a more sustainable lifestyle, reflecting on the challenges, successes, and insights gained along the way. Thesis Statement: Through personal commitment to sustainable living, individuals can contribute meaningfully to mitigating climate change while discovering the intrinsic rewards of a simpler, more purposeful lifestyle.

Conclusion Example: This journey towards sustainable living has not only contributed to climate action but has also offered a deeper appreciation for the importance of individual choices. As more people embark on similar journeys, the collective impact on our planet can be transformative.

Engagement and Creativity

We encourage you to select a topic that resonates with your personal interests and academic goals. Dive deep into your chosen subject, employ critical thinking, and let your creativity flow as you explore different perspectives and solutions to climate change. Remember, the best essays are not only informative but also engaging and thought-provoking.

Educational Value

Writing on these topics will not only enhance your understanding of climate change and its implications but also develop your skills in research, critical thinking, persuasive writing, and narrative storytelling. Each essay type offers a unique opportunity to explore different facets of the climate crisis, encouraging you to engage with the material in a meaningful way.

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Climate change refers to the long-term alteration of Earth's climate patterns, encompassing variations in temperature, precipitation, wind patterns, and other atmospheric conditions. It is primarily driven by natural processes but has been significantly accelerated by human activities, such as the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and deforestation.

Greta Thunberg is a prominent figure in the fight against climate change. As a Swedish environmental activist, she gained international attention for her efforts to raise awareness about the urgent need for climate action. Thunberg initiated the "Fridays for Future" movement, inspiring students worldwide to strike from school to demand government action on climate change. Dr. James Hansen, a renowned climate scientist, has made significant contributions to the field of climate research. He was one of the first scientists to warn about the dangers of human-induced global warming. Dr. Hansen's testimony before the U.S. Congress in 1988 played a crucial role in raising awareness about climate change and its potential consequences.

The historical context of climate change dates back centuries, with notable events highlighting the understanding and awareness of this global issue. One significant event is the Industrial Revolution, which began in the 18th century and marked a shift towards mass production and increased use of fossil fuels. This period of rapid industrialization contributed to the substantial release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, setting the stage for the ongoing climate crisis. In the late 19th century, scientists such as Svante Arrhenius started to explore the relationship between carbon dioxide levels and Earth's temperature. However, it was not until the mid-20th century that climate change gained significant attention. In 1958, the Keeling Curve measurements began, demonstrating the rising trend of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The 1980s witnessed a turning point with the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. This international body assesses scientific research on climate change and provides policymakers with valuable insights. Another notable event was the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, which laid the foundation for global cooperation on addressing climate change. Since then, several key events have shaped the discourse on climate change, including the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Greenhouse gas emissions: The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, releases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) into the atmosphere, trapping heat and contributing to global warming. Deforestation: The clearing of forests for agriculture, logging, and urbanization reduces the Earth's capacity to absorb CO2, leading to higher greenhouse gas concentrations. Industrial activities: Industrial processes, including manufacturing, construction, and chemical production, release CO2 and other greenhouse gases through energy consumption and the use of certain chemicals. Agricultural practices: Livestock farming produces methane through enteric fermentation and manure management, while the use of synthetic fertilizers releases nitrous oxide. Land use changes: Converting land for agriculture, urban development, or other purposes alters natural ecosystems and contributes to the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Waste management: Improper handling and decomposition of organic waste in landfills produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Changes in land and water management: Alterations in land and water use, such as dam construction, can impact natural systems and disrupt the carbon cycle. Natural factors: Natural processes like volcanic eruptions and variations in solar radiation can temporarily influence climate patterns.

Rising temperatures: Global warming leads to increased average temperatures worldwide, resulting in heatwaves, melting glaciers and polar ice, and rising sea levels. Extreme weather events: Climate change intensifies extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, floods, and wildfires, leading to devastating impacts on ecosystems, communities, and infrastructure. Disruption of ecosystems: Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns disrupt ecosystems, affecting biodiversity, migration patterns, and the survival of plant and animal species. Water scarcity: Changing climate patterns can alter rainfall patterns, causing water scarcity in certain regions, affecting agriculture, drinking water supplies, and ecosystems that depend on water sources. Health impacts: Climate change contributes to the spread of diseases, heat-related illnesses, and respiratory problems due to increased air pollution and the expansion of disease vectors. Economic losses: Extreme weather events and disruptions to agricultural productivity can result in significant economic losses, impacting industries, livelihoods, and global supply chains. Food security challenges: Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns affect crop yields, leading to food shortages, increased food prices, and challenges in ensuring global food security. Displacement of populations: Rising sea levels and extreme weather events can lead to the displacement of communities and the loss of homes and livelihoods, resulting in climate-induced migration.

Transition to renewable energy: Shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. Energy efficiency: Improving energy efficiency in industries, transportation, and buildings can reduce energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable transportation: Promoting electric vehicles, public transportation, and biking/walking infrastructure can reduce emissions from the transportation sector, a major contributor to climate change. Forest conservation and reforestation: Protecting existing forests and implementing reforestation projects can help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and preserve biodiversity. Sustainable agriculture: Adopting practices such as organic farming, agroforestry, and precision agriculture can reduce emissions from agriculture and promote soil health. Circular economy: Shifting towards a circular economy model that emphasizes recycling, waste reduction, and sustainable production can reduce emissions and minimize resource consumption. Climate policy and international cooperation: Implementing strong climate policies, such as carbon pricing and emissions trading, and fostering international cooperation to address climate change can drive collective action and accountability. Public awareness and education: Raising awareness about climate change and promoting education on sustainable practices can inspire individuals and communities to take action and make environmentally conscious choices.

Climate change has garnered significant attention in media, with various forms of media portraying its impact and raising awareness about the issue. Films like "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006) by Al Gore and "Before the Flood" (2016) by Leonardo DiCaprio present compelling documentaries that highlight the consequences of climate change and advocate for urgent action. These films use scientific evidence, expert interviews, and compelling visuals to engage and inform audiences.

In addition to documentaries, climate change is frequently depicted in news media through articles, reports, and opinion pieces. News outlets often cover climate-related events, such as extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and environmental activism. For instance, media coverage of global climate strikes led by young activists like Greta Thunberg has amplified the urgency of the issue and mobilized public discourse.

Furthermore, climate change is a recurring theme in literature, with books like "The Water Will Come" by Jeff Goodell and "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert exploring the environmental challenges we face. These literary works offer in-depth analysis, personal stories, and scientific research to provide readers with a deeper understanding of climate change.

1. The levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere are currently higher than any recorded in the past 800,000 years. According to data from ice core samples, pre-industrial CO2 levels averaged around 280 parts per million (ppm), while current levels have exceeded 410 ppm. 2. Rising global temperatures have led to the loss of an estimated 150 billion tons of ice per year from glaciers worldwide. If the current trend continues, it is projected that sea levels could rise by about 0.3 to 1 meter by the end of the century, endangering low-lying areas and increasing the frequency of coastal flooding. 3. The year 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, according to data from multiple global temperature datasets. This warming trend is consistent with long-term climate change caused by human activities.

Climate change is a critical and pressing global issue that warrants extensive analysis and discussion. Writing an essay on this topic is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, climate change poses significant threats to our planet's ecosystems, biodiversity, and human well-being. By exploring the causes, impacts, and potential solutions of climate change, we can raise awareness and foster a sense of urgency to address this issue. Secondly, climate change is intricately linked to various socio-economic and political factors. It intersects with topics such as sustainable development, environmental justice, and global governance. Understanding these complex connections is essential for informed decision-making and policy formulation. Furthermore, climate change is a subject of great scientific interest and ongoing research. It offers an opportunity to delve into interdisciplinary fields like climatology, ecology, economics, and social sciences. Writing an essay on climate change allows for the exploration of scientific studies, data analysis, and the evaluation of different perspectives.

1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2018). Global warming of 1.5°C. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ 2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (n.d.). Climate change: How do we know? Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ 3. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2015). Paris Agreement. Retrieved from https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement 4. World Health Organization. (2018). Climate change and health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health 5. Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Climate change indicators: Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/greenhouse-gases 6. United Nations Environment Programme. (2020). Emissions gap report 2020. Retrieved from https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020 7. Stern, N. (2007). The economics of climate change: The Stern Review. Cambridge University Press. 8. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. (2019). Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Retrieved from https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-02/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers_en.pdf 9. World Meteorological Organization. (2021). State of the global climate 2020. Retrieved from https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=10739 10. Cook, J., Oreskes, N., Doran, P. T., Anderegg, W. R., Verheggen, B., Maibach, E. W., ... & Nuccitelli, D. (2016). Consensus on consensus: A synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters, 11(4), 048002. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002

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Lifestyle carbon footprints and changes in lifestyles to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, and ways forward for related research

• Case Report
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• Published: 11 August 2021
• Volume 16 , pages 2087–2099, ( 2021 )

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• Ryu Koide   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7857-8505 1 , 2 ,
• Michael Lettenmeier 3 , 4 , 5 ,
• Lewis Akenji 6 ,
• Viivi Toivio 3 , 4 ,
• Aryanie Amellina 7 ,
• Aditi Khodke 1 ,
• Atsushi Watabe 1 &
• Satoshi Kojima 1  

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This paper presents an approach for assessing lifestyle carbon footprints and lifestyle change options aimed at achieving the 1.5 °C climate goal and facilitating the transition to decarbonized lifestyles through stakeholder participatory research. Using data on Finland and Japan it shows potential impacts of reducing carbon footprints through changes in lifestyles for around 30 options covering food, housing, and mobility domains, in comparison with the 2030 and 2050 per-capita targets (2.5–3.2 tCO 2 e by 2030; 0.7–1.4 tCO 2 e by 2050). It discusses research opportunities for expanding the footprint-based quantitative analysis to incorporate subnational analysis, living lab, and scenario development aiming at advancing sustainability science on the transition to decarbonized lifestyles.

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Introduction

Given the fact that unsustainable lifestyles, which are rooted in household consumption, have a key bearing on total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, they are being increasingly focused on as a key to unlocking actions that can be taken to mitigate climate change. This central message is echoed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5-degrees (IPCC 2018 ), as well as the conclusion of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2020 which devotes a chapter to low-carbon lifestyles (UNEP 2020 ). Further, the upcoming IPCC sixth assessment report is expected to highlight demand and social aspects of mitigation (Creutzig et al. 2018 ). At the country level, national and regional governments now also incorporate lifestyle and behavior changes into their long-term strategies, in parallel with technological changes. Transformation to a net-zero economy is “not just about technologies (…but) about people and their daily lives” and “lifestyle choices can make a real difference, while improving quality of life” (European Commission 2018 ) and “shifting the way of life (…) provides a major impact directly and indirectly on climate change” (Government of Japan 2019 ).

In terms of research on lifestyle changes and climate change mitigation, the body of literature has grown but is still limited. For example, emission pathways based on the integrated assessment models (IAMs) incorporate various aspects of lifestyle changes; however, these need to be developed to more comprehensively explore the impacts of indirect emissions through the lifecycle of goods and services (van den Berg et al. 2019 ; Saujot et al. 2021 ). Studies in the field of industrial ecology using environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) have revealed characteristics of current household carbon footprints and examined those linked with high-carbon lifestyles (Hertwich 2005 ; Tukker et al. 2010 ). GHG emissions resulting from household consumption comprise 58–72% of total global emissions (Ivanova et al. 2016 ; Hertwich and Peters 2009 ). These carbon footprints consist of both direct emissions, such as the use of fossil fuels at home and for driving, and indirect emissions resulting from the use of goods and services by households—which can be even higher than the direct ones (Hirano et al. 2016 ). Recent developments in this field include attempts to quantify mitigation impacts from a variety of demand-side options related to food, housing, and mobility (Jones and Kammen 2011 ; Schanes et al. 2016 ; Bjelle et al. 2018 ; Wood et al. 2018 ; Ivanova et al. 2020 ; Moran et al. 2020 ). Despite the rising number of such studies, however, most focus only on the potentials based on individual demand-side options and offer no concrete scenarios in the form of the aggregated impacts from lifestyle changes required to close the gaps between currently prevalent heavy carbon footprints and the climate targets. Building on these existing approaches, the present study proposes a consumption-based target for lifestyle carbon footprints and also explores the extents needed to change lifestyles to meet the 1.5 °C climate target of the Paris Agreement.

This paper proposes an approach for assessing lifestyle carbon footprints and lifestyle changes aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 °C and facilitating the transition to decarbonized lifestyles through participatory research. After introducing per-capita targets of lifestyle carbon footprints, it provides a hotspot analysis of current lifestyles and mitigation impacts from individual and multiple lifestyle change options, focusing on the case studies of Finland and Japan. The quantitative results discussed are based on the key findings from phase I of the “1.5-Degree Lifestyles” project, an international research project on decarbonizing lifestyles, and its technical report (IGES et al. 2019 ). Building up to the quantitative analysis, it discusses research opportunities including subnational analysis, living lab, and scenario analysis that could be followed up on to facilitate lifestyle changes that can be taken aimed at decarbonization.

Consumption-based per-capita targets corresponding to the 1.5 °C climate goal

This section explains the different types of targets and their relevance. Typically, climate change targets have been discussed in terms of territorial emissions such as at the country level (Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute 2020 ), but such accounting cannot comprehensively capture the impacts of consumption activities through indirect emissions in supply chains occurring outside of the territory being studied. On the other hand, consumption-based carbon footprint accounting is useful for devising policies that avoid leakage of emissions beyond territorial borders—an approach empowering governments, companies, and consumers to shape low-carbon actions at the global, country, city, and household levels (Peters 2010 ).

Further, most existing targets are proposed at the aggregated level, such as global and country totals, but in the context of promoting lifestyle changes, aggregated territorial-based targets may not be explicitly relevant to households and local stakeholders, since such targets are not directly linked to people’s daily lifestyles or fail to account for the indirect emissions resulting from consumption. Therefore, consumption-based per-capita targets can facilitate actions to decarbonize people’s lifestyles, and can also reveal the gaps between predominant lifestyles and levels of decarbonization required to meet the targets.

In this study, we define “lifestyle carbon footprints” as the sum of direct and indirect GHG emissions induced from household consumption, excluding government expenditure and capital investment. In relation to the planetary boundaries (Rockstrom 2009 ; Steffen et al. 2015 ), few studies have attempted to downscale climate change boundaries into per-capita targets (Nykvist et al. 2013 ; Dao et al. 2015 ). Further, these targets are static and fail to account for the gradual reduction in carbon emissions anticipated to take place by the second half of the twenty-first century, as suggested by the major mitigation pathways aligned with the climate goals (UNEP 2020 ). For these reasons, the present study established consumption-based per-capita targets of lifestyle carbon footprints assuming the gradual decrease of carbon budgets to the second half of the century.

The per-capita lifestyle carbon footprint targets proposed below are based on a review of existing emission pathways, projections of global population (United Nations 2017 ), and share of carbon footprints of household consumption in total footprints (Hertwich and Peters 2009 ). As shown in Fig.  1 , using the identified representative pathways towards the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement goal, and considering either limited or intensive use of negative emission technologies (van Vuuren et al. 2018 ; Ranger et al. 2012 ; Rockström et al. 2017 ), the upper and lower annual targets of per-capita lifestyle carbon footprints are: 2.5–3.2 tCO 2 e in 2030, 1.4–2.2 tCO 2 e in 2040, and 0.7–1.4 tCO 2 e in 2050. It should be noted that, to explicitly focus on the parts related to lifestyles of citizens, these targets do not include footprints resulting from government expenditure and capital investment. However, accounting for such factors in allocating footprints could be taken up in future research, as they are not only factors related to satisfying the needs of a country’s citizens but also those of future generations, as well as its exports.

Source: developed by authors to indicate only 1.5 °C target ranges based on data from IGES et al. ( 2019 )

Lower and upper targets of per-capita lifestyle carbon footprints in relation to meeting the 1.5 °C climate goal. Per-capita targets of carbon footprints from household consumption, excluding government expenditure and capital investment. Red and blue target figures refer to pathways compatible with the 1.5 °C target; the lower (blue) target emphasising demand-side measures and no intensive use of negative emission technologies, and the upper (red) with intensive use of negative emission technologies.

In the above, the lower and higher targets are figures based, respectively, on pathways emphasising demand-side measures without and with intensive use of negative emission technologies. In terms of the carbon budget, the latter is close to a 2 °C target with extensive use of negative emission technologies.

Assessing hotspots of lifestyle carbon footprints and comparing them with targets

Here, we explain the approach for assessing lifestyle carbon footprints, present the results of estimations, the gaps between current lifestyle carbon footprints and the targets, and the hotspot areas of lifestyle carbon footprints.

Assessing lifestyle carbon footprints through consideration of different consumption domains and components can help to identify underlying problems and potential solutions. There are two basic approaches for estimating carbon footprints. One, used in most existing studies on carbon footprints related to household consumption, is monetary-based estimation (Hertwich 2005 ; Tukker et al. 2010 ; Ivanova et al. 2016 ). The other focuses on lifestyles based on physical amounts of consumption, for which limited studies exist (Barrett et al. 2002 ; Nissinen et al. 2007 ; Girod et al. 2010 ; Moore et al. 2013 ; Lettenmeier 2018 ). In our study, we mainly used estimation based on physical amounts of consumption, since it can more accurately model substitutions between different consumption items—such as transportation modes, energy sources, and food ingredients. This approach also facilitates a better understanding of the consumption patterns of citizens, since it examines carbon footprint hotspots on the basis of both physical consumption amounts and carbon intensities.

Using the physical-amount approach, we examined carbon footprints and characteristics of consumer lifestyles focusing on food, mobility, and housing, and examined the amounts quantified based on actual physical amounts of consumption. The quantities estimated were based on figures for mobility distance in passenger-km, food consumption in kg, and energy consumption in kWh. For the other domains such as leisure, consumer goods, and services we used monetary-based estimation, to ensure we had a fuller picture, or overview of household consumption.

We estimated carbon footprints of average consumers in five target countries, including Finland and Japan, for nutrition, housing, and mobility domains based on the collected national and other official statistics, such as nutrition intake and food supply, transport and fuel consumption, housing and water supply, and energy statistics. To estimate carbon footprints for each product and service, we used carbon intensity data obtained from life cycle inventory databases, which are widely used and provide extensive coverage of items, such as Ecoinvent (Wernet et al. 2016 ), as well as additional data on carbon footprints in other domains from input–output models such as ENVIMAT (Seppälä et al. 2009 ) and GLIO (Nansai et al. 2012 ). These carbon footprints and physical consumption amounts were aggregated into several components per domain to enable comparison between the target countries and quantification of the impacts from lifestyle changes. More details on the data sources are available in the technical report (IGES et al. 2019 ).

Assessing lifestyle carbon footprints and gaps with the targets

Results of the analysis revealed significant gaps between current lifestyle carbon footprints and the 2030–2050 targets. Figure  2 shows the estimated lifestyle carbon footprints of average consumers in five countries, encompassing all aspects of household consumption—nutrition, housing, mobility, consumer goods, leisure, and services—in comparison with the lower and upper targets. The results clearly point to the need for drastic and rapid reductions in lifestyle carbon footprints of 60–80% by 2030 and 80–90% by 2050 in developed countries (Finland and Japan) and up to 40% in 2030 and at least 20% to over 80% in 2050 in developing countries (China, Brazil, and India).

Source: authors based on data from IGES et al. ( 2019 )

Gaps between current lifestyle carbon footprints of average citizens in countries and 2030–2050 targets.

Comparing hotspots of lifestyle carbon footprints with the targets

The gaps between the currently dominant lifestyles and the targets for 2030 and 2050 in each domain highlight the need for drastic changes in both consumption patterns and carbon intensities. The estimated lifestyle carbon footprints and physical consumption patterns were visualized as skyline charts to examine the hotspots, and comparisons were made with the per-capita targets introduced in the previous section (Fig.  3 ). For each colored block (rectangle) in the figure, its area represents the carbon footprint of the item, the width refers to consumption amount, and the height shows carbon intensity. The figure also shows current and indicative target carbon footprints, with dotted lines showing average intensities across components. Here, the allocation of target carbon footprints between carbon intensity and consumption amounts as well as between domains is only indicative, as different forms of allocations are possible. Nevertheless, even an indicative target can provide useful insights on the extent and coverage of the changes required to meet the related target.

Source: modified by authors based on IGES et al. ( 2019 )

Hotspot analysis of average carbon footprints and consumer lifestyles based on physical amounts of consumption in two case countries (Finland and Japan). X -axis, Y -axis, and size of the area of each block equate to physical amount of consumption, carbon intensity, and carbon footprint, respectively; black, pink, and light blue dotted lines represent current level, 2030 target, and 2050 target (1.5 °C, lower target) footprints, respectively.

These visualizations enable an intuitive understanding of the hotspots of lifestyle carbon footprints based on physical consumption, either due to large carbon footprint (size of the area) or high-carbon intensity (large height)—for example, consumption of meat, energy from fossil fuels, car-driving, and flights. Moreover, comparison with targets in each domain can deepen our understanding of the levels and types of changes in lifestyles and provisioning systems that will be required. To illustrate, in the mobility domain, rapid reduction of both transport distance and intensity may be needed to comply with the 1.5 °C target (comparing the size of black, pink, and light blue dotted line boxes). Apart from the larger blocks (height of gray and red blocks) shown in this domain, it is noteworthy that the carbon intensity of even current bus services (height of dark blue block in comparison with pink/light blue dotted line target boxes) makes them not compliant with the targets in the future.

These points illustrate the need for a transition in consumer lifestyles to comply with the climate target. Further, such transition would need to be supported by innovative provisioning systems.

Carbon footprint reduction potentials from lifestyle changes: individual options and aggregated impacts

Listing the potential lifestyle change options and understanding their footprint reduction potentials is useful for examining the effectiveness of different measures. In this study, incorporating a framework based on existing literature (Nelldal and Andersson 2012 ; Figge et al. 2014 ; Akenji et al. 2016 ), we classified the major approaches used for reducing carbon footprint by lifestyle changes into three basic types: (1) Absolute reduction: reducing the amount of physical consumption of goods and services; (2) Efficiency improvement: reducing the emissions by introducing alternative lower-carbon technologies, while keeping the same mode of consumption and amount; and (3) Modal shift: substitution of a consumption mode by another less carbon-intensive mode, while keeping the same amount of functional demand.

Mitigation impacts from lifestyle change options

Here, we show how changes in lifestyle can reduce carbon footprints for the two case countries (Finland and Japan) with maximum mitigation potential. To do this, we first identified the lifestyle change options that would have the most impact by literature review, then quantified around 30 options per country. Calculations were made based on the three approaches proposed above and the lifestyle carbon footprint and physical amounts of consumption estimated in this study. Absolute reduction can be modeled by reducing physical consumption amounts, and efficiency improvements can be reflected by reducing carbon intensities in the dataset. Modal shifts can be quantified by shifting amounts of consumption of particular items to another item, as each has a different carbon intensity.

We focused on quantifying the maximum potential of footprint reduction assuming full adoption (100% adoption rate) of an option—for example, commuting without any car or always eating vegetarian meals—but also show results for partial adoption of options. This is because in the real world, households are more likely to only make partial use of commuting by bicycle or vegetarian meals, or only a part of the population might adopt these options. Figures for partial adoption were calculated by multiplying full implementation impacts by the adoption rate.

Figure  4 shows the lifestyle change options identified. The most effective options include private travel without a car, shifting to renewable electricity, electric cars, vegetarian diets, and vehicle efficiency improvement (potential of each option if fully implemented: 500 kg to over 1500 kg CO 2 e per capita on average). Other effective options include ridesharing, living close to the workplace, temperature control using heat pumps, commuting without a car, use of dairy product alternatives, low-carbon proteins, and living in smaller spaces (250–500 kg CO 2 e per capita).

Source: developed by authors based on data from IGES et al. ( 2019 )

Mitigation potentials from lifestyle change options in two case countries (Finland and Japan). Figures at left and right ends of each box show average mitigation potential of each option in each country if fully implemented; middle line represents average of both countries. Note that overlaps or synergies between lifestyle change options are not considered in this figure.

These results also highlight the importance of covering all three approaches discussed in this paper: absolute reduction, modal shift, and efficiency improvements. For example, many of the most impactful options with mitigation potentials over 500 kg CO 2 e per-capita adopt the modal shift approach, such as shifting from cars to public transport, from conventional to renewable energy, from gasoline to electric cars, and from meat-rich to vegetarian diets, but also on the efficiency improvement approach, such as using efficient vehicles and ride sharing. Absolute reduction options are also prominent among the effective options identified, such as reducing mobility distance, living space, and hot water consumption.

As illustrated in the figure, the mitigation potentials differ among the case countries. This implies that the effectiveness of lifestyle change options depends on each context, such as differences due to actual physical consumption patterns, e.g., car driving, meat and dairy product consumption, energy consumption, and grid electricity mix. There are also background reasons, such as different structures in provision, infrastructure, and habits of consumers. Therefore, options such as car-free travel and dietary shift have larger mitigation potentials in Finland, whereas other options such as renewable electricity are more effective in Japan.

Aggregated mitigation impacts from lifestyle changes

To better understand the level and types of demand-side actions needed to meet the 1.5 °C climate goal, we investigated lifestyle changes beyond the individual option of lifestyle changes, through quantifying the aggregate mitigation potentials from multiple options covering all the consumption domains of food, housing, mobility, goods, leisure, and services. Adding up the impacts from more than one lifestyle change option does not produce accurate aggregate figures due to areas of synergy and overlap. Therefore, aggregated impacts from multiple lifestyle change options were quantified by considering the overlaps and synergies. As an initial attempt to examine the level of required changes, we made a basic assumption that all selected options were adopted at the same rate. The analysis results (Fig.  5 ) revealed that 65–75% adoption of approximately 30 quantified options in combination with 65–75% reduction of footprints in goods, leisure, and services by 2030 would be needed for both countries to comply with the upper to lower targets of 2030 (2.5–3.2 tCO 2 e).

Aggregated impacts from lifestyle change options and comparison with 1.5 °C targets (Finland and Japan). The bar chart indicates current and scenario lifestyle carbon footprints with corresponding adoption rates of lifestyle change options. Arrows represent total reduction impacts. At 100% adoption, the assumed reduction in carbon footprints of consumer goods, leisure and services is 90%.

This means that ambitious adaption of lifestyle change options can contribute to reducing lifestyle carbon footprints towards the targets of the Paris Agreement. However, the level and coverage of required changes is both high and broad due to the proximity of year 2030. In view of the 2050 targets, the analysis also concludes that even full implementation of these options with 90% reduction of footprints in goods, leisure, and services is not sufficient to meet the 2050 lower target (0.7 tCO 2 e). This implies that much broader-ranging lifestyle change options and systemic changes, including large-scale behavioral changes combined with huge innovations in provisioning systems may be needed to comply with the 1.5 °C climate goal. These findings on aggregated mitigation impacts from the combination of multiple lifestyle change options underscore the need for ambitious uptake of currently available options and additional new decarbonization options, as well as structural changes in consumption habits and provisioning systems.

Research opportunities to progress sustainability science on decarbonized lifestyles

Through the combination of per-capita consumption-based target setting, analysis of lifestyle carbon footprints, and quantification of mitigation impacts from individual and multiple lifestyle change options, the present study identifies challenges and opportunities towards decarbonized lifestyles. The quantitative analysis proposed above represents only an initial step, and further research is needed in this field. Recognizing that there are gaps between decarbonization targets and current lifestyle carbon footprints, there is a need for exploring how to fill them, through incorporating lifestyle changes. The analysis of lifestyle carbon footprints in this paper identified means to reduce GHG emissions derived from consumer lifestyles—absolute reduction, modal shift, and efficiency improvement. In terms of implementation, the area to be focused on going forwards is how to capitalize on these means to support citizens, communities, governments, businesses, and other stakeholders in transforming lifestyles and contexts of living. This can be approached from three perspectives: clarifying the impacts from lifestyle changes and the gaps with the target, envisioning possible future based on consumption-based scenarios and roadmaps, and facilitating lifestyle changes in real-life settings. To date, from the footprint perspective, only a few existing studies adopt the participatory approach, through stakeholder workshops (Leppänen et al. 2012 ; Vita et al. 2019 ). This section extends the footprint-based quantitative analysis to incorporate these perspectives through subnational analysis on carbon footprints and lifestyle changes, integration with living lab approaches, and consumption-based scenario development.

Subnational analysis of lifestyle carbon footprints and lifestyle changes

One opportunity as an area of study is analysis of lifestyle carbon footprints and lifestyle changes at the subnational level. The availability of data related to household consumption is growing—not only in the conventional format of aggregated statistics of household consumptions at both country- and city-level but also covering different aspects of household consumption, including survey microdata of individual responses to surveys. As illustrated in this paper, quantifying mitigation potentials from lifestyle changes help to understand the effectiveness and potential contributions of lifestyle changes to the climate goals. However, to date, most studies on the quantification of carbon footprint reduction focus on countries or regions (Jones and Kammen 2011 ; Schanes et al. 2016 ; Bjelle et al. 2018 ; Wood et al. 2018 ; Ivanova et al. 2020 ; Moran et al. 2020 ), with only a few exceptions (Hersey et al. 2009 ; Dubois et al. 2019 ). Considering the pivotal roles of cities in activating sustainable lifestyles and decarbonized societies (Peters 2010 ; Wright et al. 2011 ; Bailey et al. 2019 ), the assessment of lifestyle carbon footprints proposed in this paper could be extended to subnational units such as cities and local communities.

A similar analysis can also be extended to quantify mitigation potentials from lifestyle changes in different consumer segments using survey microdata. Previous research based on survey microdata covering carbon footprints of households or consumer segments has revealed that they vary widely, even within-country, by from 3 to 10 times (Weber and Matthews 2008 ; Froemelt et al. 2018 ; Koide et al. 2019 ). This analysis approach is especially relevant considering the growing awareness of the inequalities, in terms of carbon footprints, between consumer and income segments globally and within each country, which underscores the urgency of addressing the emissions and footprints of high-carbon population segments (Kartha et al. 2020 ; Ivanova and Wood 2020 ; UNEP 2020 ). The segmentation method in existing studies can be combined with the approach proposed in this paper to investigate the impacts of a transition in lifestyles of different consumer segments. Such analysis can identify mitigation potentials in terms of high-carbon activities and high-carbon population segments, which are both useful when considering the equitability and effectiveness of mitigation actions.

Integration of lifestyle carbon footprint analysis with living lab approaches

There is a need to examine the feasibility of lifestyle changes, levels of potential acceptance by citizens, and necessary supporting measures and policy actions, as well as assess the impacts from a carbon footprint perspective. A deeper and more realistic understanding of lifestyle changes can be obtained from the living labs approach. ‘Living labs’ refers to an open innovation platform with real-life environments to address societal challenges through the collaboration of various stakeholders (Hossain et al. 2019 ). Application of living labs to studies of sustainability can investigate various aspects of sustainable living, including quality of life, environmental impacts, and the implications of daily routines (van Timmeren and Keyson 2017 ), through focusing on behaviors and experiences in real-life settings with mixed-method research (Herrera 2017 ). Living labs may contribute to generating useful applied knowledge and inspiring rapid transformations in society and technology, creating not only direct impacts at the niche level but also indirect impacts through adjustment of policies and provision structures, as well as diffuse impacts on cultural and normative values of societies (Schliwa et al. 2015 ).

The living labs approach has numerous applications in low-carbon urban development (Voytenko et al. 2016 ) and daily practices related to domains of lifestyles such as food, energy, building, work, and product use (von Geibler et al. 2014 ; Davies and Doyle 2015 ; Devaney and Davies 2017 ; Kivimaa et al. 2017 ; Jensen et al. 2018 ). However, a living lab approach that seeks to obtain information on sustainable actions based on energy use or direct GHG emissions cannot fully account for the climate change impacts of daily living from the consumption-based perspective. To date, a limited number of studies have used the living labs approach to focus on the life cycle impacts of lifestyles, such as using carbon and material footprints (Hedenus 2011 ; Laakso and Lettenmeier 2016 ; Lahtinen et al. 2020 ; Greiff et al. 2017 ). Although not labeled as a living lab approach, the life cycle approach has also been combined with small-scale experiments to identify effective interventions (Wynes et al. 2018 ). One possible approach could involve use of a footprint calculator as well as analysis of lifestyle changes, as illustrated by some examples of online platforms for personal carbon footprint estimation and target pledges (West et al. 2016 ; Commission for Sustainable Development 2020 ). These experimentations with real-life settings can be combined with the methodology proposed in this paper to better comprehend the practicality as well as necessity of certain actions, to facilitate impactful lifestyle changes.

Developing consumption-based mitigation scenarios and roadmaps incorporating lifestyle changes

As this paper shows, examining aggregated impacts by combining multiple lifestyle change options helps us understand the lifestyle changes that are needed to meet the climate goals. Desirable outcomes in the future can be approached through development of future scenarios and roadmaps incorporating carbon footprints and lifestyle changes. Aiming towards decarbonized lifestyles, such efforts could incorporate three elements: (1) consumption-based carbon footprints and mitigation potentials from lifestyle changes explicitly linked to the decarbonization target, (2) participatory process involving citizens and stakeholders, and (3) roadmaps with supporting measures through policy and stakeholder actions, as explained below.

First, scenario analysis can be based on consumption-based carbon footprints and explicitly indicate pathways to the decarbonization target. To date, a number of low-carbon scenarios based on direct emissions incorporating the backcasting approach have been proposed (Hughes and Strachan 2010 ). However, these scenarios cannot fully account for the indirect impacts from consumption activities related to lifestyles, due to the relatively large indirect emissions. Conversely, from a consumption-based perspective, some studies quantified impacts from multiple demand-side options (Vita et al. 2019 ; Moran et al. 2020 ), but these studies do not focus on the gap with the decarbonization targets. Only a limited number of scenarios of future lifestyles have been developed that comprehensively consider life cycle impacts and the gaps with the target levels (Girod et al. 2014 ; Lettenmeier et al. 2014 ; Impiö et al. 2020 ). These methods can be further expanded to incorporate consumption-based per-capita targets and the methodology of modeling lifestyle changes proposed in this paper.

Second, future scenarios linked with lifestyle carbon footprints can be developed through stakeholder engagement processes such as with citizens, the business sector, community organizations, and policymakers. As the forms sustainable lifestyles will take depend on the contexts (Akenji and Chen 2016 ), so too will future decarbonized lifestyles. Stakeholder engagement can facilitate actions in policy and business sectors by comprehensively considering the implications for lifestyles of citizens and environmental, economic, and social consequences. The scenario making process can be used as a tool for communicating with non-scientific audiences and engaging stakeholders (Raskin et al. 2004 ). Studies developing future lifestyle scenarios with stakeholder engagement (Leppänen et al. 2012 ; Vita et al. 2019 ) can be extended to explicitly link consumption-based footprint targets to investigate the desired types of transitions. Making use of such participatory processes can ensure the views of citizens and stakeholders are reflected in the desired actions, to achieve a high quality of life within climate boundaries.

Finally, the extent and level of ambition of lifestyle changes required to meet the target necessitate supporting measures and stakeholder actions. Unsustainable patterns of consumption are deeply embedded in contexts linked with everyday routines and practices (Evans and Jackson  2007 ; Salomaa and Juhola 2020 ). Systems of provisioning linked with social practices have crucial roles beyond behaviors of citizens (Spaargaren and Oosterveer 2009 ). Therefore, instead of placing overall responsibility entirely in the hands of each consumer, a transition to decarbonized lifestyles may instead require systemic actions through all stakeholder actions. This calls for supporting measures through new systems of provisioning as well as policies to enable decarbonized lifestyles, which can be identified and supported through developing roadmaps alongside the scenarios.

Scenarios are often combined with roadmapping of necessary actions along with timelines, as illustrated in low-carbon society scenarios (Kainuma et al. 2012 ), sustainable lifestyle scenarios (Leppänen et al. 2012 ; Impiö et al. 2020 ), and technology roadmapping (Hussain et al. 2017 ). Stakeholder dialogues such as workshops can help incorporate different perspectives in roadmapping, as illustrated in existing studies (Doyle and Davies 2013 ). Roadmaps to support and enable decarbonized lifestyles can include various instruments and actions related to consumer lifestyles, including economic, regulatory, information, nudging, infrastructure, and product and service provision. These actions should cover and focus on the carbon footprint hotspots related to nutrition, housing, mobility, consumer goods, leisure, and services identified in this paper.

The research opportunities discussed above are mutually linked and may have synergies. The subnational analysis of lifestyle carbon footprints can provide a useful background that informs in the areas of equitability and effectiveness of actions in the scenarios. In addition, options identified as part of the scenarios through the participatory process can be tested in living labs to identify supporting measures and constraints in real-life environments, and the learnings from the living labs approach can be reflected into roadmaps.

Conclusions

The present paper proposes an approach that can be taken to assess lifestyle carbon footprints and to facilitate lifestyle changes towards the 1.5 °C climate goal, based on the key findings in the “1.5-Degree Lifestyles” phase I project. Some of the research opportunities articulated in this paper, including subnational analysis of lifestyle carbon footprints, integration with living labs, and participatory scenario development are currently being applied to the subsequent phase of the “1.5-Degree Lifestyles” project, which involves more countries.

To date, demand-side solutions including consumption, behaviors, and lifestyles have been insufficiently addressed in the research on climate change mitigation (Creutzig et al. 2018 ). Considering the magnitude of changes required, lifestyles need to be decarbonized based on a transformative approach with a focus on non-incremental changes embracing higher-order, larger-scaled, deep and impactful, systemic changes towards the long-term targets as proposed in this paper. The findings from this paper confirm that focusing on impactful lifestyle changes in terms of carbon footprint reduction potential is crucial, as pointed out by a previous review study (Wynes and Nicholas 2017 ). Despite the large mitigation impacts expected from lifestyle changes, consumer lifestyles are deeply embedded in complex cultural contexts, social practices and provisioning systems. To address the magnitude of required changes, a transformation of lifestyles may need to employ mutually enhancing dual approaches, through voluntary efforts and movements by citizens and facilitation through policies and stakeholder actions to support decarbonized options while discouraging unsustainable ones. This multi-stakeholder view can be facilitated through the research opportunities discussed in this paper.

Implementing the research opportunities discussed in this paper may require a highly interdisciplinary approach, including but not limited to engineering, sociology, behavior sciences, economics, and policy sciences. Such research efforts can contribute to a transdisciplinary approach to advance sustainability science and address its various complexities, which include human behavior, norms and culture, and socio-ecological systems (Shrivastava et al. 2020 ). The approach suggested in this paper can be used to advance both academic and practical knowledge on how to facilitate the transition of lifestyles necessary to meet the 1.5 °C climate goal.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, the KR Foundation, the United Nations’10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP), and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF16S11600) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency, Japan. The details of the quantitative methodologies and results are available as a technical report (IGES et al. 2019 ). The authors are grateful to all the partners and reviewers that have contributed to the 1.5-Degree Lifestyles project. The authors declare no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript.

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Koide, R., Lettenmeier, M., Akenji, L. et al. Lifestyle carbon footprints and changes in lifestyles to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, and ways forward for related research. Sustain Sci 16 , 2087–2099 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-01018-6

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Climate Change Essay

500+ words essay on climate change.

Climate change is a major global challenge today, and the world is becoming more vulnerable to this change. Climate change refers to the changes in Earth’s climate condition. It describes the changes in the atmosphere which have taken place over a period ranging from decades to millions of years. A recent report from the United Nations predicted that the average global temperature could increase by 6˚ Celsius at the end of the century. Climate change has an adverse effect on the environment and ecosystem. With the help of this essay, students will get to know the causes and effects of climate change and possible solutions. Also, they will be able to write essays on similar topics and can boost their writing skills.

What Causes Climate Change?

The Earth’s climate has always changed and evolved. Some of these changes have been due to natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires etc., but quite a few of them are due to human activities. Human activities such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, farming livestock etc., generate an enormous amount of greenhouse gases. This results in the greenhouse effect and global warming which are the major causes of climate change.

Effects of Climate Change

If the current situation of climate change continues in a similar manner, then it will impact all forms of life on the earth. The earth’s temperature will rise, the monsoon patterns will change, sea levels will rise, and storms, volcanic eruptions and natural disasters will occur frequently. The biological and ecological balance of the earth will get disturbed. The environment will get polluted and humans will not be able to get fresh air to breathe and fresh water to drink. Life on earth will come to an end.

Steps to be Taken to Reduce Climate Change

The Government of India has taken many measures to improve the dire situation of Climate Change. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the nodal agency for climate change issues in India. It has initiated several climate-friendly measures, particularly in the area of renewable energy. India took several steps and policy initiatives to create awareness about climate change and help capacity building for adaptation measures. It has initiated a “Green India” programme under which various trees are planted to make the forest land more green and fertile.

We need to follow the path of sustainable development to effectively address the concerns of climate change. We need to minimise the use of fossil fuels, which is the major cause of global warming. We must adopt alternative sources of energy, such as hydropower, solar and wind energy to make a progressive transition to clean energy. Mahatma Gandhi said that “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed”. With this view, we must remodel our outlook and achieve the goal of sustainable development. By adopting clean technologies, equitable distribution of resources and addressing the issues of equity and justice, we can make our developmental process more harmonious with nature.

We hope students liked this essay on Climate Change and gathered useful information on this topic so that they can write essays in their own words. To get more study material related to the CBSE, ICSE, State Board and Competitive exams, keep visiting the BYJU’S website.

Frequently Asked Questions on climate change Essay

What are the reasons for climate change.

1. Deforestation 2. Excessive usage of fossil fuels 3. Water, Soil pollution 4. Plastic and other non-biodegradable waste 5. Wildlife and nature extinction

How can we save this climate change situation?

1. Avoid over usage of natural resources 2. Do not use or buy items made from animals 3. Avoid plastic usage and pollution

Are there any natural causes for climate change?

Yes, some of the natural causes for climate change are: 1. Solar variations 2. Volcanic eruption and tsunamis 3. Earth’s orbital changes

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Climate Change Impacts

Explore the impacts of climate change with our effects of climate change essay. Learn more about climate change causes, effects, and solutions with the help of our sample. Keep reading to gain inspiration for your essay on climate change and its impact.

Effects of Climate Change: Essay Conclusion

Climate change, climate change impacts, managing climate change, effects of climate change: essay introduction.

It is doubtless that global change has become one the challenges, which encompasses a wide range of human life, including social and economical aspects of human life. Research has indicated that climate change will continue affecting the world as long as proper measures are not taken to protect the environment.

In this line of thought, human activities have been widely blamed for escalating effects of climate change around the world (Hillel & Rosenzweig 2010). Only time will tell whether taming climate change is possible or not.

In this regard, this assessment covers the impact of climate change in our lives today even as world leaders burn midnight oil to develop strategies, aimed at taming the scourge. This proposal topic has an array of benefits, especially in understanding the fatal nature of climate change.

It will mainly focus on the effects of climate change and make proposals on how to counteract the effects of climate together some of the preventive measures being considered by international leaders.

Through literature review, this project will compare different views as argued by different authors in order to synthesize the issue with varying view points. This will be crucial in capturing the main objective of the projects, which revolves around the analysis of the effects of climate change in the world today.

How is climate change defined? Although different environmental experts tend to have different definitions, the Australian Government defines climate change as the weather pattern observed for several years. These changes are mainly caused by human activities, which negatively impact the environment.

With reference to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in the year 2007, climate change is no longer a myth, but a reality, whose impact has continually escalated from 1950s, mainly due to rising levels of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

This implies that human activities have significantly contributed this environmental scourge, which continues to affect most parts of the world. The IPCC report was a representation of the world view on climate change, collected from various scientific journals published around the world (Australian Government 2012).

The Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency affirms that there is enough evidence to support the fact that the climate system of the earth has continuously been warming. Some of the observations made include the rising level of air in the world and high ocean temperatures. Others are the rising sea level, constant melting of snow and ice in most parts of the world.

One important fact to note about climate change is that it involves the rising temperatures of the climate system holistically, including all the oceans, atmosphere and the cryosphere. These findings concluded that the climate system is in a heating mode.

Even as we review other people’s work, it is important to note that climate change is more than mere global warming as perceived by most people. From scientific revelation, the climate will be varied broadly especially if the warming continues uncontrollably (Australian Government 2012). As a result, the world is likely to experience irregular rainfall patterns, occurrence of severe climatic events like heavy currents and droughts among others.

The impact of climate change has been felt in every part of the world. According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Asia, Africa and Latin America are among the regions of the world, which have severely been affected by the scourge. In a 2010 survey carried out by Climate Change Secretariat, Africa is under the pressure of climate change and remains vulnerable to these effects.

Unlike most parts of the world, Africa experiences varying climatic changes. Common occurrences in Africa are severe droughts and floods, which have had negative implications on the continent’s economy (UNFCCC 2010).

The two events are widely known to predispose famine and overall interference with the socio-well being of the society. According to the UNFCCC’s analysis, close to a third of Africa’s population inhabit drought-prone regions, while more than two million remain vulnerable to drought every year (UNFCCC 2010).

In understanding the implication of climate change in Africa, the survey found out that the issue of climate change is intertwined with several factors, which contribute to its escalation across the continent.

Some of these factors include poverty, weak institutions, illiteracy, lack of information and technology, limited infrastructure, poor accessibility to resources, poor management and conflicts. In addition, there is widespread exploitation of land, which remains a major threat to the climate.

Due to pressure on farming land, most farmers exert pressure through over-cultivation and deforestation. In addition, other factors like dunes and storms continue posing more negative threats to the environment and human beings (UNFCCC 2010).

As a result of these events, the continent experiences drought and overall scarcity of water. Due to this emerging trend, Africa is likely to face shortage of rainfall and overall scarcity of water. With Africa having several trans-boundary river basins, the continent is likely to experience conflicts over these basins. Another important aspect captured in the report is agriculture (UNFCCC 2010).

Since most subsistence farmers in Africa depend on rainfall and irrigation, the sector has been affected by insufficient supply in most Sub-Saharan regions. Besides this, UNFCCC notes that climate change has resulted into loss of agricultural land and a drop in subsistence crop production. With a good percentage of the population under the threat of starvation, climate change has undoubtedly led to escalation of insufficient food supply.

It is amazing to note that climate change has also contributed to the spread of some diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhea in most parts of Africa. As stated by the UNFCCC, there has been a shift in the distribution of disease vectors.

For instance, migration of mosquitoes to regions of higher altitude is likely to expose people in such regions to the risk of contracting malaria (UNFCCC 2010). Additionally, climate change is likely to result into negative impact on African ecosystems and habitats, which are already threatened by these changes. Due to reduced habitat and changing climatic conditions some species are likely to move to more tolerable regions.

In this line of though Robert Watson, Marufu Zinyowera and Richard Moss found out that climate change can have severe effects on human health. In a research carried out in 1998, the three reiterated that human health may be affected as a result of heat-stress mortality, urban air pollution and vector-borne diseases, which could be favored as a result of change in temperature or rainfall in a given ecosystem (Watson, Zinyowera & Moss 1998, p. 7).

Additionally, Watson, Zinyowera and Moss argued that these effects are commonly felt in developing countries, where lives are lost, communities affected and the cost in medical care rises due to high prevalence of some health complications.

With regard to the impact of climate change on biodiversity, Watson, Zinyowera and Moss, agree with UNFCCC’s findings. In their 1998 survey, the three argued that all ecosystems play a fundamental role in the society (Watson, Zinyowera & Moss 1998).

For instance, they are a source of goods and services to any society. In particular, these goods and services include provision of food, processing and storage of carbon and other nutrients, assimilation of wastes and provision of recreation and tourism opportunities among others.

As a result, they argued that climatic changes are known to alter the geographical local of various ecological systems, including the presence of certain species and their ability to remain productive to support the society. According to their findings, ecological systems are essentially dynamic and are commonly affected by climatic variations of whichever magnitude.

Nevertheless, the extreme to which the climate varies determines the changes, which occur in the ecosystem. In addition, the three authors noted the high level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was a major contributing factor towards climate changes taking place in the world today (Watson, Zinyowera & Moss 1998).

Besides influencing the ecosystems, Watson, Zinyowera and Moss noted that climate change may also have secondary effects, say, variations in soil characteristics and interference of regimes. These include diseases, pests and diseases, which are likely to support the existence of some species favorably than others (Watson, Zinyowera & Moss 1998).

This will automatically affect the survival of some species and the overall population of organisms. Similarly, they argued that that climate change has direct impact on food production in most parts of the world. According to the 1998 survey, the type of agricultural systems in place determines the manner in which crop productivity is affected by changes in climatic conditions and patterns.

Like many other scholars, Barrie Pittock spent his life studying the environment and how it is affected by changes in climate. In his 2009, survey, Climate Change: The Science, Impacts and Solutions , Pittock outlined several reasons why there is cause for alarm, regarding climate change in the world today.

According to Pittock, the UNFCCC seeks to reduce the impact of climate change by being on the frontline in the war against global warming (Pittock 2009, p. 107). He further noted that human-induced climate change is a major security threat in the world today. This stance is mainly backed by the well-known effects of climate change described by the UNFCCC and the IPCC.

Moreover, Pittock reiterated that climate change has complex effects in the world today, citing a number of examples. In cases where there is high rainfall resulting from climate change, the world may experience direct or indirect implications.

This could be seen through high or low crop yield, depending on the type of soil or crop. On the other hand, indirect effects may refer to changes in demand and supply, emanating from either low or high yield, depending on other factors. He therefore agreed with several authors and researchers who have enumerated implications of climate change on the environment and human life at large.

For example, Pittock noted that climate change has been a major cause of water shortages in most parts of the world (Pittock 2009, p. 108). He however attributed this to a number of factors, including precipitation decrease in some regions, high rates of evaporation in the world and general loss of glaciers.

Economically, Pittock noted that climate change affects the economic progress of a nation since resources may be diverted to disease control instead of advancing developing projects.

Moreover, it is important to note that most of the countries, which suffer severely as a result of climate change, are poor nations that lack stable economic muscles. As a result, there is a likelihood of richer countries becoming stronger as developing economies weaken further. Lastly, Pittock noted that some of the threats emanating from climate change cause irreversible damages, which end up haunting human beings forever (Pittock 2009, p. 109).

With reference to a number of scholars who have done research on the impact of climate change, it is evident that human activities have a role in the escalation of these effects. In his 2010 survey, Martin Kernan noted that there is a relation between human activities and global warming.

As a result of this global relationship, the world has registered an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this survey, he noted that the increase in green house gases is rampant in the northern hemisphere than any other part of the world.

As a result of high temperatures, Martin underscore that the changes have impact on the composition of natural ecosystems, regarding species population and their ability to survive (Kernan 2010, p. 15). What is most evident in Martin’s research is his comparison of the current state of the climate, to what was known hundreds of years ago.

Climate change also affects the quality of water in the United States. According to a research carried out by Robert Mendelsohn and James Neumann, water plays an important role in the life of a human being. Some of these functions include but not limited to power generation, food production, recreation and ecological processes (Mendelsohn & Mendelsohn 2004, p. 133).

However, this is only possible if the water is available and of good quality. Thus, changes in spatial distribution and quality can have direct social and economic effects on the society.

This alteration may occur as a result of increased concentration in greenhouse gases. Climate change can be detected by observing variation in temperatures, frequent and intense droughts and altered precipitation patterns among other factors (Mendelsohn & Mendelsohn 2004, p. 133).

The findings on the impact of climate change on the quality of water have also been pursued by Jan Dam, who argued that natural systems are usually sensitive to changes in climate variation. Hydrological quality is mainly affected by the temperature or concentration of water (Dam 2003, p. 95).

When oceans and other water bodies overheat because of high temperatures, this may result into negative impact on aquatic animals, which adapt to certain hydrological temperatures. Similarly, the quality of water is always altered when gases like carbon dioxide are dissolved in water basins. This may affect the mix of species present in a given ecosystem.

Based on the impact of climate change, it is doubtless that management of the risks has to be effected promptly before they become fatal and irreversible. One of the ways of controlling climate change is through reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

This can be achieved through several ways, which minimize the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (McCarthy 2001, p. 222). According to James McCarthy, this can be realized by adopting alternative sources of energy unlike how most economies rely of oil and petroleum products as the main source of energy. Additionally, good methods of farming are important to maintain the value of the environment for sustainable support.

Use of international legislations is also necessary in ensuring that rich countries do not exploit developing nations as they are major contributors of effluents into the atmosphere (Hillel & Rosenzweig 2010). Above all, the fight against climate change calls for environmental campaign, which requires the efforts of everybody in the world.

From the above review of literature, it is clear that climate change is a major socio and environmental issue affecting the world today. Mainly caused by human activities, climate change poses a chain of challenges and threats to the environment.

For instance, there are several diseases, which affect human beings as a result of climate change (Rosenberg & Edmonds 2005). Of importance is also the alteration of the quality of the natural environment, which affects biodiversity. This has led to the extinction of some species, while others have increased exponentially in numbers.

Moreover, it is imperative to note that some of the occurrences, which are considered to be natural, are caused by climate change. Common ones include floods and draughts (Faure, Gupta & Nentjes 2003, p. 340).

Most of these calamities continue to be recognized as natural disasters yet they can be controlled using simple mitigation measures. In most cases, adoption of renewable sources of energy has always been considered to be the most important way of saving the world from climate change. Although it is a complex issue to handle, joint global efforts are important in making progress.

Australian Government 2012, Impacts of climate change .

Dam, J 2003, Impacts of Climate Change and Climate Variability on Hydrological Regimes , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

Faure, M, Gupta, J & Nentjes, A 2003, Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol: The Role of Institutions and Instruments to Control Global Change , Edward Elgar Publishing, United Kingdom.

Hillel, D & Rosenzweig, C 2010, Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems: Impacts, Adaptation, and Mitigation , World Scientific, Singapore.

Kernan, M 2010, Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Ecosystems , John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.

Mendelsohn, R & Neumann, J 2004, The Impact Of Climate Change On The United States Economy , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

Pittock, B 2009, Climate Change: The Science, Impacts and Solutions , Csiro Publishing, Sydney.

Rosenberg, N, & Edmonds, J 2005, Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment , Springer, New York.

UNFCCC 2010, Climate Change: Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Adaptation In Developing Countries.

Watson, R, Zinyowera, M & Moss, R 1998, The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

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Essay on Climate Change

Climate Change Essay - The globe is growing increasingly sensitive to climate change. It is currently a serious worldwide concern. The term "Climate Change" describes changes to the earth's climate. It explains the atmospheric changes that have occurred across time, spanning from decades to millions of years. Here are some sample essays on climate change.

100 Words Essay on Climate Change

200 words essay on climate change, 500 words essay on climate change.

The climatic conditions on Earth are changing due to climate change. Several internal and external variables, such as solar radiation, variations in the Earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, etc., are to blame for this.

There are strategies for climate change reduction. If not implemented, the weather might get worse, there might be water scarcity, there could be lower agricultural output, and it might affect people's ability to make a living. In order to breathe clean air and drink pure water, you must concentrate on limiting human activity. These are the simple measures that may be taken to safeguard the environment and its resources.

The climate of the Earth has changed significantly over time. While some of these changes were brought on by natural events like volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, etc., many of the changes were brought on by human activity. The burning of fossil fuels, domesticating livestock, and other human activities produce a significant quantity of greenhouse gases. This results in an increase of greenhouse effect and global warming which are the major causes for climate change.

Reasons of Climate Change

Some of the reasons of climate change are:

Deforestation

Excessive use of fossil fuels

Water and soil pollution

Plastic and other non biodegradable waste

Wildlife and nature extinction

Consequences of Climate Change

All kinds of life on earth will be affected by climate change if it continues to change at the same pace. The earth's temperature will increase, the monsoon patterns will shift, the sea level will rise, and there will be more frequent storms, volcano eruptions, and other natural calamities. The earth's biological and ecological equilibrium will be disturbed. Humans won't be able to access clean water or air to breathe when the environment becomes contaminated. The end of life on this earth is imminent. To reduce the issue of climate change, we need to bring social awareness along with strict measures to protect and preserve the natural environment.

A shift in the world's climatic pattern is referred to as climate change. Over the centuries, the climate pattern of our planet has undergone modifications. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has significantly grown.

When Did Climate Change Begin

It is possible to see signs of climate change as early as the beginning of the industrial revolution. The pace at which the manufacturers produced things on a large scale required a significant amount of raw materials. Since the raw materials being transformed into finished products now have such huge potential for profit, these business models have spread quickly over the world. Hazardous substances and chemicals build up in the environment as a result of company emissions and waste disposal.

Although climate change is a natural occurrence, it is evident that human activity is turning into the primary cause of the current climate change situation. The major cause is the growing population. Natural resources are utilised more and more as a result of the population's fast growth placing a heavy burden on the available resources. Over time, as more and more products and services are created, pollution will eventually increase.

Causes of Climate Change

There are a number of factors that have contributed towards weather change in the past and continue to do so. Let us look at a few:

Solar Radiation |The climate of earth is determined by how quickly the sun's energy is absorbed and distributed throughout space. This energy is transmitted throughout the world by the winds, ocean currents etc which affects the climatic conditions of the world. Changes in solar intensity have an effect on the world's climate.

Deforestation | The atmosphere's carbon dioxide is stored by trees. As a result of their destruction, carbon dioxide builds up more quickly since there are no trees to absorb it. Additionally, trees release the carbon they stored when we burn them.

Agriculture | Many kinds of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere by growing crops and raising livestock. Animals, for instance, create methane, a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The nitrous oxide used in fertilisers is roughly 300 times more strong than carbon dioxide.

How to Prevent Climate Change

We need to look out for drastic steps to stop climate change since it is affecting the resources and life on our planet. We can stop climate change if the right solutions are put in place. Here are some strategies for reducing climate change:

Raising public awareness of climate change

Prohibiting tree-cutting and deforestation.

Ensure the surroundings are clean.

Refrain from using chemical fertilisers.

Water and other natural resource waste should be reduced.

Protect the animals and plants.

Purchase energy-efficient goods and equipment.

Increase the number of trees in the neighbourhood and its surroundings.

Follow the law and safeguard the environment's resources.

Reduce the amount of energy you use.

During the last few decades especially, climate change has grown to be of concern. Global concern has been raised over changes in the Earth's climatic pattern. The causes of climate change are numerous, as well as the effects of it and it is our responsibility as inhabitants of this planet to look after its well being and leave it in a better condition for future generations.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

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Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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• Published: 17 April 2024

The economic commitment of climate change

• Maximilian Kotz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2564-5043 1 , 2 ,
• Anders Levermann   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4432-4704 1 , 2 &
• Leonie Wenz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8500-1568 1 , 3  

Nature volume  628 ,  pages 551–557 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Environmental economics
• Environmental health
• Interdisciplinary studies
• Projection and prediction

Global projections of macroeconomic climate-change damages typically consider impacts from average annual and national temperatures over long time horizons 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 . Here we use recent empirical findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes 7 , 8 . Using an empirical approach that provides a robust lower bound on the persistence of impacts on economic growth, we find that the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices (relative to a baseline without climate impacts, likely range of 11–29% accounting for physical climate and empirical uncertainty). These damages already outweigh the mitigation costs required to limit global warming to 2 °C by sixfold over this near-term time frame and thereafter diverge strongly dependent on emission choices. Committed damages arise predominantly through changes in average temperature, but accounting for further climatic components raises estimates by approximately 50% and leads to stronger regional heterogeneity. Committed losses are projected for all regions except those at very high latitudes, at which reductions in temperature variability bring benefits. The largest losses are committed at lower latitudes in regions with lower cumulative historical emissions and lower present-day income.

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Climate damage projections beyond annual temperature

Investment incentive reduced by climate damages can be restored by optimal policy

Climate economics support for the UN climate targets

Projections of the macroeconomic damage caused by future climate change are crucial to informing public and policy debates about adaptation, mitigation and climate justice. On the one hand, adaptation against climate impacts must be justified and planned on the basis of an understanding of their future magnitude and spatial distribution 9 . This is also of importance in the context of climate justice 10 , as well as to key societal actors, including governments, central banks and private businesses, which increasingly require the inclusion of climate risks in their macroeconomic forecasts to aid adaptive decision-making 11 , 12 . On the other hand, climate mitigation policy such as the Paris Climate Agreement is often evaluated by balancing the costs of its implementation against the benefits of avoiding projected physical damages. This evaluation occurs both formally through cost–benefit analyses 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 , as well as informally through public perception of mitigation and damage costs 13 .

Projections of future damages meet challenges when informing these debates, in particular the human biases relating to uncertainty and remoteness that are raised by long-term perspectives 14 . Here we aim to overcome such challenges by assessing the extent of economic damages from climate change to which the world is already committed by historical emissions and socio-economic inertia (the range of future emission scenarios that are considered socio-economically plausible 15 ). Such a focus on the near term limits the large uncertainties about diverging future emission trajectories, the resulting long-term climate response and the validity of applying historically observed climate–economic relations over long timescales during which socio-technical conditions may change considerably. As such, this focus aims to simplify the communication and maximize the credibility of projected economic damages from future climate change.

In projecting the future economic damages from climate change, we make use of recent advances in climate econometrics that provide evidence for impacts on sub-national economic growth from numerous components of the distribution of daily temperature and precipitation 3 , 7 , 8 . Using fixed-effects panel regression models to control for potential confounders, these studies exploit within-region variation in local temperature and precipitation in a panel of more than 1,600 regions worldwide, comprising climate and income data over the past 40 years, to identify the plausibly causal effects of changes in several climate variables on economic productivity 16 , 17 . Specifically, macroeconomic impacts have been identified from changing daily temperature variability, total annual precipitation, the annual number of wet days and extreme daily rainfall that occur in addition to those already identified from changing average temperature 2 , 3 , 18 . Moreover, regional heterogeneity in these effects based on the prevailing local climatic conditions has been found using interactions terms. The selection of these climate variables follows micro-level evidence for mechanisms related to the impacts of average temperatures on labour and agricultural productivity 2 , of temperature variability on agricultural productivity and health 7 , as well as of precipitation on agricultural productivity, labour outcomes and flood damages 8 (see Extended Data Table 1 for an overview, including more detailed references). References  7 , 8 contain a more detailed motivation for the use of these particular climate variables and provide extensive empirical tests about the robustness and nature of their effects on economic output, which are summarized in Methods . By accounting for these extra climatic variables at the sub-national level, we aim for a more comprehensive description of climate impacts with greater detail across both time and space.

Constraining the persistence of impacts

A key determinant and source of discrepancy in estimates of the magnitude of future climate damages is the extent to which the impact of a climate variable on economic growth rates persists. The two extreme cases in which these impacts persist indefinitely or only instantaneously are commonly referred to as growth or level effects 19 , 20 (see Methods section ‘Empirical model specification: fixed-effects distributed lag models’ for mathematical definitions). Recent work shows that future damages from climate change depend strongly on whether growth or level effects are assumed 20 . Following refs.  2 , 18 , we provide constraints on this persistence by using distributed lag models to test the significance of delayed effects separately for each climate variable. Notably, and in contrast to refs.  2 , 18 , we use climate variables in their first-differenced form following ref.  3 , implying a dependence of the growth rate on a change in climate variables. This choice means that a baseline specification without any lags constitutes a model prior of purely level effects, in which a permanent change in the climate has only an instantaneous effect on the growth rate 3 , 19 , 21 . By including lags, one can then test whether any effects may persist further. This is in contrast to the specification used by refs.  2 , 18 , in which climate variables are used without taking the first difference, implying a dependence of the growth rate on the level of climate variables. In this alternative case, the baseline specification without any lags constitutes a model prior of pure growth effects, in which a change in climate has an infinitely persistent effect on the growth rate. Consequently, including further lags in this alternative case tests whether the initial growth impact is recovered 18 , 19 , 21 . Both of these specifications suffer from the limiting possibility that, if too few lags are included, one might falsely accept the model prior. The limitations of including a very large number of lags, including loss of data and increasing statistical uncertainty with an increasing number of parameters, mean that such a possibility is likely. By choosing a specification in which the model prior is one of level effects, our approach is therefore conservative by design, avoiding assumptions of infinite persistence of climate impacts on growth and instead providing a lower bound on this persistence based on what is observable empirically (see Methods section ‘Empirical model specification: fixed-effects distributed lag models’ for further exposition of this framework). The conservative nature of such a choice is probably the reason that ref.  19 finds much greater consistency between the impacts projected by models that use the first difference of climate variables, as opposed to their levels.

We begin our empirical analysis of the persistence of climate impacts on growth using ten lags of the first-differenced climate variables in fixed-effects distributed lag models. We detect substantial effects on economic growth at time lags of up to approximately 8–10 years for the temperature terms and up to approximately 4 years for the precipitation terms (Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 2 ). Furthermore, evaluation by means of information criteria indicates that the inclusion of all five climate variables and the use of these numbers of lags provide a preferable trade-off between best-fitting the data and including further terms that could cause overfitting, in comparison with model specifications excluding climate variables or including more or fewer lags (Extended Data Fig. 3 , Supplementary Methods Section  1 and Supplementary Table 1 ). We therefore remove statistically insignificant terms at later lags (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 and Supplementary Tables 2 – 4 ). Further tests using Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the empirical models are robust to autocorrelation in the lagged climate variables (Supplementary Methods Section  2 and Supplementary Figs. 4 and 5 ), that information criteria provide an effective indicator for lag selection (Supplementary Methods Section  2 and Supplementary Fig. 6 ), that the results are robust to concerns of imperfect multicollinearity between climate variables and that including several climate variables is actually necessary to isolate their separate effects (Supplementary Methods Section  3 and Supplementary Fig. 7 ). We provide a further robustness check using a restricted distributed lag model to limit oscillations in the lagged parameter estimates that may result from autocorrelation, finding that it provides similar estimates of cumulative marginal effects to the unrestricted model (Supplementary Methods Section 4 and Supplementary Figs. 8 and 9 ). Finally, to explicitly account for any outstanding uncertainty arising from the precise choice of the number of lags, we include empirical models with marginally different numbers of lags in the error-sampling procedure of our projection of future damages. On the basis of the lag-selection procedure (the significance of lagged terms in Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 2 , as well as information criteria in Extended Data Fig. 3 ), we sample from models with eight to ten lags for temperature and four for precipitation (models shown in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 and Supplementary Tables 2 – 4 ). In summary, this empirical approach to constrain the persistence of climate impacts on economic growth rates is conservative by design in avoiding assumptions of infinite persistence, but nevertheless provides a lower bound on the extent of impact persistence that is robust to the numerous tests outlined above.

Committed damages until mid-century

We combine these empirical economic response functions (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 and Supplementary Tables 2 – 4 ) with an ensemble of 21 climate models (see Supplementary Table 5 ) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP-6) 22 to project the macroeconomic damages from these components of physical climate change (see Methods for further details). Bias-adjusted climate models that provide a highly accurate reproduction of observed climatological patterns with limited uncertainty (Supplementary Table 6 ) are used to avoid introducing biases in the projections. Following a well-developed literature 2 , 3 , 19 , these projections do not aim to provide a prediction of future economic growth. Instead, they are a projection of the exogenous impact of future climate conditions on the economy relative to the baselines specified by socio-economic projections, based on the plausibly causal relationships inferred by the empirical models and assuming ceteris paribus. Other exogenous factors relevant for the prediction of economic output are purposefully assumed constant.

A Monte Carlo procedure that samples from climate model projections, empirical models with different numbers of lags and model parameter estimates (obtained by 1,000 block-bootstrap resamples of each of the regressions in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 and Supplementary Tables 2 – 4 ) is used to estimate the combined uncertainty from these sources. Given these uncertainty distributions, we find that projected global damages are statistically indistinguishable across the two most extreme emission scenarios until 2049 (at the 5% significance level; Fig. 1 ). As such, the climate damages occurring before this time constitute those to which the world is already committed owing to the combination of past emissions and the range of future emission scenarios that are considered socio-economically plausible 15 . These committed damages comprise a permanent income reduction of 19% on average globally (population-weighted average) in comparison with a baseline without climate-change impacts (with a likely range of 11–29%, following the likelihood classification adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); see caption of Fig. 1 ). Even though levels of income per capita generally still increase relative to those of today, this constitutes a permanent income reduction for most regions, including North America and Europe (each with median income reductions of approximately 11%) and with South Asia and Africa being the most strongly affected (each with median income reductions of approximately 22%; Fig. 1 ). Under a middle-of-the road scenario of future income development (SSP2, in which SSP stands for Shared Socio-economic Pathway), this corresponds to global annual damages in 2049 of 38 trillion in 2005 international dollars (likely range of 19–59 trillion 2005 international dollars). Compared with empirical specifications that assume pure growth or pure level effects, our preferred specification that provides a robust lower bound on the extent of climate impact persistence produces damages between these two extreme assumptions (Extended Data Fig. 3 ).

Estimates of the projected reduction in income per capita from changes in all climate variables based on empirical models of climate impacts on economic output with a robust lower bound on their persistence (Extended Data Fig. 1 ) under a low-emission scenario compatible with the 2 °C warming target and a high-emission scenario (SSP2-RCP2.6 and SSP5-RCP8.5, respectively) are shown in purple and orange, respectively. Shading represents the 34% and 10% confidence intervals reflecting the likely and very likely ranges, respectively (following the likelihood classification adopted by the IPCC), having estimated uncertainty from a Monte Carlo procedure, which samples the uncertainty from the choice of physical climate models, empirical models with different numbers of lags and bootstrapped estimates of the regression parameters shown in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 . Vertical dashed lines show the time at which the climate damages of the two emission scenarios diverge at the 5% and 1% significance levels based on the distribution of differences between emission scenarios arising from the uncertainty sampling discussed above. Note that uncertainty in the difference of the two scenarios is smaller than the combined uncertainty of the two respective scenarios because samples of the uncertainty (climate model and empirical model choice, as well as model parameter bootstrap) are consistent across the two emission scenarios, hence the divergence of damages occurs while the uncertainty bounds of the two separate damage scenarios still overlap. Estimates of global mitigation costs from the three IAMs that provide results for the SSP2 baseline and SSP2-RCP2.6 scenario are shown in light green in the top panel, with the median of these estimates shown in bold.

Damages already outweigh mitigation costs

We compare the damages to which the world is committed over the next 25 years to estimates of the mitigation costs required to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement. Taking estimates of mitigation costs from the three integrated assessment models (IAMs) in the IPCC AR6 database 23 that provide results under comparable scenarios (SSP2 baseline and SSP2-RCP2.6, in which RCP stands for Representative Concentration Pathway), we find that the median committed climate damages are larger than the median mitigation costs in 2050 (six trillion in 2005 international dollars) by a factor of approximately six (note that estimates of mitigation costs are only provided every 10 years by the IAMs and so a comparison in 2049 is not possible). This comparison simply aims to compare the magnitude of future damages against mitigation costs, rather than to conduct a formal cost–benefit analysis of transitioning from one emission path to another. Formal cost–benefit analyses typically find that the net benefits of mitigation only emerge after 2050 (ref.  5 ), which may lead some to conclude that physical damages from climate change are simply not large enough to outweigh mitigation costs until the second half of the century. Our simple comparison of their magnitudes makes clear that damages are actually already considerably larger than mitigation costs and the delayed emergence of net mitigation benefits results primarily from the fact that damages across different emission paths are indistinguishable until mid-century (Fig. 1 ).

Although these near-term damages constitute those to which the world is already committed, we note that damage estimates diverge strongly across emission scenarios after 2049, conveying the clear benefits of mitigation from a purely economic point of view that have been emphasized in previous studies 4 , 24 . As well as the uncertainties assessed in Fig. 1 , these conclusions are robust to structural choices, such as the timescale with which changes in the moderating variables of the empirical models are estimated (Supplementary Figs. 10 and 11 ), as well as the order in which one accounts for the intertemporal and international components of currency comparison (Supplementary Fig. 12 ; see Methods for further details).

Damages from variability and extremes

Committed damages primarily arise through changes in average temperature (Fig. 2 ). This reflects the fact that projected changes in average temperature are larger than those in other climate variables when expressed as a function of their historical interannual variability (Extended Data Fig. 4 ). Because the historical variability is that on which the empirical models are estimated, larger projected changes in comparison with this variability probably lead to larger future impacts in a purely statistical sense. From a mechanistic perspective, one may plausibly interpret this result as implying that future changes in average temperature are the most unprecedented from the perspective of the historical fluctuations to which the economy is accustomed and therefore will cause the most damage. This insight may prove useful in terms of guiding adaptation measures to the sources of greatest damage.

Estimates of the median projected reduction in sub-national income per capita across emission scenarios (SSP2-RCP2.6 and SSP2-RCP8.5) as well as climate model, empirical model and model parameter uncertainty in the year in which climate damages diverge at the 5% level (2049, as identified in Fig. 1 ). a , Impacts arising from all climate variables. b – f , Impacts arising separately from changes in annual mean temperature ( b ), daily temperature variability ( c ), total annual precipitation ( d ), the annual number of wet days (>1 mm) ( e ) and extreme daily rainfall ( f ) (see Methods for further definitions). Data on national administrative boundaries are obtained from the GADM database version 3.6 and are freely available for academic use ( https://gadm.org/ ).

Nevertheless, future damages based on empirical models that consider changes in annual average temperature only and exclude the other climate variables constitute income reductions of only 13% in 2049 (Extended Data Fig. 5a , likely range 5–21%). This suggests that accounting for the other components of the distribution of temperature and precipitation raises net damages by nearly 50%. This increase arises through the further damages that these climatic components cause, but also because their inclusion reveals a stronger negative economic response to average temperatures (Extended Data Fig. 5b ). The latter finding is consistent with our Monte Carlo simulations, which suggest that the magnitude of the effect of average temperature on economic growth is underestimated unless accounting for the impacts of other correlated climate variables (Supplementary Fig. 7 ).

In terms of the relative contributions of the different climatic components to overall damages, we find that accounting for daily temperature variability causes the largest increase in overall damages relative to empirical frameworks that only consider changes in annual average temperature (4.9 percentage points, likely range 2.4–8.7 percentage points, equivalent to approximately 10 trillion international dollars). Accounting for precipitation causes smaller increases in overall damages, which are—nevertheless—equivalent to approximately 1.2 trillion international dollars: 0.01 percentage points (−0.37–0.33 percentage points), 0.34 percentage points (0.07–0.90 percentage points) and 0.36 percentage points (0.13–0.65 percentage points) from total annual precipitation, the number of wet days and extreme daily precipitation, respectively. Moreover, climate models seem to underestimate future changes in temperature variability 25 and extreme precipitation 26 , 27 in response to anthropogenic forcing as compared with that observed historically, suggesting that the true impacts from these variables may be larger.

The distribution of committed damages

The spatial distribution of committed damages (Fig. 2a ) reflects a complex interplay between the patterns of future change in several climatic components and those of historical economic vulnerability to changes in those variables. Damages resulting from increasing annual mean temperature (Fig. 2b ) are negative almost everywhere globally, and larger at lower latitudes in regions in which temperatures are already higher and economic vulnerability to temperature increases is greatest (see the response heterogeneity to mean temperature embodied in Extended Data Fig. 1a ). This occurs despite the amplified warming projected at higher latitudes 28 , suggesting that regional heterogeneity in economic vulnerability to temperature changes outweighs heterogeneity in the magnitude of future warming (Supplementary Fig. 13a ). Economic damages owing to daily temperature variability (Fig. 2c ) exhibit a strong latitudinal polarisation, primarily reflecting the physical response of daily variability to greenhouse forcing in which increases in variability across lower latitudes (and Europe) contrast decreases at high latitudes 25 (Supplementary Fig. 13b ). These two temperature terms are the dominant determinants of the pattern of overall damages (Fig. 2a ), which exhibits a strong polarity with damages across most of the globe except at the highest northern latitudes. Future changes in total annual precipitation mainly bring economic benefits except in regions of drying, such as the Mediterranean and central South America (Fig. 2d and Supplementary Fig. 13c ), but these benefits are opposed by changes in the number of wet days, which produce damages with a similar pattern of opposite sign (Fig. 2e and Supplementary Fig. 13d ). By contrast, changes in extreme daily rainfall produce damages in all regions, reflecting the intensification of daily rainfall extremes over global land areas 29 , 30 (Fig. 2f and Supplementary Fig. 13e ).

The spatial distribution of committed damages implies considerable injustice along two dimensions: culpability for the historical emissions that have caused climate change and pre-existing levels of socio-economic welfare. Spearman’s rank correlations indicate that committed damages are significantly larger in countries with smaller historical cumulative emissions, as well as in regions with lower current income per capita (Fig. 3 ). This implies that those countries that will suffer the most from the damages already committed are those that are least responsible for climate change and which also have the least resources to adapt to it.

Estimates of the median projected change in national income per capita across emission scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) as well as climate model, empirical model and model parameter uncertainty in the year in which climate damages diverge at the 5% level (2049, as identified in Fig. 1 ) are plotted against cumulative national emissions per capita in 2020 (from the Global Carbon Project) and coloured by national income per capita in 2020 (from the World Bank) in a and vice versa in b . In each panel, the size of each scatter point is weighted by the national population in 2020 (from the World Bank). Inset numbers indicate the Spearman’s rank correlation ρ and P -values for a hypothesis test whose null hypothesis is of no correlation, as well as the Spearman’s rank correlation weighted by national population.

To further quantify this heterogeneity, we assess the difference in committed damages between the upper and lower quartiles of regions when ranked by present income levels and historical cumulative emissions (using a population weighting to both define the quartiles and estimate the group averages). On average, the quartile of countries with lower income are committed to an income loss that is 8.9 percentage points (or 61%) greater than the upper quartile (Extended Data Fig. 6 ), with a likely range of 3.8–14.7 percentage points across the uncertainty sampling of our damage projections (following the likelihood classification adopted by the IPCC). Similarly, the quartile of countries with lower historical cumulative emissions are committed to an income loss that is 6.9 percentage points (or 40%) greater than the upper quartile, with a likely range of 0.27–12 percentage points. These patterns reemphasize the prevalence of injustice in climate impacts 31 , 32 , 33 in the context of the damages to which the world is already committed by historical emissions and socio-economic inertia.

Contextualizing the magnitude of damages

The magnitude of projected economic damages exceeds previous literature estimates 2 , 3 , arising from several developments made on previous approaches. Our estimates are larger than those of ref.  2 (see first row of Extended Data Table 3 ), primarily because of the facts that sub-national estimates typically show a steeper temperature response (see also refs.  3 , 34 ) and that accounting for other climatic components raises damage estimates (Extended Data Fig. 5 ). However, we note that our empirical approach using first-differenced climate variables is conservative compared with that of ref.  2 in regard to the persistence of climate impacts on growth (see introduction and Methods section ‘Empirical model specification: fixed-effects distributed lag models’), an important determinant of the magnitude of long-term damages 19 , 21 . Using a similar empirical specification to ref.  2 , which assumes infinite persistence while maintaining the rest of our approach (sub-national data and further climate variables), produces considerably larger damages (purple curve of Extended Data Fig. 3 ). Compared with studies that do take the first difference of climate variables 3 , 35 , our estimates are also larger (see second and third rows of Extended Data Table 3 ). The inclusion of further climate variables (Extended Data Fig. 5 ) and a sufficient number of lags to more adequately capture the extent of impact persistence (Extended Data Figs. 1 and 2 ) are the main sources of this difference, as is the use of specifications that capture nonlinearities in the temperature response when compared with ref.  35 . In summary, our estimates develop on previous studies by incorporating the latest data and empirical insights 7 , 8 , as well as in providing a robust empirical lower bound on the persistence of impacts on economic growth, which constitutes a middle ground between the extremes of the growth-versus-levels debate 19 , 21 (Extended Data Fig. 3 ).

Compared with the fraction of variance explained by the empirical models historically (<5%), the projection of reductions in income of 19% may seem large. This arises owing to the fact that projected changes in climatic conditions are much larger than those that were experienced historically, particularly for changes in average temperature (Extended Data Fig. 4 ). As such, any assessment of future climate-change impacts necessarily requires an extrapolation outside the range of the historical data on which the empirical impact models were evaluated. Nevertheless, these models constitute the most state-of-the-art methods for inference of plausibly causal climate impacts based on observed data. Moreover, we take explicit steps to limit out-of-sample extrapolation by capping the moderating variables of the interaction terms at the 95th percentile of the historical distribution (see Methods ). This avoids extrapolating the marginal effects outside what was observed historically. Given the nonlinear response of economic output to annual mean temperature (Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 2 ), this is a conservative choice that limits the magnitude of damages that we project. Furthermore, back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the projected damages are consistent with the magnitude and patterns of historical economic development (see Supplementary Discussion Section  5 ).

Missing impacts and spatial spillovers

Despite assessing several climatic components from which economic impacts have recently been identified 3 , 7 , 8 , this assessment of aggregate climate damages should not be considered comprehensive. Important channels such as impacts from heatwaves 31 , sea-level rise 36 , tropical cyclones 37 and tipping points 38 , 39 , as well as non-market damages such as those to ecosystems 40 and human health 41 , are not considered in these estimates. Sea-level rise is unlikely to be feasibly incorporated into empirical assessments such as this because historical sea-level variability is mostly small. Non-market damages are inherently intractable within our estimates of impacts on aggregate monetary output and estimates of these impacts could arguably be considered as extra to those identified here. Recent empirical work suggests that accounting for these channels would probably raise estimates of these committed damages, with larger damages continuing to arise in the global south 31 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 .

Moreover, our main empirical analysis does not explicitly evaluate the potential for impacts in local regions to produce effects that ‘spill over’ into other regions. Such effects may further mitigate or amplify the impacts we estimate, for example, if companies relocate production from one affected region to another or if impacts propagate along supply chains. The current literature indicates that trade plays a substantial role in propagating spillover effects 43 , 44 , making their assessment at the sub-national level challenging without available data on sub-national trade dependencies. Studies accounting for only spatially adjacent neighbours indicate that negative impacts in one region induce further negative impacts in neighbouring regions 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , suggesting that our projected damages are probably conservative by excluding these effects. In Supplementary Fig. 14 , we assess spillovers from neighbouring regions using a spatial-lag model. For simplicity, this analysis excludes temporal lags, focusing only on contemporaneous effects. The results show that accounting for spatial spillovers can amplify the overall magnitude, and also the heterogeneity, of impacts. Consistent with previous literature, this indicates that the overall magnitude (Fig. 1 ) and heterogeneity (Fig. 3 ) of damages that we project in our main specification may be conservative without explicitly accounting for spillovers. We note that further analysis that addresses both spatially and trade-connected spillovers, while also accounting for delayed impacts using temporal lags, would be necessary to adequately address this question fully. These approaches offer fruitful avenues for further research but are beyond the scope of this manuscript, which primarily aims to explore the impacts of different climate conditions and their persistence.

Policy implications

We find that the economic damages resulting from climate change until 2049 are those to which the world economy is already committed and that these greatly outweigh the costs required to mitigate emissions in line with the 2 °C target of the Paris Climate Agreement (Fig. 1 ). This assessment is complementary to formal analyses of the net costs and benefits associated with moving from one emission path to another, which typically find that net benefits of mitigation only emerge in the second half of the century 5 . Our simple comparison of the magnitude of damages and mitigation costs makes clear that this is primarily because damages are indistinguishable across emissions scenarios—that is, committed—until mid-century (Fig. 1 ) and that they are actually already much larger than mitigation costs. For simplicity, and owing to the availability of data, we compare damages to mitigation costs at the global level. Regional estimates of mitigation costs may shed further light on the national incentives for mitigation to which our results already hint, of relevance for international climate policy. Although these damages are committed from a mitigation perspective, adaptation may provide an opportunity to reduce them. Moreover, the strong divergence of damages after mid-century reemphasizes the clear benefits of mitigation from a purely economic perspective, as highlighted in previous studies 1 , 4 , 6 , 24 .

Historical climate data

Historical daily 2-m temperature and precipitation totals (in mm) are obtained for the period 1979–2019 from the W5E5 database. The W5E5 dataset comes from ERA-5, a state-of-the-art reanalysis of historical observations, but has been bias-adjusted by applying version 2.0 of the WATCH Forcing Data to ERA-5 reanalysis data and precipitation data from version 2.3 of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project to better reflect ground-based measurements 49 , 50 , 51 . We obtain these data on a 0.5° × 0.5° grid from the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) database. Notably, these historical data have been used to bias-adjust future climate projections from CMIP-6 (see the following section), ensuring consistency between the distribution of historical daily weather on which our empirical models were estimated and the climate projections used to estimate future damages. These data are publicly available from the ISIMIP database. See refs.  7 , 8 for robustness tests of the empirical models to the choice of climate data reanalysis products.

Future climate data

Daily 2-m temperature and precipitation totals (in mm) are taken from 21 climate models participating in CMIP-6 under a high (RCP8.5) and a low (RCP2.6) greenhouse gas emission scenario from 2015 to 2100. The data have been bias-adjusted and statistically downscaled to a common half-degree grid to reflect the historical distribution of daily temperature and precipitation of the W5E5 dataset using the trend-preserving method developed by the ISIMIP 50 , 52 . As such, the climate model data reproduce observed climatological patterns exceptionally well (Supplementary Table 5 ). Gridded data are publicly available from the ISIMIP database.

Historical economic data

Historical economic data come from the DOSE database of sub-national economic output 53 . We use a recent revision to the DOSE dataset that provides data across 83 countries, 1,660 sub-national regions with varying temporal coverage from 1960 to 2019. Sub-national units constitute the first administrative division below national, for example, states for the USA and provinces for China. Data come from measures of gross regional product per capita (GRPpc) or income per capita in local currencies, reflecting the values reported in national statistical agencies, yearbooks and, in some cases, academic literature. We follow previous literature 3 , 7 , 8 , 54 and assess real sub-national output per capita by first converting values from local currencies to US dollars to account for diverging national inflationary tendencies and then account for US inflation using a US deflator. Alternatively, one might first account for national inflation and then convert between currencies. Supplementary Fig. 12 demonstrates that our conclusions are consistent when accounting for price changes in the reversed order, although the magnitude of estimated damages varies. See the documentation of the DOSE dataset for further discussion of these choices. Conversions between currencies are conducted using exchange rates from the FRED database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 55 and the national deflators from the World Bank 56 .

Future socio-economic data

Baseline gridded gross domestic product (GDP) and population data for the period 2015–2100 are taken from the middle-of-the-road scenario SSP2 (ref.  15 ). Population data have been downscaled to a half-degree grid by the ISIMIP following the methodologies of refs.  57 , 58 , which we then aggregate to the sub-national level of our economic data using the spatial aggregation procedure described below. Because current methodologies for downscaling the GDP of the SSPs use downscaled population to do so, per-capita estimates of GDP with a realistic distribution at the sub-national level are not readily available for the SSPs. We therefore use national-level GDP per capita (GDPpc) projections for all sub-national regions of a given country, assuming homogeneity within countries in terms of baseline GDPpc. Here we use projections that have been updated to account for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trajectory of future income, while remaining consistent with the long-term development of the SSPs 59 . The choice of baseline SSP alters the magnitude of projected climate damages in monetary terms, but when assessed in terms of percentage change from the baseline, the choice of socio-economic scenario is inconsequential. Gridded SSP population data and national-level GDPpc data are publicly available from the ISIMIP database. Sub-national estimates as used in this study are available in the code and data replication files.

Climate variables

Following recent literature 3 , 7 , 8 , we calculate an array of climate variables for which substantial impacts on macroeconomic output have been identified empirically, supported by further evidence at the micro level for plausible underlying mechanisms. See refs.  7 , 8 for an extensive motivation for the use of these particular climate variables and for detailed empirical tests on the nature and robustness of their effects on economic output. To summarize, these studies have found evidence for independent impacts on economic growth rates from annual average temperature, daily temperature variability, total annual precipitation, the annual number of wet days and extreme daily rainfall. Assessments of daily temperature variability were motivated by evidence of impacts on agricultural output and human health, as well as macroeconomic literature on the impacts of volatility on growth when manifest in different dimensions, such as government spending, exchange rates and even output itself 7 . Assessments of precipitation impacts were motivated by evidence of impacts on agricultural productivity, metropolitan labour outcomes and conflict, as well as damages caused by flash flooding 8 . See Extended Data Table 1 for detailed references to empirical studies of these physical mechanisms. Marked impacts of daily temperature variability, total annual precipitation, the number of wet days and extreme daily rainfall on macroeconomic output were identified robustly across different climate datasets, spatial aggregation schemes, specifications of regional time trends and error-clustering approaches. They were also found to be robust to the consideration of temperature extremes 7 , 8 . Furthermore, these climate variables were identified as having independent effects on economic output 7 , 8 , which we further explain here using Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate the robustness of the results to concerns of imperfect multicollinearity between climate variables (Supplementary Methods Section  2 ), as well as by using information criteria (Supplementary Table 1 ) to demonstrate that including several lagged climate variables provides a preferable trade-off between optimally describing the data and limiting the possibility of overfitting.

We calculate these variables from the distribution of daily, d , temperature, T x , d , and precipitation, P x , d , at the grid-cell, x , level for both the historical and future climate data. As well as annual mean temperature, \({\bar{T}}_{x,y}\) , and annual total precipitation, P x , y , we calculate annual, y , measures of daily temperature variability, \({\widetilde{T}}_{x,y}\) :

the number of wet days, Pwd x , y :

and extreme daily rainfall:

in which T x , d , m , y is the grid-cell-specific daily temperature in month m and year y , \({\bar{T}}_{x,m,{y}}\) is the year and grid-cell-specific monthly, m , mean temperature, D m and D y the number of days in a given month m or year y , respectively, H the Heaviside step function, 1 mm the threshold used to define wet days and P 99.9 x is the 99.9th percentile of historical (1979–2019) daily precipitation at the grid-cell level. Units of the climate measures are degrees Celsius for annual mean temperature and daily temperature variability, millimetres for total annual precipitation and extreme daily precipitation, and simply the number of days for the annual number of wet days.

We also calculated weighted standard deviations of monthly rainfall totals as also used in ref.  8 but do not include them in our projections as we find that, when accounting for delayed effects, their effect becomes statistically indistinct and is better captured by changes in total annual rainfall.

Spatial aggregation

We aggregate grid-cell-level historical and future climate measures, as well as grid-cell-level future GDPpc and population, to the level of the first administrative unit below national level of the GADM database, using an area-weighting algorithm that estimates the portion of each grid cell falling within an administrative boundary. We use this as our baseline specification following previous findings that the effect of area or population weighting at the sub-national level is negligible 7 , 8 .

Empirical model specification: fixed-effects distributed lag models

Following a wide range of climate econometric literature 16 , 60 , we use panel regression models with a selection of fixed effects and time trends to isolate plausibly exogenous variation with which to maximize confidence in a causal interpretation of the effects of climate on economic growth rates. The use of region fixed effects, μ r , accounts for unobserved time-invariant differences between regions, such as prevailing climatic norms and growth rates owing to historical and geopolitical factors. The use of yearly fixed effects, η y , accounts for regionally invariant annual shocks to the global climate or economy such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation or global recessions. In our baseline specification, we also include region-specific linear time trends, k r y , to exclude the possibility of spurious correlations resulting from common slow-moving trends in climate and growth.

The persistence of climate impacts on economic growth rates is a key determinant of the long-term magnitude of damages. Methods for inferring the extent of persistence in impacts on growth rates have typically used lagged climate variables to evaluate the presence of delayed effects or catch-up dynamics 2 , 18 . For example, consider starting from a model in which a climate condition, C r , y , (for example, annual mean temperature) affects the growth rate, Δlgrp r , y (the first difference of the logarithm of gross regional product) of region r in year y :

which we refer to as a ‘pure growth effects’ model in the main text. Typically, further lags are included,

and the cumulative effect of all lagged terms is evaluated to assess the extent to which climate impacts on growth rates persist. Following ref.  18 , in the case that,

the implication is that impacts on the growth rate persist up to NL years after the initial shock (possibly to a weaker or a stronger extent), whereas if

then the initial impact on the growth rate is recovered after NL years and the effect is only one on the level of output. However, we note that such approaches are limited by the fact that, when including an insufficient number of lags to detect a recovery of the growth rates, one may find equation ( 6 ) to be satisfied and incorrectly assume that a change in climatic conditions affects the growth rate indefinitely. In practice, given a limited record of historical data, including too few lags to confidently conclude in an infinitely persistent impact on the growth rate is likely, particularly over the long timescales over which future climate damages are often projected 2 , 24 . To avoid this issue, we instead begin our analysis with a model for which the level of output, lgrp r , y , depends on the level of a climate variable, C r , y :

Given the non-stationarity of the level of output, we follow the literature 19 and estimate such an equation in first-differenced form as,

which we refer to as a model of ‘pure level effects’ in the main text. This model constitutes a baseline specification in which a permanent change in the climate variable produces an instantaneous impact on the growth rate and a permanent effect only on the level of output. By including lagged variables in this specification,

we are able to test whether the impacts on the growth rate persist any further than instantaneously by evaluating whether α L  > 0 are statistically significantly different from zero. Even though this framework is also limited by the possibility of including too few lags, the choice of a baseline model specification in which impacts on the growth rate do not persist means that, in the case of including too few lags, the framework reverts to the baseline specification of level effects. As such, this framework is conservative with respect to the persistence of impacts and the magnitude of future damages. It naturally avoids assumptions of infinite persistence and we are able to interpret any persistence that we identify with equation ( 9 ) as a lower bound on the extent of climate impact persistence on growth rates. See the main text for further discussion of this specification choice, in particular about its conservative nature compared with previous literature estimates, such as refs.  2 , 18 .

We allow the response to climatic changes to vary across regions, using interactions of the climate variables with historical average (1979–2019) climatic conditions reflecting heterogenous effects identified in previous work 7 , 8 . Following this previous work, the moderating variables of these interaction terms constitute the historical average of either the variable itself or of the seasonal temperature difference, \({\hat{T}}_{r}\) , or annual mean temperature, \({\bar{T}}_{r}\) , in the case of daily temperature variability 7 and extreme daily rainfall, respectively 8 .

The resulting regression equation with N and M lagged variables, respectively, reads:

in which Δlgrp r , y is the annual, regional GRPpc growth rate, measured as the first difference of the logarithm of real GRPpc, following previous work 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 18 , 19 . Fixed-effects regressions were run using the fixest package in R (ref.  61 ).

Estimates of the coefficients of interest α i , L are shown in Extended Data Fig. 1 for N  =  M  = 10 lags and for our preferred choice of the number of lags in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 . In Extended Data Fig. 1 , errors are shown clustered at the regional level, but for the construction of damage projections, we block-bootstrap the regressions by region 1,000 times to provide a range of parameter estimates with which to sample the projection uncertainty (following refs.  2 , 31 ).

Spatial-lag model

In Supplementary Fig. 14 , we present the results from a spatial-lag model that explores the potential for climate impacts to ‘spill over’ into spatially neighbouring regions. We measure the distance between centroids of each pair of sub-national regions and construct spatial lags that take the average of the first-differenced climate variables and their interaction terms over neighbouring regions that are at distances of 0–500, 500–1,000, 1,000–1,500 and 1,500–2000 km (spatial lags, ‘SL’, 1 to 4). For simplicity, we then assess a spatial-lag model without temporal lags to assess spatial spillovers of contemporaneous climate impacts. This model takes the form:

in which SL indicates the spatial lag of each climate variable and interaction term. In Supplementary Fig. 14 , we plot the cumulative marginal effect of each climate variable at different baseline climate conditions by summing the coefficients for each climate variable and interaction term, for example, for average temperature impacts as:

These cumulative marginal effects can be regarded as the overall spatially dependent impact to an individual region given a one-unit shock to a climate variable in that region and all neighbouring regions at a given value of the moderating variable of the interaction term.

Constructing projections of economic damage from future climate change

We construct projections of future climate damages by applying the coefficients estimated in equation ( 10 ) and shown in Supplementary Tables 2 – 4 (when including only lags with statistically significant effects in specifications that limit overfitting; see Supplementary Methods Section  1 ) to projections of future climate change from the CMIP-6 models. Year-on-year changes in each primary climate variable of interest are calculated to reflect the year-to-year variations used in the empirical models. 30-year moving averages of the moderating variables of the interaction terms are calculated to reflect the long-term average of climatic conditions that were used for the moderating variables in the empirical models. By using moving averages in the projections, we account for the changing vulnerability to climate shocks based on the evolving long-term conditions (Supplementary Figs. 10 and 11 show that the results are robust to the precise choice of the window of this moving average). Although these climate variables are not differenced, the fact that the bias-adjusted climate models reproduce observed climatological patterns across regions for these moderating variables very accurately (Supplementary Table 6 ) with limited spread across models (<3%) precludes the possibility that any considerable bias or uncertainty is introduced by this methodological choice. However, we impose caps on these moderating variables at the 95th percentile at which they were observed in the historical data to prevent extrapolation of the marginal effects outside the range in which the regressions were estimated. This is a conservative choice that limits the magnitude of our damage projections.

Time series of primary climate variables and moderating climate variables are then combined with estimates of the empirical model parameters to evaluate the regression coefficients in equation ( 10 ), producing a time series of annual GRPpc growth-rate reductions for a given emission scenario, climate model and set of empirical model parameters. The resulting time series of growth-rate impacts reflects those occurring owing to future climate change. By contrast, a future scenario with no climate change would be one in which climate variables do not change (other than with random year-to-year fluctuations) and hence the time-averaged evaluation of equation ( 10 ) would be zero. Our approach therefore implicitly compares the future climate-change scenario to this no-climate-change baseline scenario.

The time series of growth-rate impacts owing to future climate change in region r and year y , δ r , y , are then added to the future baseline growth rates, π r , y (in log-diff form), obtained from the SSP2 scenario to yield trajectories of damaged GRPpc growth rates, ρ r , y . These trajectories are aggregated over time to estimate the future trajectory of GRPpc with future climate impacts:

in which GRPpc r , y =2020 is the initial log level of GRPpc. We begin damage estimates in 2020 to reflect the damages occurring since the end of the period for which we estimate the empirical models (1979–2019) and to match the timing of mitigation-cost estimates from most IAMs (see below).

For each emission scenario, this procedure is repeated 1,000 times while randomly sampling from the selection of climate models, the selection of empirical models with different numbers of lags (shown in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 and Supplementary Tables 2 – 4 ) and bootstrapped estimates of the regression parameters. The result is an ensemble of future GRPpc trajectories that reflect uncertainty from both physical climate change and the structural and sampling uncertainty of the empirical models.

Estimates of mitigation costs

We obtain IPCC estimates of the aggregate costs of emission mitigation from the AR6 Scenario Explorer and Database hosted by IIASA 23 . Specifically, we search the AR6 Scenarios Database World v1.1 for IAMs that provided estimates of global GDP and population under both a SSP2 baseline and a SSP2-RCP2.6 scenario to maintain consistency with the socio-economic and emission scenarios of the climate damage projections. We find five IAMs that provide data for these scenarios, namely, MESSAGE-GLOBIOM 1.0, REMIND-MAgPIE 1.5, AIM/GCE 2.0, GCAM 4.2 and WITCH-GLOBIOM 3.1. Of these five IAMs, we use the results only from the first three that passed the IPCC vetting procedure for reproducing historical emission and climate trajectories. We then estimate global mitigation costs as the percentage difference in global per capita GDP between the SSP2 baseline and the SSP2-RCP2.6 emission scenario. In the case of one of these IAMs, estimates of mitigation costs begin in 2020, whereas in the case of two others, mitigation costs begin in 2010. The mitigation cost estimates before 2020 in these two IAMs are mostly negligible, and our choice to begin comparison with damage estimates in 2020 is conservative with respect to the relative weight of climate damages compared with mitigation costs for these two IAMs.

Data availability

Data on economic production and ERA-5 climate data are publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4681306 (ref. 62 ) and https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5 , respectively. Data on mitigation costs are publicly available at https://data.ene.iiasa.ac.at/ar6/#/downloads . Processed climate and economic data, as well as all other necessary data for reproduction of the results, are available at the public repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10562951  (ref. 63 ).

Code availability

All code necessary for reproduction of the results is available at the public repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10562951  (ref. 63 ).

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financing from the Volkswagen Foundation and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Open access funding provided by Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK) e.V.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended data fig. 1 constraining the persistence of historical climate impacts on economic growth rates..

The results of a panel-based fixed-effects distributed lag model for the effects of annual mean temperature ( a ), daily temperature variability ( b ), total annual precipitation ( c ), the number of wet days ( d ) and extreme daily precipitation ( e ) on sub-national economic growth rates. Point estimates show the effects of a 1 °C or one standard deviation increase (for temperature and precipitation variables, respectively) at the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of the relevant moderating variable (green, orange and purple, respectively) at different lagged periods after the initial shock (note that these are not cumulative effects). Climate variables are used in their first-differenced form (see main text for discussion) and the moderating climate variables are the annual mean temperature, seasonal temperature difference, total annual precipitation, number of wet days and annual mean temperature, respectively, in panels a – e (see Methods for further discussion). Error bars show the 95% confidence intervals having clustered standard errors by region. The within-region R 2 , Bayesian and Akaike information criteria for the model are shown at the top of the figure. This figure shows results with ten lags for each variable to demonstrate the observed levels of persistence, but our preferred specifications remove later lags based on the statistical significance of terms shown above and the information criteria shown in Extended Data Fig. 2 . The resulting models without later lags are shown in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 .

Extended Data Fig. 2 Incremental lag-selection procedure using information criteria and within-region R 2 .

Starting from a panel-based fixed-effects distributed lag model estimating the effects of climate on economic growth using the real historical data (as in equation ( 4 )) with ten lags for all climate variables (as shown in Extended Data Fig. 1 ), lags are incrementally removed for one climate variable at a time. The resulting Bayesian and Akaike information criteria are shown in a – e and f – j , respectively, and the within-region R 2 and number of observations in k – o and p – t , respectively. Different rows show the results when removing lags from different climate variables, ordered from top to bottom as annual mean temperature, daily temperature variability, total annual precipitation, the number of wet days and extreme annual precipitation. Information criteria show minima at approximately four lags for precipitation variables and ten to eight for temperature variables, indicating that including these numbers of lags does not lead to overfitting. See Supplementary Table 1 for an assessment using information criteria to determine whether including further climate variables causes overfitting.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Damages in our preferred specification that provides a robust lower bound on the persistence of climate impacts on economic growth versus damages in specifications of pure growth or pure level effects.

Estimates of future damages as shown in Fig. 1 but under the emission scenario RCP8.5 for three separate empirical specifications: in orange our preferred specification, which provides an empirical lower bound on the persistence of climate impacts on economic growth rates while avoiding assumptions of infinite persistence (see main text for further discussion); in purple a specification of ‘pure growth effects’ in which the first difference of climate variables is not taken and no lagged climate variables are included (the baseline specification of ref.  2 ); and in pink a specification of ‘pure level effects’ in which the first difference of climate variables is taken but no lagged terms are included.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Climate changes in different variables as a function of historical interannual variability.

Changes in each climate variable of interest from 1979–2019 to 2035–2065 under the high-emission scenario SSP5-RCP8.5, expressed as a percentage of the historical variability of each measure. Historical variability is estimated as the standard deviation of each detrended climate variable over the period 1979–2019 during which the empirical models were identified (detrending is appropriate because of the inclusion of region-specific linear time trends in the empirical models). See Supplementary Fig. 13 for changes expressed in standard units. Data on national administrative boundaries are obtained from the GADM database version 3.6 and are freely available for academic use ( https://gadm.org/ ).

Extended Data Fig. 5 Contribution of different climate variables to overall committed damages.

a , Climate damages in 2049 when using empirical models that account for all climate variables, changes in annual mean temperature only or changes in both annual mean temperature and one other climate variable (daily temperature variability, total annual precipitation, the number of wet days and extreme daily precipitation, respectively). b , The cumulative marginal effects of an increase in annual mean temperature of 1 °C, at different baseline temperatures, estimated from empirical models including all climate variables or annual mean temperature only. Estimates and uncertainty bars represent the median and 95% confidence intervals obtained from 1,000 block-bootstrap resamples from each of three different empirical models using eight, nine or ten lags of temperature terms.

Extended Data Fig. 6 The difference in committed damages between the upper and lower quartiles of countries when ranked by GDP and cumulative historical emissions.

Quartiles are defined using a population weighting, as are the average committed damages across each quartile group. The violin plots indicate the distribution of differences between quartiles across the two extreme emission scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) and the uncertainty sampling procedure outlined in Methods , which accounts for uncertainty arising from the choice of lags in the empirical models, uncertainty in the empirical model parameter estimates, as well as the climate model projections. Bars indicate the median, as well as the 10th and 90th percentiles and upper and lower sixths of the distribution reflecting the very likely and likely ranges following the likelihood classification adopted by the IPCC.

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Kotz, M., Levermann, A. & Wenz, L. The economic commitment of climate change. Nature 628 , 551–557 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07219-0

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Received : 25 January 2023

Accepted : 21 February 2024

Published : 17 April 2024

Issue Date : 18 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07219-0

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Essay on Environmental Effect of Climate Change on Human

This paper discusses the various effects of climate change and what the government can do to minimize global warming. The author begins the paper by introducing the topic of climate change. He discusses how climate change is caused by discussing the concept of global warming. He stresses that despite that global warming has adverse effects, it is also crucial for human survival. The author however, points that the release of carbon to the atmosphere has led to the formation of the ozone layer, which has contributed to the increased temperatures in the atmosphere. In the body of the paper, the author discusses the various consequences of climate change on humans. He discusses on how these effects could lead to infection of diseases on human beings, and eventually death. He also notes the various persons who are at a higher risk of being affected by the climate change. In the conclusion, the paper highlights the summary of the main points in the body, and the recommendations to reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere, hence limiting climate change.

Environmental Effect of Climate Change on Human

Due to the adverse effects that climate change has caused, the government must develop ways to minimize the factors that lead to climate change. Climate change is when typical weather patterns and temperature in a place experiences long-term alteration. Various factors lead to climate change. Some of these factors include burning fossil fuels such as gas, oil, and coal. When people burn fossil fuels, they release carbon into the atmosphere causing the ozone layer. When the atmosphere forms the ozone layer, it leads to an increased temperature in the atmosphere. Research shows that climate change has been taking place for the last 4.5 billion years, but natural factors have been causing it (Zalasiewicz & Williams, 2012). Human factors had contributed a lot to the increased temperatures in the atmosphere since the 1800s, when the industrial revolution took place. Natural factors that cause global warming include shifts in the earth’s crust, volcanic eruptions, and changes in the earth’s orbit. Another study shows that the effect of the greenhouse effect is crucial for human survival (Mikhaylov et al. 2020). According to the study, the earth could have been 30 degrees colder today if there was no greenhouse effect. With such temperature, no person could have been able to survive. However, the same study criticizes the greenhouse effect by saying that since the industrial revolution, it has led to heat in the atmosphere at a rapid rate instead of making the earth warmer. The long-term alteration in temperature and typical weather patterns has led to various environmental effects on humans; hence, governments should devise ways to minimize the factors that cause climate change.

The first environmental effect of climate change on humans is that it increases heat-related deaths. As the temperature increase in the atmosphere, people experience more frequent and hotter days. Such temperatures are unfavorable for some people. For instance, the temperature changes lead to death of thousands of individuals in the United States each year (Burke et al. 2018). During the winter season, the country experiences some reduction in deaths, but they do not offset the deaths. People who are exposed to extreme heat tend to experience dehydration and heatstroke. Others experience respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The people whom the extreme heat majorly affects are those who come from the northern latitudes. Other people who are more vulnerable to extreme heat conditions are the homeless, athletes, and outdoor workers. These people spend a lot of time outdoors, hence are more affected than other people. Another group that faces extreme heat conditions includes older adults and low-income households. These groups lack access to air conditioning, hence find it difficult to regulate the heat. Climate change leads to extreme heat, which affects various categories of people, hence increasing death risks.

Another environmental effect of climate change is that it leads to dirtier air. When pollution from factories and cars reacts to sunlight, they worsen the air conditions by making it dirtier. The main component of smog is the ground-level ozone; hence the dirtier air is likely to increase as things get hotter (Mikhaylov et al. 2020). The dirtier air is likely to worsen the health conditions of people with health problems, such as those with an asthmatic problem. Another group of patients that the pollution is likely to affect is a pulmonary disease and cardiac. The increased temperatures and dirty air also increase airborne pollen, affecting those suffering from various allergies and hay fever. This means that as pollution from factories and cars increases, the environmental air tends to be dirtier, which worsens the health conditions of various people, hence increasing the number of patients that the hospitals are admitting or even the death rate.

Climate change could also lead to increased wildlife extinction rates. When the atmosphere experiences increased temperature conditions, every living thing residing in it experiences the effects of such situations and not human beings only. Sometimes these changes in the atmosphere occur rapidly, making it difficult for some species to adapt quickly enough. Despite that some species make to adapt, others do not. Some species in the ocean, freshwater, and even land tend to migrate to cooler regions when temperatures rise in their present areas (Chaidez et al. 2017). However, not all species find it a success in migrating and also adapting to the new environment. Most of them tend to die, hence face extinction risk. Research shows that most vertebrate species such as mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians are disappearing 114 times faster than they should be due to deforestation, climate change, and pollution.

More acidic oceans are another effect of climate change. As the atmosphere becomes warmer, oceans become more acidic due to their absorption of some excess emissions. The more pollution occurs, the more the threat increases to underwater life. These conditions affect the living things in these waters in various ways. For instance, creatures with bare shells, such as those with carbonate shells or skeletons, including crabs, corals, and mollusks, have their bodies reacting with the acidic water formed due to pollution. The moment these shells respond with acid water, these species become extinct, affecting the third party that depends on them. Human beings living on the coast tend to harvest clams, oysters, and mollusks to sell. Once these species die, they reduce, affecting the economic status of those depending on the products. In 2015, acidification led to the loss of $110 million in the Pacific Northwest oyster industry. Indeed, climate change has directed to more acid oceans, leading to the extinction of some species due to the reaction of the acid water with these ‘species’ body shells. People who depend on such species to get money for their survival are likely to lower their income levels, affecting their living standards.

Higher sea levels are another environmental effect of climate change. Higher latitudes tend to experience a warmer atmosphere. In the arctic regions, the average temperatures are rising very fast and are approximated to increase twice than any place on earth. The higher temperatures have led to the melting of the ice sheets very fast, causing various consequences. The consequences affect people, plants, and wildlife. However, the most severe result is that it leads to rising sea levels. Studies show that the sea level will be one to four feet higher by 2100, a factor that threatens low-lying areas and coastal systems (Mikhaylov et al. 2020). This threat is likely to affect the world’s largest cities such as New York, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, and Sydney. Other areas are the entire island nations. Such high sea levels are likely to affect people living in various cities and islands, which may lead to the migration of these people to other areas.

Climate change is likely to increase strength of extreme events such as droughts and storms, threatening human life and safety. When there are increased temperatures in the atmosphere, there is a likelihood that it will affect the hydrological cycle. The higher temperatures could lead to prolonged droughts, affecting various living things (Mikhaylov et al. 2020). The plants will die due to lack of water, leading to low levels of transpiration and decreased amount of water vapor through evapotranspiration. This, in turn, affects the number of clouds that could be formed, affecting the amount of transpiration. The more the problem persists, the more the humans are concerned. Human beings mainly depend on plants for food and even water for survival. The moment the drought conditions persist, human beings are likely to get a food shortage, hence facing hunger or even death. On the other hand, the increase in temperature leads to the melting of the glaciers, leading to the rise in sea levels, which could lead to floods, hence killing people.

Climate change also leads to warmer temperatures, leading to a greater risk of human beings dying prematurely. When people pollute the air through the emission of gases, there tend to be unhealthy levels in the atmosphere. People who are exposed to these conditions are likely to die prematurely (Mikhaylov et al. 2020). Alternatively, they are likely to be admitted to hospitals for respiratory problems. These conditions can damage the lung tissue and inflame airways. Such conditions place people at risk of dying prematurely.

Climate change is likely to cause vector-borne diseases which risk the lives of human beings. Vector such as ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas tend to transmit these diseases. When precipitation, temperatures, and extreme conditions change, vector-borne ‘diseases’ geographic range tends to increase, leading to increased illnesses. For instance, temperature limits the geographical range of ticks that carry Lyme disease. When temperature increases, ticks tend to become more active (Daniel et al. 2018). Once the Lyme infection reaches human beings, they experience fever, fatigue, headache, and characteristic skin rash. Mosquitoes also strive in particular areas, especially those flooded, transmitting malaria and the West Nile Virus to human beings. Both climate and non-climate factors influence the spread of such diseases. The non-climate conditions include access to healthcare, cultural needs, pest control, human response to disease risk, and socioeconomic conditions. Despite that richer country such as the United States can handle such infections due to their public health infrastructure and programs prevent the disease from spreading, poorer countries face a challenge in managing these infections. Climate change has indeed increased the spread of vector-borne diseases, hence risking human life.

Another effect of climate change on humans is that it leads to water-related illnesses on human beings. Climate change can lead to increased run-offs and even storms. Such factors lead to water contamination, especially when the water run-offs pass through areas that are chemically contaminated (Lipczynska-Kochany, 2018). When such water reaches the water bodies, they contaminate the water, making it unhealthy for human beings to consume. Some of the health impacts that can be caused by contaminated water include gastrointestinal illnesses such as cholera and diarrhea. Such infections affect the respiratory systems and the body’s nervous such as the kidney or liver. When water is contaminated, many people are affected since they depend on it, and once they are infected, it increases the risk of death.

Another impact of climate change on humans is that it disrupts or slows the distribution of food. Extreme events such as floods can damage roads and waterways, becoming a challenge for various organizations to transport the food to multiple regions. Sometimes there are floods in streets, becoming difficult for vehicles to transport goods (Pregnalato et al. 2017). In some cases, the storms destroy bridges, making the places inaccessible. Reconstruction of these roads or bridges may take time once they are destroyed. The storms also are unpredictable and may take a more extended period. Such factors make it difficult for organizations to transport the food to various regions, hindering particular persons from getting food. The longer the problem lasts, the more those people who lack food get affected. In some places, if the government does not develop an emergence solution, some people, such as the aged and kids, may die.

Climate change has also affected food safety and nutrition, risking the levels of human beings. Higher temperatures can lead to increased cases of bacteria-related food poisoning. Research indicates that bacteria tend to grow more rapidly in warm temperatures. When human beings get infected with such bacteria, they tend to have gastrointestinal distress, and in some cases, it may lead to death. Higher temperatures on the sea surface can lead to higher mercury concentrations in seafood, affecting human beings when they feed in these foods. When there are higher carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, some plants tend to use it as fertilizer. When these plants use it as fertilizer, it lowers essential minerals and proteins in crops such as potatoes, rice, and wheat, a factor that makes these foods less nutritious. The less healthy foods can affect the health of human beings in a particular region, leading to non-healthy individuals. The non-health people in a specific area are less productive, affecting the productivity of a country, a factor that can lower the G.D.P of a nation.

Another way that climate change can affect humans is by affecting the mental health of individuals. Changes in the physical environment can affect the mental health of human beings. One of the ways that climate change can affect the mental status of human beings is by causing stress to people who lose their loved ones due to extreme conditions such as floods and even hunger due to drought. People with mental illness are at a high risk of increasing their status during hotter conditions. Research shows that these individuals double the bet of death when there are increased heat waves (Liu et al. 2019). Some medication for people with mental illness makes it difficult for people to regulate their body temperatures. Some individuals, such as older persons, tend to be stressed during extreme conditions. For instance, women with kids can tend to emphasize what to feed their children during drought conditions. Parents can also be distressed when storms and floods destroy their houses or even crops because of the worries of eating or even feeding their families. Sometimes, floods kill properties of people, causing distress and depression on people.

Climate change leads to increased temperatures in the atmosphere, which reduces the chances of people getting pregnant. Research shows that the problem is likely to get worse as temperatures increases. High temperatures tend to harm birth rate and sperm account. As the temperatures get up, the heat waves increase, making it difficult for women to become pregnant. Research that Barreca et al. conducted on U.S birth data shows that there are fewer births in May (Barreca et al. 2018). The fewer births this month are due to the increased heat waves in August, nine months before May. This means that in August, the probability of women becoming pregnant is very low due to the high heat waves. The research indicates that people tend to have sex in all periods of the year at an equal rate, but the heat waves tend to affect male fertility. During high temperatures, the sperm counts tend to fall. The study also showed that people from the northern states experienced slightly more effectiveness because they were less prepared for the heat waves. However, the hot states such as Arizona had the same trends as the cooler ones because they had adapted to the heat waves and were much prepared as they stayed indoors or installed air conditioners in their buildings.

The last effect of climate change is that it can lead to dust storms, affecting humans. Climate change can lead to winds which cause blowing dust and sand to fill the air. When they fill the air, they limit visibility and can create traffic on roads. The increased dust can also lead to increased accidents leading to the loss of lives. The high sand and dust storms have led to increases in hospital admissions, increases in emergency hospital visits, and increased asthma cases or worsening the conditions (Schweitzer et al. 2018). The bits of dust and soil during a dust or sand storm can carry pathogens, fungi, or even bacteria affecting people’s health.

In conclusion, climate change has had adverse effects on the lives of people. Some results are minor, while others are major. The significant products include the deaths of people. Alternatively, climate change effects can affect particular people more adversely compared to others. Older people and children are likely to be at greater risk when climate change occurs. People from the northern latitudes, the athletes, the homeless, and the poor are also at greater chances to be affected by global warming. Wealthy people are likely to be better positioned to deal with higher temperatures to install air conditions in their buildings. Governments should ensure that they come up with ways to minimize the global warming effect. They should come up with ways to produce clean energy to reduce global warming. They can input measures to organizations on the amount of carbon they are supposed to create and impose fines or high taxes on those that emit a high amount of carbon. It can also protect and restore ecosystems to slow global warming. Another way the government can deal with global warming is by supporting small-scale agricultural producers, ensuring enough food in the country. People should also avoid using energies that emit carbon, such as coal, and start using renewable energy sources such as solar.

Barreca, A., Deschenes, O., & Guldi, M. (2018). Maybe next month? Temperature shocks and dynamic adjustments in birth rates.  Demography ,  55 (4), 1269-1293.

Burke, M., González, F., Baylis, P., Heft-Neal, S., Baysan, C., Basu, S., & Hsiang, S. (2018). Higher temperatures increase suicide rates in the United States and Mexico.  Nature climate change ,  8 (8), 723-729.

Chaidez, V., Dreano, D., Agusti, S., Duarte, C. M., & Hoteit, I. (2017). Decadal trends in Red Sea maximum surface temperature.  Scientific reports ,  7 (1), 1-8.

Daniel, M., Danielová, V., Fialová, A., Malý, M., Kříž, B., & Nuttall, P. A. (2018). Increased relative risk of tick-borne encephalitis in warmer weather.  Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology ,  8 , 90.

Lipczynska-Kochany, E. (2018). Effect of climate change on humic substances and associated impacts on the quality of surface water and groundwater: A review.  Science of the total environment ,  640 , 1548-1565.

Liu, X., Liu, H., Fan, H., Liu, Y., & Ding, G. (2019). Influence of heat waves on daily hospital visits for mental illness in Jinan, China—a case-crossover study.  International journal of environmental research and public health ,  16 (1), 87.

Mikhaylov, A., Moiseev, N., Aleshin, K., & Burkhardt, T. (2020). Global climate change and greenhouse effect.  Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues ,  7 (4), 2897.

Pregnolato, M., Ford, A., Glenis, V., Wilkinson, S., & Dawson, R. (2017). Impact of climate change on disruption to urban transport networks from pluvial flooding.  Journal of Infrastructure Systems ,  23 (4), 04017015.

Schweitzer, M. D., Calzadilla, A. S., Salamo, O., Sharifi, A., Kumar, N., Holt, G., … & Mirsaeidi, M. (2018). Lung health in era of climate change and dust storms.  Environmental research ,  163 , 36-42.

Zalasiewicz, J., & Williams, M. (2012).  The Goldilocks Planet: The 4 billion year story of Earth’s climate . Oxford University Press.

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Outline for Climate Change Essay: Writing an Essay

Table of Contents

Changes in weather patterns and conditions are a result of climate change.

A number of factors are causing the climate to change quickly right now. It goes without saying that the temperature of the entire planet is rising. Do you consider it to be a severe issue? Yes, melting glaciers are causing sea levels to rise, as you may have heard.

Hazardous elements like pollution, coal burning, the release of industrial waste into the atmosphere, etc., have caused a significant change in the climate. Everything above will have an impact on the environment and its resources.

You need to raise public awareness of the problem of climate change in addition to taking strict environmental protection and preservation measures. What’s the best way to raise awareness about the issue?

Well, write an essay on the issue! But how are you going to write an essay on climate change without a structure or an outline? That’s what we’re going to show you today! Keep reading to find out more about the outline for climate change essay!

What’s Climate Change?

To begin with, if someone needs to write an essay about climate change, they should have an idea of what they will write about. A significant issue facing the entire world, climate change frequently forces millions of people to relocate and causes devastating natural disasters. Global warming is commonly linked to climate change. But this phenomenon has a lot more facets than just this one.

A whole region or settlement may become utterly intolerable to live in as a result of climate change. However, it might also have a detrimental impact on natural processes, which would have an unintended ripple effect throughout the entire planet.

Weather patterns as a whole are changing due to climate change. We can infer that changes to the typical climatic conditions are caused by climate change. As a result of these changes, there will be more severe storms, heat waves, floods, melting glaciers, etc. 

The livelihood of people and other living things is being impacted by the numerous climate changes that our planet is undergoing. Among the features of climate change is global warming. These elements cause the atmosphere to release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Examine the causes of climate change listed below. 

All forms of life on Earth will be affected if the current climate change situation persists in the same way. Sea levels will rise, and the Earth’s temperature will increase. The monsoon patterns will change, and there will be more frequent storms, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters.

There will be disruptions to the Earth’s biological and ecological balance. As a result of environmental pollution, people won’t be able to breathe clean air or drink clean water. The end of earthly life is imminent.

Outline for Climate Change Essay

Here’s an example of an outline for climate change essay that you can use in your own. This outline covers the introduction, the main body paragraphs, and finally, the conclusion. We will also give some examples of topics that you can cover in your climate change (or global warming) essay.

Introduction

Here, you can give why climate change came to be and how the industrial revolution caused it to accelerate. You can mention why we called this phenomenon global warming at first and why we now refer to it as climate change. Remember, in the introduction part of your climate change essay. You have to include a thesis statement. 

A thesis statement is a phrase that summarizes the subject and aim of your essay. A strong thesis statement will guide the format of your essay and help your audience comprehend the concepts you’ll be addressing in it.

Your paper’s introduction should contain your thesis statement somewhere, usually in the final phrase. Typically, a thesis will be one sentence long. But if your topic is complex, you might find that splitting the thesis statement into two sentences works better.

Main Body Paragraphs

This is the meat of your essay on climate change. There are a couple of topics that you can mention here to keep the essay going. We’ll look at a couple of interesting subjects or themes right now.

What Causes Climate Change?

• Construction of industries during the Industrial Revolution
• Human activities involving the use of fossil fuels are of concern.
• Greenhouse gas usage
• Increasing deforestation
• Gas emissions and chemical leaks
• Platonic movement
• Ozone layer degradation
• Inefficient transportation humans with car infrastructure
• Energy generation using fossil fuels in the 21st century
• Lack of government intervention in those who cause climate change
• Human activities that affect the environment in a negative turn
• The need to extract Earth’s resources
• The problem of human over consumption
• The constant need for new energy sources every year
• The decimation of plant life for human overpopulation on Earth
• Humans damaging the environment and the animal and plant life across the Earth
• The increased amount of pollutants that affect the atmosphere

What Are The Effects of Climate Change and Global Warming?

• Elevated global temperature
• Major catastrophes across different countries on Earth
• Melting Ice Caps
• Sea levels are rising.
• Polluted oceans
• The hottest years we have witnessed thanks to global warming
• Continuous cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes, etc.
• Heatwaves caused by global warming
• Substantial rains
• The process of decomposition and higher temperatures
• Seasonal growth
• Reduced Earth Fertility
• Water supplies reducing on a global scale, affecting all life in the world
• Cities around the world are underwater due to climate change and global warming.
• Extreme weather events due to increased carbon dioxide

How Can We Tackle Climate Change and Global Warming?

• Cutting back on fossil fuels
• Expanding the number of forests and trees
• Utilizing renewable energy sources
• The introduction of carbon-free technology
• Environmentally friendly transportation
• Utilizing more renewable sources that exist in nature, such as solar and geothermal power.

Concluding Remarks

We hope our guide on writing an essay on climate change and the environment had positive effects on your writing process. If you are still unsure about how to continue your climate change essay, there’s another solution you should know.

You can use an  essay outline tool  like the one we have at INK. This helps to create the structure of your climate change essay for you! This way, you can devote more time to researching instead of thinking about the structure.

Best of luck to you in writing essay of the effects of climate change on the environment. We hope our post was able to help you increase awareness on how human activity affects the Earth!

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Climate Doom Is Out. ‘Apocalyptic Optimism’ Is In.

Focusing on disaster hasn’t changed the planet’s trajectory. Will a more upbeat approach show a way forward?

Credit... Photo Illustration by Doug Chayka

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By Alexis Soloski

• April 21, 2024

The philanthropist Kathryn Murdoch has prioritized donations to environmental causes for more than a decade. She has, she said, a deep understanding of how inhospitable the planet will become if climate change is not addressed. And she and her colleagues have spent years trying to communicate that.

“We have been screaming,” she said. “But screaming only gets you so far.”

This was on a morning in early spring. Murdoch and Ari Wallach, an author, producer and futurist, had just released their new PBS docuseries, “A Brief History of the Future,” and had hopped onto a video call to promote it — politely, no screaming required. Shot cinematically, in some never-ending golden hour, the six-episode show follows Wallach around the world as he meets with scientists, activists and the occasional artist and athlete, all of whom are optimistic about the future. An episode might include a visit to a floating village or a conversation about artificial intelligence with the musician Grimes. In one sequence, marine biologists lovingly restore a rehabbed coral polyp to a reef. The mood throughout is mellow, hopeful, even dreamy. Which is deliberate.

“There’s room for screaming,” Wallach said. “And there’s room for dreaming.”

“A Brief History of the Future” joins some recent books and shows that offer a rosier vision of what a world in the throes — or just past the throes — of global catastrophe might look like. Climate optimism as opposed to climate fatalism.

Hannah Ritchie’s “Not the End of the World: How We Can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet” argues that many markers of disaster are less bad than the public imagines (deforestation, overfishing) or easily solvable (plastics in the oceans). In “Fallout,” the television adaptation of the popular video game that recently debuted on Amazon Prime Video, the apocalypse (nuclear, not climate-related) makes for a devastated earth, sundry mutants and plenty of goofy, kitschy fun — apocalypse lite.

“Life as We Know It (Can Be),” a book by Bill Weir, CNN’s chief climate correspondent, that is structured as a series of letters to his son, centers on human potential and resilience. And Dana R. Fisher’s “Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action” contends that the disruptions of climate change may finally create a mass movement that will lead to better global outcomes. Fisher, a sociologist, coined the term “apocalyptic optimism” to describe a belief that humans can still avoid the worst ravages of climate change.

In confronting the apocalypse, these works all insist that hope matters. They believe that optimism, however qualified or hard-won, may be what finally moves us to action. While Americans are less likely than their counterparts in the developed world to appreciate the threats that climate change poses, recent polls show that a significant majority of Americans now agree that climate change is real and a smaller majority agree that it is human-caused and harmful. And yet almost no expert believes that we are doing enough — in terms of technology, legislation or political pressure — to alleviate those harms.

Intimations of doom have failed to motivate us. Perhaps we will work toward a better future if we trust that one, with or without mutants, is possible. When it comes to climate catastrophe, is our best hope hope itself?

‘An Impatient Optimism’

For the past 50 years, and perhaps even before, most imaginative projections of the future have seen it through dark glasses, as World’s Fair-style visions of jet packs and gleaming cities gave way to arid landscapes populated by zombie hordes and rogue A.I. The appeal of a dystopia, in terms of entertainment, is obvious. The stakes — the survival of humanity — are enormous and the potential for action vast. There have been occasional utopian inventions, such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s extraordinary 2020 climate change novel, “The Ministry for the Future.” But in most cases, a future of environmental responsibility and cooperation, with or without jet packs, rarely makes for a best seller or a blockbuster.

Paradoxically, it was the likes of “The Hunger Games” and the “Mad Max” franchise that inspired Murdoch, the wife of James Murdoch, the former chief executive of 21st Century Fox, to create “A Brief History of the Future.” One day, her daughter, then 16, surprised Murdoch by telling her that she didn’t feel there was a future to look forward to. The books, films, television shows and graphic novels the girl consumed all took a dim view of humanity’s chances. None imagined a future more hopeful than the present. So Murdoch and Wallach, partners in Futurific Studios, set out to sketch one, which they hope to follow with video games and fiction films. Two graphic novels are already in the works.

The goal for “A Brief History of the Future” wasn’t to ignore climate change or other seam rippers of the social fabric but, in classic Mr. Rogers style, to look to the helpers. “There’s a huge amount of focus in the news and storytelling in general on what could go horribly wrong,” Murdoch said. “What I really wanted to highlight was all the work that’s happening right now to make things go right.”

This was also Ritchie’s project. A data scientist by training, she began her career overwhelmed by climate pessimism. That feeling of hopelessness took a personal toll and a professional one, she believes, interfering with her ability to turn her mind toward solutions. Scientist colleagues who had once needed to push back against the public’s climate skepticism were now facing people who believed in a coming global catastrophe perhaps too much.

“There’s been a really rapid shift in the narrative, from almost complete denial to, Oh, it’s too late now, there’s nothing we can do, we should just stop trying,” Ritchie said.

Anger, fear and sorrow might motivate some people, Ritchie said. But they hadn’t motivated her. Her book, which emphasizes the progress that has already been made (clean energy) and the progress that might still be made (increased crop yields), is a deliberate alternative, participating in what she calls “impatient optimism.” Doomerism is not only a bummer, she argues, it’s also a cliché.

“The more negative slant, it’s already been done a million times,” she said.

But a bummer may be what we deserve. Climate activism has scored the occasional win — a reduced hole in the ozone layer, the comeback of the California condor. Still, any sustained inquiry into the challenges we face in the future, and even right now, as the world warms faster than predicted, offers a gloomier prospect.

To emphasize a cheerier one, examples tend to be cherry picked or gently massaged. A section in Ritchie’s book argues, correctly, that deaths from extreme weather events are fewer than they were in the past. But this section all but ignores the fact that extreme weather events are becoming more severe and more frequent, a trend that will continue even if harmful emissions are slowed. And it ignores any deaths from extreme heat, which Ritchie attributed, in conversation, to the insufficiency of the data.

The journalist Jeff Goodell has studied that data. The title of his recent book, “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet,” suggests a more sober perspective. (In conversation, he described himself as broadly bullish about the climate crisis, which came as a surprise.) He wanted to use his storytelling, he said, not necessarily to inspire hope or even anger, but to communicate what the planet faces. “Because you can’t talk about solutions until you understand the scope and scale,” he said. He is also skeptical, he said, of much of the sunny, solutions-minded messaging.

“It makes it feel like climate change is like a broken leg, “ he said. “With a broken leg, you’re in a cast for six or eight weeks. You suffer some pain, then you go back into your old life.” He doesn’t believe that’s the case here.

“We’re not going to fix this,” he said. “It’s going to be how do we manage to live in this new world.”

Imagining a Better Future

The fixes on offer in these recent works tend to be of the techno-futurist variety, trusting in human ingenuity. “A Brief History of the Future” also offers squishier solutions — empathy, community, trust. Sacrifice (unhopeful, unsexy) is rarely mentioned, or it’s the kind that a person in relative economic comfort can feel good about: eating less red meat, driving an electric car.

“Not the End of the World” is almost determinedly apolitical, though there is one mention of a populist campaign to ease air pollution and a polite reminder to vote for leaders who support sustainability. “I deliberately wanted to make this a very nonpartisan book,” Ritchie said. Introducing specific policies might have alienated some readers. “I feel like that would split my audience when I want to try to bring them together,” she said.

The desire to engage audiences across the political spectrum also motivated Murdoch. While there is one brief interview with President Emmanuel Macron of France and another with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the series is far more comfortable when discussing rewilding or kelp farming. “If we’re going to get there, we need everybody,” Murdoch said. “So part of this is to try to not have it be about politics, but really to be about the future.”

Can a better future arrive without political intervention? Fisher doesn’t think so. Her book, “Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action,” which she describes as a “data driven manifesto,” posits a world in which climate shocks become so great that they spur mass protest and force government and industry to transition to clean energy.

“It’s the most realistically hopeful way to think about where we get to the other side of the climate crisis,” she said.

That realism imagines a future of food scarcity, water scarcity, climate-spurred migration and increasing incidences of extreme weather. Fisher also predicts some level of mass death. “There’s no question that there are going to be lives lost,” she said. “Already lives are being lost.” Which may not sound especially optimistic.

But Fisher’s research has taught her to believe in, as she terms it, “people power.” She has found that people who have had a visceral experience of climate change are more likely to be angry and active rather than doomy and depressed.

“The whole point of apocalyptic optimism is being optimistic in a way that actually helps get us somewhere,” she said. “It’s not shiny and rosy and like cotton candy. It’s a bitter pill. But here we are and we can still do something.” In this sense, hope is a spur, a prod, an uncomfortable goad. And imagining a better future is a brave and even necessary act.

Storytelling — whether through fiction, documentary, data science or sociology, and however optimistic — might seem a limp response to the climate crisis. Narrative won’t stop coral bleaching or the leaking of methane from Arctic soil into the atmosphere. But it’s a tool that’s available, cheap and endlessly renewable. And as a society, we will not act on climate change until we’re convinced that our action is useful and urgent.

“In order to build a better world,” Ritchie said, “you need to be able to envision that one is possible.”

Alexis Soloski has written for The Times since 2006. As a culture reporter, she covers television, theater, movies, podcasts and new media. More about Alexis Soloski

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Beavers can help with climate change. So how do we get along?

Tom Dreisbach

Berly McCoy

Rachel Carlson

Rebecca Ramirez

Damming waterways is what beavers do best, often to the chagrin of people who want the opposite. But those same damming skills are what make beavers important ecosystem engineers. Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images hide caption

Damming waterways is what beavers do best, often to the chagrin of people who want the opposite. But those same damming skills are what make beavers important ecosystem engineers.

NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have been locked in with the local wild beaver population. Each night, the beavers would dam the culverts along the Dreisbachs' property, threatening to make their home inaccessible. And each morning, Tom's parents deconstructed those dams — until the annual winter freeze hit and left them all in a temporary stalemate.

As beaver populations have increased, so have these kinds of conflicts with people like Tom's parents.

Why You Should Give A Dam About Beavers!

How to save a slow growing tree species

But the solution may not be to chase away the beavers. They're a keystone species that engineer their local ecosystems. Scientists believe that beavers could play an important role in cleaning water supplies, creating healthy ecosystems and mitigating a lot of the effects of climate change. So, Tom calls up Jakob Shockey , the executive director of the non-profit Project Beaver. Jakob offers a bit of perspective to Tom and his parents, and the Dreisbachs contemplate what a peaceful coexistence with these furry neighbors might look like.

Have questions or comments for us to consider for a future episode? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you!

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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson and Berly McCoy. It was edited by our showrunner Rebecca Ramirez, who also checked the facts. The audio engineer was Josh Newell.

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Letters to the Editor: The climate situation is bad but not hopeless. We must fight for change

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To the editor: The Times’ editorial board issues yet another dire warning about the health of our planet . Record-breaking heat due to fossil fuel emissions shows we are headed in the wrong direction.

These grim facts might leave readers discouraged and hopeless. While there is damage that we may not be able to fix, it’s not too late to heal our Earth. Indeed, we have seen other seemingly hopeless situations change.

My grandmothers couldn’t vote when they came of age. There were racial covenants in my California town when I was a child. My gay neighbors could have been arrested for loving each other in some places not so long ago.

We have seen tremendous progress since those days because citizens woke up, marched, wrote letters, lobbied their representatives and voted.

As for returning to a healthy climate, we must take action. Be informed, join a climate group, talk about it and vote. It takes momentum to build the political will for change, but we’ve done it before and we can do it now.

Margaret Baker Davis, Claremont

To the editor: During my 92-year association with my fellow humans, I have noted several irritable characteristics.

First, everybody wants it both ways. The current Congress is a perfect example of this attitude. Its attention to climate matters is distracted by endless political concerns.

Second, ignorance is bliss. Perhaps the problem will just go away, many people hope, and we will continue to be entertained.

Third, irrational behavior is normal. Former President Trump did not initiate this trend, but he is now the leader of gleeful adherents who prevent meaningful action by our government.

Here and there small groups of enlightened folks, as they have done for a while, are forging ahead with climate change adaptations. They will be joined by others only when money and fame can accrue from the enterprise.

Carleton Cronin, West Hollywood

To the editor: Those who know people with substance abuse problems probably have heard the saying that addicts go into recovery to avoid jails, institutions and death. Your editorial on yet more indications of the climate emergency brings up similar feelings.

The U.S. is one of the biggest per-capita carbon polluters in the world. Every aspect of our economy is addicted to planet-warming fossil fuels. We are Patient Zero.

Without an intervention and shift to a more sustainable life, we are facing more wars, the rise of dictatorships and ecological collapse.

Pathways to recovery are plentiful and getting cheaper by the day; they only require political will. Addicts generally start recovery when they’ve reached their personal bottom. If Earth reaches bottom, it will start recovering without us.

Pam Brennan, Newport Beach

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