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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    New Report on Climate Change

    New Report on Climate Change

    Recently, the media world has been particularly focused on exposing the effects and reality of climate change. Perhaps it is because we are finally starting to feel the effects of damaging the environment for so long; the existence of strange and extreme weather cannot be denied. But a new scientific report from the United Nations has just revealed that the future effects might be even more drastic than we imagined before.

    The report compiled data from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. It was worked on for about 3 years by over 150 authors and was signed by members of 132 nations that are a part of the UN.

    The report revealed that three-quarters of land on Earth has already been significantly altered. This means that humankind has changed 75% of ecosystems from their natural forms in order to meet their own needs. This is something that has come to pass already. And the document stated that 82% of mammal biomass has declined since prehistory, which is another thing that has already happened. Worse, these things may be irreversible.

    The document also gave a disturbing statistic about the future: that over 1 million species on the planet are facing extinction.

    Furthermore, it tied these statistics to human behavior. These detrimental effects have now been proved to be a result of practices like agricultural pesticides, deforestation, and pollution. As Lakewood resident Ella Calleri says, “I always thought that climate change was our fault, but this report proves it”.

    Many people tend to think of climate change as something of the future, but this report defines it as something of the present–something that is happening right now. This report proves that we have already done a lot of damage to the planet we live on, and shows that things are only going to get worse unless we are able to act on a large scale–and fast.

     

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