Climate Change

Climate change is the significant change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over time. This includes the change in temperatures worldwide, as well as the frequency of extreme weather events (natural disaster etc.). I believe that natural factors are partly responsible for such changes, such as continental drift, mountain building, solar radiation, and deviations in Earth's orbit. For the most part though, I think that human behavior is truly to blame for the change in climate, more specifically, the heating of the planet, that has been taking place over the years. Mankind's energy waste, land degradation, and overall lack of concern for the conservation of non-renewable resources, has caused much of the alteration in climate that we are currently experiencing. Climate change or "global warming" has been popular in the media lately. A very "gloom and doom" approach has been taken. Many people say that the world is going to end and that we are all going to die soon as a result of our actions. Popular figures such as Al Gore place extreme blame on humankind and attempt to guilt people into changing their lifestyle. Others claim that climate change isn't happening at all and that it is simply a figment of people's imagination or a hoax created to fulfill political agendas. For these reasons, it is hard to get a balanced or accurate viewpoint on the truthfulness of climate change. I feel like agencies such as The United States Environmental Protection Agency might give a more accurate look at the realities and the hard evidence of climate change. Even if global warming may be exaggerated by some agencies and underplayed by others, I believe that very few can deny that action needs to be taken by all of us to reduce our impact on the environment. If we continue consuming and disposing of resources like we are today, our future generations will have a hard time. They may live in a world with very little access to necessities such as water, food, and gasoline. They could develop horrible health problems due to toxins and poisons in the air, soil, and water.