Two more hurricanes, Katia and Jose, joined Irma in the Atlantic and made landfall all in the same week. Hurricane Jose strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane, and affected Puerto rico and the Leeward Islands while Katia hit Mexico just one day after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake hit. The two disasters combined took 67 lives, and climate change is to blame.

The planet is warming and therefore it is suffering. Mother Earth is screaming out in the form of destruction, and yet some people still turn a blind eye to what we have done. Unless we, as a global community, start to make an effort to reduce the pressing issue of  global warming, it will continue to intensify throughout our planet. Floods, droughts, heat waves, and tropical storms are just some of the disasters caused by global warming, as it causes the wet areas to become wetter and the dry areas to become even dryer.

When temperatures rise, ice starts to melt, then that ice turns into water. Glaciers and ice caps are melting at a rapid pace, causing sea levels and water temperature to rise. Coastal lands are in danger of sinking completely over time– Louisiana coastline has been sinking into the Gulf of Mexico for a while at an average of nine millimeters per year. Scientist estimate that sea levels will rise at least 0.75 millimeters and 1.9 millimeters by the year 2100. Along with the danger of losing land, the ice is home to many polar animals that are losing their homes, and their lives. Penguin numbers are rapidly declining, Adélie penguins in Antarctica numbers have fallen from 32,000 to 11,000 in only 30 years. We could lose two-thirds of all polar bears by the year 2050.

“As the earth warms conditions in regards to agriculture, and extreme weather, will become worse and worse,” Ritik Goyal ‘18 said. “It make a lot of various locations unlivable, and that will force mass migrations and refugee populations that could threaten world stability. I think the melting of the ice caps has caused an increase in sea level which has made a lot of regions unlivable.”

In the dry areas of the world are becoming hotter and more susceptible to wildfires, particularly in the western United States. With rising atmospheric temperatures the soil is losing water throughout spring and summer, causing the it  to be drier increasing the  a likelihood of droughts. Hotter climates are also more susceptible to wildfires, which can be  dangerous and devastating.

“Currently, I think the most pressing issue is that we aren’t doing anything about it,” AP Environmental Science teacher Mrs. Christine Mihealsick said. “In terms of what we are seeing, I don’t know, pick what you want; we have ginormous hurricanes, we have a huge drought right now out in the west, and there has been a crazy amount of forest fires also in the west. There is a lot of pressing issues we are starting to see. It’s 100 percent real, we can do something about it, it’s not too late to work on strategies to reduce our greenhouse gases emissions.”

The fact that climate change and global warming are widely dismissed in the face of factual evidence is just as threatening as the catastrophes, if not more so. Dismissed by even those who hold high places of power like President Donald Trump, who refuses to acknowledge the issue. Rejecting facts of science will just set back the globe and delay any solutions.