In the recent year’s scientist have been able to construct some critical evidence that shows that climate change has been taking place. The evidence is collected from temperature rainfall, and other weather variables from several measuring stations around the world clearly show that the world is at risk of an increase in the temperature — some of the oldest data on climate change date back to the 17^th century. However, most of the data available only go back to the 19^th century. Although the data has been so little, there is enough evidence that shows that the earth surface has warmed at about 0.6 degree Celsius in the 20^th century (Challinor et al.). The warming that the world has experienced for the past few years has been associated with the human activities that lead to the pollution of the atmosphere. Climate change is a serious issue, and student activism can take an active role in helping to deal with this challenge.

The atmosphere of the earth is made up of oxygen and a large amount of nitrogen and a small level of greenhouse gases such a methane and carbon dioxide. The greenhouse gases play a significant role in protecting the earth surface from the harmful UV rays. Besides they trap the warmth from the sun thus making the earth hospitable. The lack of these gases would mean that most of the heat of the sun would escape leading to the freezing of the planet. However, the increase of these gases in the atmosphereposes the other challenge of too much heat trapped in the atmospheres leading to the overheating of the planet. It is this overheating that leads to global warming (Clark et al.). However, another way to look at it is that it is what is called climate change. The difference might result inmany other changes including the temperature of the place and bring about extreme climatic conditions such as storms, flood, and cyclones.

It is likely that the cause of climate change is human activity. In the past climate change has often come as a result of natural causes. Over millions of years, the climate of the earth has changed from ice age to the tropical and back. Over the past 10,000 years, evidence shows that the change has been gradual. The gradual changes give the animals the move to adapt and migrate. However, in the events where the differences are drastic, the animals are unlikely to survive, and this might lead to extinction. Over the past 150 years activities such as agriculture, industries, and transportation have led to high production of greenhouse gases that have resulted in a severe threat to the environment (Agnew 100). The human-induced activities are leading to an increase in the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere thus resulting in the overheating of the planet. Therefore, the recent warming of the earth is a direct impact of human activity. However, these are activities that humans might focus on and change to save the future of the world.

The most significant risk that humans are posing to the environment is that they are contributing to the increase in greenhouse gases. In at least 800,000 years human activities have resulted in the highest increases in the levels of carbon dioxide and methane. To find out such information scientists often drill up ice in the Arctic’s. When ice is falling, it traps bubbles of air that freeze to become ice. Piles and piles of ice would trap different gases in the atmosphere and thus drilling this ice provides much data on the conditions that the earth was in the past. Besides, the direct measurement of the atmospheric concentration clearly shows how greenhouse gases have increased in the past decades (Agnew 110). From all these analyses it is quite clear that it is the human activity that is resulting to this problem. Therefore, it is time that the humans take some steps and rethink on how they can be able to deal with the greenhouse problem.

Dealing with climate change

One of the approaches that can help in dealing with climate change is to reduce the number of fossil fuels that we consume. There is a movement around the world that is focusing on green energy. Over the past few decades, there has been a focus on using electric cars. These cars would reduce the number of greenhouse gases released into the atmospheres. Among some of the highest sources of greenhouses gases are cars since there are about 1.2 billion vehicles in the world. Therefore, changing to electric cars would mean the difference in ensuring that we reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (Meissner et al.).

Another approach that the world should take is the adoption of alternative sources of energy. Over the past decade, the world has shifted its attention to renewable energy sources such as wind-generated electric and solar power. This approach would reduce the dependence on the fossil generated energy, and this would work towards reducing the carbon footprint. Besides, there has been a focus on ensuring that the world by 2050 the world entirely gets rid of using fossil fuels. If such an effort come to the full realization, it might become easy to deal with the current challenge of global warming.

Roles of students

A student can take an active part in the development of solutions to deal with climate changes. Over the years there has been a focus on the young generation taking a first step in trying to find solutions that can work towards dealing with environmental changes. In recent years the students have taken center stage in developing some new technologies on sustainability. In a current competition student from Austria were able to create some of the best houses that seek to respond to sustainability. The focus is to build homes that are energy efficient and using houses that do not consume more power than they produce but instead they produce more energy(Zinke et al.). This is the approach that students are taking around the world. Being at the forefront in developing the right technology and bringing about the aspect of change is the role of young people. There is a need to transform the world with new mobility concept, innovative building, and reduction in the carbon footprint. In the Solar Decathlon competition the students from deferent parts of the world get to compete in the development of real homes that seek to reduce the uses of energy and generate more electricity. All these efforts are made by students showing that we have a better chance of making the difference.

What the students in Santa Monica College can do

At the school level, much can be done to help in dealing with this issues. The first thing would be to ensure that everyone is informed. Climate change is a complicated topic, and very few people have information on the problem and the possible solutions. Therefore, the basis of any change would be to have a people that are informed. It could be by hosting a presentation on the issue of climate change and having youth conferences on the same problem (Zinke et al.). The second effort could be to create eco-groups. There is strength in numbers, and thus the like-minded students and teacher in the school can come together and start talking about climate change.

The other focus that the student might engage in is to tackle the issue of consumerism. The young people have too much influence on consumption. We have a better chance to influence the cars that parents buy and dictate the wants in our homes. Therefore, we can bring up the student to engage in activities such as “swap days” Sharing library” for items that students do not use on a daily basis and “eco-fashion fundraisers” these are approaches that can help in the creation of awareness on the issue of climate change.

Students in the school can also focus on the reduction of wastage: substantial waste reduction and recycling help in addressing climate change. The way we manufacture, transport and use products all play an essential role in the generation of greenhouse emissions (Meissner et al.). Waste prevention and recycling help in the reduction of greenhouse gases. The first focus for schools is always on the recycling bit then the other aspect such compositing purchasing policies; litter launches would come into play. There are also different focuses that seek to eliminate plastic bottles, shifting to paper-free, and running the waste reduction week (Rauken). All these efforts are at the management level. However, at the basic level of the student can engage in various activities that would eventually lead to the reduction of the carbon footprint. One thing that seems clear here is that these are not a complicated effort but things that are achievable.

While thinking of the approaches that students can use in ensuring that they contribute to dealing with the issue of global warming most students would have considered that it requires so much investment and time consumption. However, one thing that seems clear is that some of these efforts are cost-free and as cheap as being able to talk about these issues. The lack of information on climate change appears to be the biggest challenge to the effort to deal with the problem. Therefore, if the students might be at the forefront of holding talks and public rallies about these issues, then it could be easier to reduce the problem. Besides, as it has emerged as young people, we have much influence on what happens to most of our homes. With such control, it is possible to change our society and ensure that our parents buy products that are eco-friendly. Besides, there is strength in numbers, and if we can be able to pull the entire school to walk towards environmental sustainability, then it is possible to have a future that has less emission of these gases.

Works Cited

Zinke, Jens, et al. “Dealing with climate change through understanding past tropical ocean-atmosphere climate interactions and their impacts on marine ecosystems.” Quaternary Australasia 32.1 (2015): 25.

Rauken, Trude, Per Kristen Mydske, and MarteWinsvold. “Mainstreaming climate change adaptation at the local level.” Local Environment 20.4 (2015): 408-423.

Agnew, Robert. “Dire forecast: A theoretical model of the impact of climate change on crime.” Transnational Environmental Crime.Routledge, 2017.97-118.

Clark, Peter U., et al. “Consequences of twenty-first-century policy for multi-millennial climate and sea-level change.” Nature climate change 6.4 (2016): 360.

Challinor, Andrew J., et al. “A meta-analysis of crop yield under climate change and adaptation.” Nature Climate Change 4.4 (2014): 287.

Meissner, Katrin, et al. “Dealing with climate change: Palaeoclimate research in Australia.” Quaternary Australasia32.1 (2015): 19.

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