By Theodore Mattheiss
Opinion Editor
A study released recently by scientists in the UK and the Netherlands has declared that the deadline to prevent disastrous results caused by the ongoing problem of climate change is the year 2035. If the nations of the world have not taken decisive steps to limit the warming of the atmosphere by then, our global ecosystem will cross a point of no return.
According to a press release from the European Geosciences Union, “Dijkstra and his colleagues at the Utrecht Centre for Complex Systems Studies and at Oxford University, UK, wanted to find the ‘point of no return’ or deadline for climate action: the latest possible year to start strongly cutting greenhouse-gas emissions before it’s too late to avoid dangerous climate change.”
The study found that unless substantial changes are made to halt the emission of carbon into our atmosphere by 2035, it will become impossible at that point to prevent the global average temperature from warming by 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.
Scientists agree that a change in temperature by 2 degrees would have a varied and severe effect on several of Earth’s natural systems, causing droughts, fires, floods, and hurricanes.
Concerns about climate change are already beginning to boil over in light of real, noticable effects. Take, for example, the two uncharacteristically strong hurricanes Harvey and Maria, which devastated the U.S. last year, or the 2012 monster so intense it took on a classification all its own: Superstorm Sandy.
A recent heatwave in Britain has ignited the concerns of the nation’s people, with 72 percent saying they are “very” or “fairly” concerned about the global problem.
This climate change deadline is important because of the far-reaching consequences humanity will have to face if it misses that deadline.
For talking about climate effects in 2100, the deadline is relatively close, and leaves the governments of the world with a scarce amount of time to get their priorities straight.
The deadline is made all the more critical by the fact that the United States is currently headed in the wrong direction on climate issues.
Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2017, a global contract originally committed to by all of the member states of the United Nations.
Major climate affectors around the world agreed to do their part to halt the warming of our planet by cutting carbon emissions and adapting technology to suit the changing needs of our ecosystem.
The Paris Agreement is one of the greatest accomplishments made by the world in recent times, if you ask me, and the misguided decision to withdraw from it was directed not by sound judgement, but rather by the selfish interests of companies and the wealthy elite within our country, of whom the president is a part.
It’s time to stop letting profit blind the legislative decisions of the government. The evidence is here, right in front of us, and every leader in the world ought to acknowledge it.