Environmental issues and their social implications should be presented to children as a core component of their educational curricula given the climate change impacts we are seeing on a global scale.
While it is important not to frighten and alarm children, this knowledge helps them become aware of fundamental preservationist principles that should be adopted early in life. Adhering to these principles should be a core value of global citizenry.
Over the next 100 years:
- 0.8ºC - change in temperature would result in
- Heatwaves
- Oceans warming up
- Arctic icecaps melting
- Sea levels rising
- 1ºC - change in temperature would result in
- Rare species becoming extinct
- Coral reefs will be destroyed
- Island nations will sink
- 2ºC - change in temperature would result in
- Greenland melts
- Polar Bears go extinct
- Water supply affected
- 3ºC - change in temperature would result in
- Environmental refugees being displaced - seeking refuge
- Food shortages will be on the rise in first world nations
- The Amazon will collapse
- 4ºC - change in temperature would result in
- Millions of refugees now displaced
- 1/3 of Bangladesh will be under water
- Permafrost will melt - gases will be released into the atmosphere
- 5ºC - change in temperature would result in
- Most of the world would be uninhabitable
- Tsunamis would be rampant
- The Earth would be hotter than it has been in 55 million years
- We'd see mass extinction on a global scale
The economics of these changes would result in a minimum of a global GDP lowering by 20%, and that's a conservative figure. Essentially, the results of global warming would be worse than the following historical cocktail:
- War + Famine + Plague + Global Nuclear War
The way I see it, conservation strategies should be a core subject that today's global student should be taught in order to successfully address the pressing needs of our world going forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment