informative posts – The Society To Stop Climate Change

Having your name start with one of the last letters of the alphabet is terrible. Oh, I’m talking about my last name. No, N is not at the end of the alphabet. And you probably don’t really understand this since you don’t know my last name… forget it. *ahem*

Heya! ‘Tis Naomi, and today I decided that I’d go over some of the climate change words that are kinda not common. I’m sure some of you know at least MOST of these words, but sometimes I use them and realize that I’m not exactly using easy-to-understand words. I’ve done so much research for my posts that I’m very familiar with this terminology, but uh… not everyone is. So yeah. You probably didn’t need that explained, but I explained it. You could have skimmed it. You’re reading this voluntarily… right?

Ooh also, before we get to the actual post: I’m open to word suggestions! I’d actually really appreciate them, since I’m not sure what words you know and don’t. And maybe you’ll come up with a word that I don’t know either! And then we’ll BOTH learn something new. Oh gosh, I’m doing a long intro, aren’t I? Let’s get to the post.

Net zero is basically the goal right now. But what is it, exactly? In a net zero world, we’re taking as much carbon out of the atmosphere as we’re putting it. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we AREN’T putting carbon into the atmosphere, just that it’s canceled out by the other things we’re doing, like planting trees.

Is net zero the answer? The answer to that question is a long one (post coming soon: Net-Zero // Is It the Solution?), but basically, it’s complicated. While net zero is a good goal, we’re going to need to go… net negative (hehe, just made up that word) to actually keep our world… semi-unchanged. But anyway, long explanation, but hopefully now you get the term!

I’m grouping these together because they’re like… the same but opposite. Ok, ok, that sounded weird. I’m explaining, gosh!

Adaptation is when we basically cope with or adapt to a climate change changed world. There’s an amount of change that’s unstoppable now, and that’s what we need to adapt to. Things like creating climate-change-resistant crops count as climate change adaptations.

But we can still stop the worst of climate change, and that’s where mitigation comes in. Mitigation is when we do things that reduce climate change, like converting to electric vehicles or more environmental food.

Carbon sinks are the things that store carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere. The most famous of these are trees, but oceans and peatlands are some of the best carbon sinks that we have!

BBC Learning English. “Essential English Vocabulary: Climate Change and COP26.” Www.youtube.com, 5 Nov. 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4t-pXH4FBo.

“Climate Change Glossary.” BBC News, 13 Apr. 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11833685.

Selin, Noelle Eckley. “Carbon Sequestration | Definition, Methods, & Climate Change | Britannica.” Www.britannica.com, 16 Jan. 2019, http://www.britannica.com/technology/carbon-sequestration#ref1115867. Accessed 6 May 2022.

And that’s that! Until Monday…

Question of the day: What climate change-y words would you like to learn?
Action of the day: Learn about one carbon sink and do something to protect it!

Spring is so weird. Like, it’s freezing cold in the morning and then it’s sooooo hot in the evening and,.. I just hate it. Oh, hi. What? *speaking from the distance* oooh, well, weather kinda has to do with climate change, riiiight? *more speaking* FINE. Whatever. I’ll do the post…

Heya! ‘Tis Naomi, and today I’m answering google’s questions about climate change (or at least attempting to). I’ve seen a bunch of bloggers doing “Answering Google’s Questions About…” posts, but I got today’s inspiration from Maggie’s post.

Oh, and! Before I forget. Nope, I’m not dead – sorry I missed posting yesterday, I had blogger’s block for a week. Anyhow, without further ado… the post!

Why is climate change important?
Well, so. Do you want a 100-page essay or a paragraph? *speaking from the distance (I guess I’m writing this post with help from an audience member)* The paragraph? Ok then. Well, according to WWF, we’re losing animal species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the rate we would if humans didn’t exist. The sea levels are rising, which means that countries on the coastline will eventually disappear. There are wildfires in California that you can sometimes see across the country. And we have roughly 10 years to stop the worst of it. Does that convince you that climate change is important?

Why is climate change bad?
I’ll just refer you back up to the previous question.

Why is climate change happening?
We humans, by using fossil fuels and participating in other activities (such as large-scale farming), have released way more greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) into the air. This traps heat in our atmosphere and has… a lot of other effects on the earth.

Why is climate change good?
It’s not. While climate change may have some positive effects, such as increased plant growth in some places, this is not guaranteed and also presents the problem of invasive species growing better as well.

When is climate change tipping point?
Well, that question doesn’t necessarily have a simple answer. In general, we probably have around 10 years to stop climate change before it’s too late. However, smaller tipping points kind of… add up to that? For example, say that 20-25% of the Amazon Rainforest is cut down. This would disrupt the cycle of water evaporating into the air, which would cause most of the remaining rainforest to die out. If this happened, the rainforest would let out a lot of CO2, therefore contributing greatly to climate change. There’s a loooot more to talk about here, so expect a post on tipping points in the future….

When is climate change going to affect us?
Now. The wildfires in California might not be caused ONLY by climate change, but scientists believe that climate change is one of the causes of them. There’s been a dramatic rise in severe weather rates in recent years, leading scientists to believe THAT’S caused by climate change. Climate change warms the waters, which bleaches the coral reefs, which means less fish for us to eat. This isn’t a future problem. This is a now problem.

When is climate change going to stop?
Well, climate change isn’t going to just STOP. There’s a certain level of climate change that is irreversible at this point. We can’t bring back extinct animal species or refreeze glaciers. But if we can stop our emissions, we can stop climate change from getting much worse. It all depends on us.

Cho, Renee. “How Close Are We to Climate Tipping Points?” State of the Planet, 11 Nov. 2021, news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/11/11/how-close-are-we-to-climate-tipping-points/.

Herring, David. “Are There Positive Benefits from Global Warming? | NOAA Climate.gov.” Www.climate.gov, 29 Oct. 2020, http://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/are-there-positive-benefits-global-warming#:~:text=Also%2C%20studies%20show%20that%2C%20up.

NASA. “The Causes of Climate Change.” Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet, NASA, 23 Mar. 2022, climate.nasa.gov/causes/.

WWF. “How Many Species Are We Losing?” Panda.org, 2020, wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity/.

Phew, that was a long post for me. I tried to keep my answers short, but well. It didn’t work amazingly. This was one of those posts that made me want to go write a lot of other posts so that I can elaborate on all the things I talked about. But anyhow, thanks for reading to the end! See ya Friday!

Question of the Day: What was your favorite question in this post?
Action of the Day: Try not to use any plastic for a day!