Climate change is said to be the biggest global issue that we will face, in all of history. With scientists finding substantial evidence that climate change will cause the extinction of many animals, changes in temperature, melting icebergs, more frequent droughts, and increased numbers of bushfires, there is absolutely no reason why the world leaders should be ignoring this problem.

Or why so many deny it exists at all.

Let’s look at the science.

Climate-change’s main initiator is a gas called Carbon Dioxide. Carbon dioxide traps heat in our earth’s atmosphere, and through time the heat continuously builds up, causing hundreds of problems for our Earth's health. Firstly, this build-up of heat increases our global temperature. Since the late 19th century, the average global temperature has increased by 1.14 degrees Celsius. More than half of this increase occurred during the last 40 years. For the last 6 years, we have faced the warmest years on record.

The problems don’t stop there.

The ocean has been absorbing the trapped heat and as a result, 100 meters of the ocean (closest to the surface) have seen an increase in temperature of about 0.33 degrees Celsius during the last 50 years.

Using the data from Nasa’s climate experiment, both Greenland and Antarctica have seen a large decrease in ice. On average (since 1993) Greenland has lost 279 Billion tons of ice, meanwhile, Antarctica has lost 148 billion tons.  To make this easier to understand, imagine the world’s biggest living creature: A blue whale. The average Blue Whale weighs around 150-200 tons. 279 billion tons of ice is equal to 1.86 BILLION blue whales. (in weight)

Sadly, this isn’t where the melting ice stops. All around the world the glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate. In the Himalayas, a total of 600 glaciers (as of 1990) have started their retreat, compared to only 320 in 1970. These glaciers are melting very quickly, causing dangerous floods and naturally created dams.

Due to the melting ice, our water levels have seen a rise of 20cm in the last century, problems that the rising sea levels instigate are devastating for coastal habitats, erosion (breaks down the earth’s surface), flooding in the wetlands (and coastal areas), salt contamination in agricultural land and the loss of habitat for fish and plants.

And it gets worse. The rate that these water levels are rising has almost doubled during the last two decades…and it’s only getting faster.

Another problem when it comes to climate change is deforestation and species endangerment.

Over one million different species of animals and plants are endangered due to the problems that climate change introduces. Animals are getting pushed out of their natural habitat because of the changing temperature levels, scarcity in food and water, and constant deforestation. 3.5 to 7 billion trees are getting cut down every single year, carelessly destroying 7 billion possible homes for animals.

Over 50,000 species of animals are going extinct every year, meaning that in the next 25 years, 10% of the world's species will die out.

How does deforestation link to climate change? Well, every time a tree is cut and burned down or left to rot, the tree’s stored carbon dioxide is released into the earth’s atmosphere.

So why can’t we stop emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide?  

Carbon dioxide is emitted from some of the most important resources on our earth. Without these resources, we wouldn’t be as advanced as we are today. Sources that emit carbon dioxide are deforestation, burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and building (creating cement).

Although the Australian government has constantly ignored the option of completely eradicating these fossil fuels, they have found some new ways to fuel our world with renewable energy. Some of these renewable energies are solar energy (e.g. Solar panels), Wind energy, Hydro energy, Tidal energy, and more.

Desmond Tutu, a representative of The Climate Reality Project stated in an interview that “twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much or doing much about climate change. Today we have no excuse,”

And he is right, with the media attention that this topic has received during the last few years and the level of seriousness it has reached, I believe that it is absolutely disgraceful that these politicians are leaving our generation with this major obstacle, yes, we are creating the movement, but do we really have control over the world’s laws?