How does this affect me?

The effects of climate change will be - and have been - devastating throughout the world. It affects many aspects of our society, from the natural world to the financial structure of everything that humans have built. Climate change is dangerous, and deadly, and has already caused damage to roads, buildings, the economy as a whole and taken the lives of many people.

Climate change has many long-term and short-term effects. In the short term, we will lose things like coffee, chocolate, and other naturally obtained materials such as rubber. In the long term, we will begin to see a dramatic increase in extreme weather, damaging cities and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in building repair. Animals will begin to die out and droughts will strike certain parts of the world, decreasing the amount of food that farms produce and damaging the economy on both national and global levels. As ocean levels rise, towns and cities will flood. In fact, places like the Maldive Islands are already flooding, and scientists predict that they will be 80% uninhabitable by 2050. That's less than thirty years from now. This is a truth that is reflected in almost every country on the ocean and could end up killing and displacing millions of people.

It might seem like a far-away truth, but in reality, climate change affects everybody who lives on the Earth, even now. You may be one of the lucky few who is safe for the foreseeable future, but you still eat food. According to Keep Farming California, 90% of almonds in the world come from California. If sea levels rise enough... that's the end of almonds as we know them and so much more. You rely on food from Earth, water from Earth, the space that Earth provides, even the oxygen that Earth protects for us. Climate change could take all of this away and more. Things that require snow, like skiing, will be in danger as snowfall decreases and temperatures rise. Animals that rely on certain climates to survive will begin to die as the overall climate becomes more and more dangerous.

However, this is a preventable future. If we, as humans, work to break the progression of this disease of nature, we can and will stop the crisis before it really begins, but it takes more than just words on a page. Let your voice be heard, and don't wait. Remember: There is no eraser for global destruction. Preventing it is up to you.