by April Rodgers, SCWF member and volunteer
The changing Earth is a living classroom that should compel next the generations to be better stewards of our planet’s natural resources. As a parent, I enjoy sharing knowledge with my children about how our Earth works.
It’s important for the next generation of scientists and engineers — and frankly, all human beings — to recognize how our planet works, and how the actions we take affect our air, our waters, our lands, and our lives. What we do now, and how effective we are in educating today’s students, will have a significant impact on climate challenges now and in the future.
Some climate change impacts are more visible than others. We’ve all seen the sad images of polar bears whose ice-laden habitats are melting away. We see glaciers breaking apart and melting into the warming and acidifying sea. After big hurricanes, we see shorelines erode, bringing water further inland as the tide comes in; threatening wildlife habitat, and affecting recreation and eco-tourism.
Those are important visible and unfortunate symptoms of a changing climate. But symptoms that may not be as easy to spot are having detrimental impacts as well.
It’s no surprise to anyone that air temperatures are getting warmer. Last year, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reported that 2019 had the hottest summer on record. 2020 turned out to be even hotter.
We all feel the sauna-like heat when we step outside on a hot summer day and our wallets feel it too, as our power bills jump sharply when air conditioners are cranked up around the clock.
But atmospheric temperatures affect Earth's water cycle as well, causing changes to clouds and precipitation and increasing water evaporation, resulting in more frequent and stronger storms, including more major hurricanes that contribute to widespread floods and severely impact South Carolina’s diverse ecosystems, personal property, infrastructure, and quality of life. Flooding also has more immediate consequences, including blocking roads and impeding access to emergency services during storms.
Rising air temperatures affect agriculture as well; hotter air increases evaporation from soil, leading to droughts and bare fields — when the rain finally does come, the stronger and more powerful downpours that we see due to increased ocean temperatures wind up creating severe erosion and run-off of nutrient-rich topsoil. This can be disastrous for farmers who count on healthy land for their livelihoods, as well as the communities who depend on those crops.
These changes to our weather patterns and water cycles are a difficult reality that are consequences, at least in part, of human actions. To counter all that we do in our daily lives that accelerates and intensifies climate change, we have to commit ourselves to elect policymakers who will take actions to reduce the pollution that’s contributing to this problem.
Our energy and transportation sectors are the most significant contributors to the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, so we must accelerate our transition to clean energy sources like solar and wind. We must also support efforts to replace traditional vehicles with electric and low emission varieties, as well as modify and improve infrastructure to support the transition.
The increasingly visible signs of climate change turning our surroundings into a living classroom experiment, of sorts, that our children can see, learn from and impact. We need to help them learn to make positive changes to avoid further negative impacts and reverse the damage that has been done.
It’s sad that we are raising the next generation during a time when these detrimental impacts to our waters and lands are so evident, but with the right education and information, hopefully these signs will compel them and us to make different, better choices. With the right actions, we can set policies and practices in place to slow these alarming changes, and allow us to be better stewards of our world’s natural resources moving forward.
April Rodgers is a South Carolina Wildlife Federation member. Visit www.scwf.org for more information.
Banner image by: Kate Levasseur
Published in:
Spartanburg Herald-Journal - https://www.goupstate.com/story/opinion/2021/07/28/south-carolina-wildlife-federation-member-education-climate-change-energy-resources-weather-policy/8067336002/