How unsettling is the fact that this summer will be the coldest on Earth?
Severe droughts, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, and many more climate impacts await us in the coming years if we don’t take climate change seriously. Combating climate change requires many drastic changes, starting with our daily lifestyle and ending with governmental and global decisions. Therefore, due to the sheer size of the problem and the lack of attention to it, it had to be made one of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The term “climate change” refers to long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns. These changes may be due to natural causes related to solar circulation, but since the eighteen hundred, humans have been the main cause of climate change. One of the most important causes of climate change is the burning fossil fuels like oil and gas. [1]
In general, climatic changes are any events that occur in the atmosphere or environment that are different from those to which we are accustomed/ different to what we are used to, such as increased summer precipitation and intense heat waves in cold countries.
Climate change is affecting all countries around the world and all aspects of life The climate crisis continues unabated and becomes more and more dangerous over time, while the global community is moving away from the full commitment required to reverse it. The decade 2010–2019 was the warmest ever recorded, causing wildfires, massive hurricanes, droughts, floods, and many other environmental disasters.
If left unchecked, climate change will cause average global temperatures to rise to more than 3°C, and will adversely affect every ecosystem. Indeed, we are seeing how climate change can exacerbate storms and disasters, and threats such as food and water scarcity, which can lead to conflict.
Doing nothing will end up costing us a lot more than if we take action now. We have an opportunity to take actions that will lead to more jobs, greater prosperity, and a better life for all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to climate change. [2]
The world is already reeling from the effects of extreme climate change, and there is no greater incentive to act than seeing global concerns about environmental changes beginning to come true. Therefore, based on the climatic reality of the world, we must realize the importance of addressing climate change.
Despite the minimal actions taken to tackle climate change, we cannot claim that the rest of the world is completely oblivious to the problem. efforts have been made, and several proposals and agreements, on what can be changed to limit the effects of climate change, the most important of which is the Paris, adopted in 2015, which aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the rise in global temperature in this century well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The agreement also aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change, through appropriate financial flows, a new technological framework, and an enhanced capacity-building framework. The Coronavirus pandemic crisis the world has witnessed gave us a new opportunity to build our economy in a more eco-friendly manner to stop climate change. The United Nations Secretary-General has proposed actions for governments once they begin to rebuild their economies and societies:
There is no doubt that we are all affected by the fires that break out annually around the world, especially forest fires, and we suffer from heat and cold waves that are worse every year. But are we making any effort to combat climate change as individuals? The answer is often no because we believe that no matter how much we try, our efforts will have no effect.
In fact, preserving the safety of our planet remains everyone’s responsibility and any effort made in this way will inevitably have an impact, so here are a few suggestions of what you can do as individuals to contribute to achieving the thirteenth goal:
If you feel that climate change does not concern you or you do not feel any responsibility to change something, remember that this summer will be the coldest summer you will ever have and last winter was the warmest winter of your life. To save ourselves and future generations, let us all act responsibly towards the environment in which we live.
And we, at Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative, always strive to raise awareness of these important and crucial issues, and we support all efforts made to reach them, with regard to this goal and other sustainable development goals, because it is our only means of achieving a safe and just life, ruled by peace.
Also read: Sustainable Development Goal 12.
♀️ Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative aims at sustainable peace building in Syria through targeting women and providing them with free online courses, workshops, discussion sessions and trainings, with a view to achieving the goals of Gender Equality, Quality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth, which all fall into the interest of society as a whole and serve the purpose of rebuilding it.
References:
[2] UN- Sustainable Devlopment.PDF
[4] UN- Act Now