The longer leaders delay an agreement on climate change, the more we will suffer

Dear Editor,

John McConnell, founder of International Earth Day, said:  “Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will provide a sustainable future, eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life, and foster peaceful progress in the human adventure.” May this be remembered by all leaders when they meet to talk about the environment. They need to know that the quality of life we live in future is dependent on the decisions they make on the environment today. 

National Geographic established that the penguins’ decline in Antarctica is linked to climate change. This is more so seen with the emperor penguins, which are the most popular penguins, known for their black and white colours. Emperor penguins like it cold. Scientists have concluded that the penguins’ susceptibility to climate change accounts for a dramatic decline in their number over the past half century. 

Over the past 50 years, the population of Antarctica emperor penguins has declined by 50 per cent. Research has shown that an abnormally long warm spell in the Southern Ocean during the late 1970s contributed to a decline in the population of emperor penguins at Antarctica. 

Warmer air and sea surface temperatures in Antarctica reduce the amount of ice in the sea. This, in turn, leads to smaller populations of krill, a shrimp-like crustacean that is a staple of the emperor penguin’s diet. With less food to eat, emperor penguins die. 

A WWF report stated that climate change is the number one threat to the 22,000 polar bears that remain in the world. Polar bears are already suffering from a loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic; and that loss is set to get worse as the temperature heats up. 

Polar bears need sea ice to launch hunting expeditions for ringed seals. But longer ice-free periods restrict the time they can hunt each year. As sea ice is reduced in the Arctic, the polar bear’s basis for survival is being threatened. The sea ice is melting earlier in the spring, which is sending the polar bears to land earlier, without them having developed enough fat reserves. By the end of the summer, they are skinny bears, and it was seen in places like the Hudson Bay in Canada that their ability to successfully raise a litter is being jeopardized. 

Scientific data tells us that human activities have led to large increases in the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other heat-trapping gases, also known as greenhouse gases, in the Earth’s atmosphere during the past century. What is worse is that global temperatures are projected to continue rising over this century; by how much and for how long depends on a number of factors, including the amount of heat-trapping gas emissions, and how sensitive the climate is to those emissions. 

As a result of the growing abundance of these greenhouse gases, the global average air temperature has risen steadily over several decades. 

The unmistakable signs of a rapidly changing climate are everywhere – melting glaciers, heat waves, rising seas, flowers blooming earlier, lakes freezing later, migratory birds delaying their flights south.  

We need to put a stop to the temperature rising and disturbing the eco-system, which is affecting life on earth for both Man and animals. Leaders are meeting too often with little to show that they are serious about what is happening to our Earth, and that these meetings/discussions are worthwhile. The longer they take to agree on doing something to mitigate the effects of climate change, the more our environment and its inhabitants will suffer.

Yours faithfully,

Michael C Reid