Climate change a 'scary legacy' for our kids

Last updated 05:00 16/06/2014

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OPINION: Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree that humans have caused climate change, and that the impacts on the earth, especially on the weather will be catastrophic.

But you don't have to be scientist to notice that the weather all over the world has been getting more and more extreme. 'Once in a decade' storms are becoming more common and deadlier, glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate, as is the ice at the poles.

As a result of this warming, many animal species are finding it hard to adapt, and therefore survive.

Yet many people, almost 23 per cent of Americans by some estimates, don't believe that climate change is real. They insist that it's a ploy by the Government to implement more taxes.

And the scary thing is that the number of people who believe this, is increasing.

It's no surprise as many corporations, especially those using fossil fuels, have pumped millions of dollars into this disinformation campaign. They've commissioned scientists to do research that proves their case.

No wonder, their businesses would cease to exist if cleaner, more sustainable technologies were to replace them.

The short-sightedness of these deliberate efforts to discredit scientists may well be the biggest tragedy of our time.

The scale of destruction if these storms and floods increase in intensity will be unprecedented, and that will in turn affect the food supply for humans.

So it's not simply that your summers will be a bit warmer and the winters cooler, but you may well have massive flooding, and more tornadoes and hurricanes, all of which may destroy many houses, and will have a huge negative impact on crops and humans animals that eat those crops.

By not focusing on a concerted effort to improve green technologies, we're leaving a scary legacy for our children.

On the other hand, if we take the extra effort to live more sustainably and to promote sustainable energy sources and technologies, we'll at least start to minimise the impact.

Leaders, especially ones that are paid by fossil-fuel corporations, won't do a thing to change this. They'll continue to put more money into diversionary misinformation that points the finger at some other source, which then ensures nothing substantial is done about the problem.

Bottom line is that Earth will survive, as it has after previous mass extinction events, but humans may not.

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If people don't elect leaders that are willing to make significant strides, and if they don't themselves make small changes in their lives to live more sustainably, then we as a species will fail, as we have before.

And it will be our children that pay the price, likely with their lives.

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