The fall season started on Sept. 22 of this year, and I couldn’t help but notice how un-sweater-weather-like it was at first. Although the warmer weather was nice for a bit, I knew this was not normal.
As average temperatures rise over the next few years, outdoor activities for cold weather, like snowboarding or hockey, will begin to experience a decline with a scarcity of snow. Additionally, warmer outdoor activities will experience harsher weather conditions than in the past.
Growing up in both Las Vegas and Houston while playing competitive club soccer was difficult. Whenever I go back and visit these places, I cannot even fathom how I used to play in such conditions or how any youth player participates as temperatures continue to rise, especially in hotter seasons.
Professor of English and affiliated Faculty in Environmental Studies Stephanie LeMenager explained the impact of global climate change on altering seasons.
“With global climate change well underway, every aspect associated with the seasons — from expected temperatures to when certain plants wither or grow, when birds or animals come and go, whether we can expect snowfall — it’s all shifting,” LeMenager said.
From constant warnings by scientists to continuous disastrous storms that became more intense and destructive, the warnings have been present, and Mother Nature has been showing clear indications that something must change.
“Climate scholars and activists have been telling us that the seasons as we know them will become harder to recognize,” LeMenager said. “Losing the known seasons is one cultural and ecological byproduct of the climate crisis. Its collateral effects can be grief, inconvenience, the end of some loved activities [i.e., skiing] and new forms of recreation geared to the changing conditions.”
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has noted that human activities contributed to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and the reflectivity or absorption of the sun’s energy.
Key greenhouse gases have increased and caused the temperatures on Earth to rise. The burning of fossil fuels changes the climate more than any other human activity. Deforestation and road construction create changes in the reflectivity of sunlight on Earth’s surface that lead to warming or cooling, thus, creating aerosol emissions that alter temperatures unevenly around the globe and rainfall patterns.
UO senior and environmental studies major Josephine Miller discussed the impact of such activities.
“Each year we come face to face with a new peak in global heating, marking yet another ‘warmest year on record,’” Miller said. “We are living in what is known as the Anthropocene, an era defined by the profound impact of human activity on Earth’s climate and ecosystems.”
Humans have become the most influential species on the planet, contributing not only to changes in weather and temperature conditions but also to land, water, organisms and the atmosphere.
The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to tropical cyclones. As a Filipino-American, I struggle to ignore the constant signs from the world crying for our help to prevent increasingly dangerous disasters, as the Philippines and many of my relatives continue to face such circumstances. Typhoon Fung-wong is the most recent typhoon to hit the country.
“The accelerating pace of global warming is a stark reminder that our choices are reshaping the planet in real time, which should compel us to pursue large-scale mitigation efforts to reduce our impact and limit future warming,” Miller said.
Though the effects of climate change driven by human activity may seem to only be obscure for now, there will ultimately be a negative cumulative effect on what we may be able to do in the future.
We’ve got the whole world in our hands, so why not take care of it while we can?
