Climate Change: More Often than not, Invisible.
Earlier in the year before I took VCC when I thought of climate change, a few images came to mind. Initially I visualized the permafrost melting or vehicle admissions sending a repulsive yellow/brown layer of green house gasses and CO2 in the atmosphere, causing global temperature rise etc. Almost a Wall-E inspired view of the earth from space. A brown planet over ruled by pollution, garbage and human alteration. But throughout these last few months looking into climate change I’ve learned that it can be a lot more subtle and go unseen by the naked eye. People don’t usually sit and stare at glaciers for weeks or test water run-off next to highways or even watch the tides get more extreme over time. But these things are scientifically proven to be happening, and way faster than within the range of natural variation.
Although I still have hope for a better healthy state for our planet, the thought of our over populated selfish natured population makes it hard for me to visualize everyone taking a stand against climate change. It would take a large amount of our population to wake up and realize that our home needs us. We are the species that made the biggest impact and we need to turn against our harmful ways (and it needs to happen soon). At this point in time, carbon emissions will cause the sea level to rise by 4 feet no matter what we do! Even if climate change is limited we are committed to a 80 feet sea level rise in the next 2,000 years (Sea Level Rise Update 2016). Climate change is the most pressing issue going on in our world today. Our oceans are warming, acidifying and water levels are rising. Our species are dying off because of habitat destruction/ climate change. While its normal for climates to change dynamically through out history, ex ice age, humans are speeding up the process immensely in non natural way.
In this blog I will be representing a few places of field study including East Bay Waterfront Park, Forks/La Push, and Mt Rainier as places in direct danger to the grip of sea level rise and climate change. I’m doing so through many different mediums like photography, present studies/writings, and maps. Join me as I learn more about these at-risk pieces of land and more about climate change overall.
