Take responsibility!

When you are a teenager, most of your thoughts are based on homework, friends, family and a possible boyfriend or girlfriend. As a teenager, this is totally normal and understandable, but at the same time, we should not forget about the world around us and things that are more important. I am thinking about global warming.

I am sure you have heard about this global warming on the news or in the papers, or maybe even from your parents. It is a very controversial issue and some actually claim that there is no such thing as global warming. In this blog post, I am going to show you how we know that there is a global warming, tell you what global warming is and how we can prevent it from developing.

Global warming means that the average temperature on the earth is increasing. Scientists believes that the temperature started increasing slowly for about a hundred years ago and that it in the last 60-70 years has increased more dramatically. This is due to human emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2, which is a gas that makes it harder for the earth' heat to get out of the atmosphere and the earth gets heated up.
I think a lot of people do not take this seriously because they do not understand how a few degrees can hurt so much. Well, THEY CAN! I will tell you why.

According to the IPCC, some of the consequences of global warming could for example be more extreme weather, rising sea levels, less food and water, desertification, extinction of plant- and animal species etc. One of the worst consequences would have to be the rising sea levels. If the sea rises, many countries along the coastlines will go under water and many lives will be lost. The IPCC says that if the emissions of CO2 does not improve, the sea will rise up to a 100 meters by 2100 and at least two million people will die.
In addition, desertification will make it nearly impossible to farm in certain places and food and water will be short supply.

The main reason why global warming occurs is the human emission of greenhouse gases. Examples of these are methane, ozone and CO2. These emissions come from air traffic, traffic, oil heating, oil exploration, garbage landfills and agriculture production.

After reading this, you should feel a little bit wiser on what global warming is and where it comes from. However, the most important thing to learn is how to prevent it from developing any more. Well, as you can see in the paragraph above, global warming occurs by emissions of greenhouse gases and those emissions come from cars, planes, oil and so on. The best thing you can do to help the world and to make a difference is; cut down on your consumption! Shop less clothes and other things that are transported from far away, turn off the lights when you leave the house, do not go on unnecessary vacations and let the car stay at home sometimes. These little things make a big difference! If everyone would just sacrifice a little bit, we would save or world from so much pain.

Have you ever dreamed about having kids when you grow up? To make your own little family? I have! Have you ever thought about you one day becoming a grandparent? I have thought about that too. I am looking forward to that. I am looking forward to see my children and grandchildren growing up to be healthy beautiful kids.

One day it hit me that they might not be able to do that; to grow up and be healthy and live a good life because WE RUINED THEIR EARTH! Because that is exactly what we do. We decide our descendants' future! It would be awfully selfish of us to ruin someone else life because we just do not care to make an effort. Because we just love to go on vacation or hate to take the train in the morning.

The future looks bad if we do not make a change. No excuse is good enough for not caring. We are responsible for our own actions. Take responsibility! Make a little change in your life and you will make a big change for someone else's life!

Thank you.