Environmental Change Speech – Causes, Effects And Solutions

Causes of Environmental Change

Discuss about the Environmental Change Speech.

Ozone layer depletion, Global warming, Greenhouse emissions etc are some of the terms we have been hearing about for quite some time now. All these terms imply the changing climatic conditions of the world, putting forth the bare reality that mankind is facing today. To increase income we have come up with industrialization, that not only resulted in mass production of a wide variety of products making our life luxuries but has also brought with it the concepts of deforestation, all kinds of pollution and a constantly rising temperature. A little too late, the world has realized that changes need to be made to the way we live if we intend to sustain mankind on the once luscious green earth. To make up for the cons of the fast moving concrete world, every human today is on the path to make amends to ensure that the environment around us is habitable (Intergovernmental, 2014).

One might be wondering if the climate has really changed that disastrously. It might seem fine today, because climate changes affect us just the way they affect the glaciers in the Artic. They melt the world. Slowly, so slowly that we don’t even realize when it started (Cohen, 2014). The changing climatic conditions may not has a huge impact today, but our future generations would be suffering from floods, drought, scarcity of natural resources and rising temperature if a step towards the betterment of environment is not taken (Trenberth, 2014). But I don’t need to point this out to you. You have already seen how the environment has degraded.

Do you remember the temperature of Canada a couple of years ago? Was it like it is today? Did so many natural calamities occur at this frequent intervals? Was is so hot, so cold, so rainy? I am sure you see the difference when you speak to your grandchildren about the places you lived your childhood in. So what has changed today? The dependency on technology and the need to earn more. We all are the captives of technology and development but make no mistake, technology has several positive effects. It is our responsibility to decrease the side effects of the same.

There are several ways like gardening, planting trees, using water and other natural resources carefully, cycling rather than using cars etc. to help the environment. But there are also ways were a little more investment would not only create a better world but would also help create jobs and increase the economic conditions of Canada (Intergovernmental, 2015)

Effects of Environmental Change

Our country is bountiful in crude oil, minerals and timber. However, if these resources are consumed at the same rate as today, it is only a matter of time before we run out of fuel. An investment in natural energies such as the solar and wind energy would help in sustaining the natural resources of Canada. This is a small investment and will open the doors to countless energy industries creating jobs for growing next generation bio-fuels, building solar panels, innovative battery technology and so on. A billion dollars invested in a coal fired power plant creates around 900 jobs, but when the same is invested in solar would create 1,900 jobs and when invested in wind would create 3,300. Also, it is an understatement to say that coal mining is a dangerous job. So simply changing to an alternative energy rather than using up the non-renewable energy sources would help in creating a better environment and at the same time employing large number of people (Rogelj, 2013).

One other activity is decreasing our carbon foot print. To do the same we would have to shift from high carbon activities to low carbon activities. These low carbon activities are labor intense hence are strong drivers for job creation, especially in clean transport, recycling, and clean infrastructure and energy sectors (Stone, 2012). Investing in small changes in and around our houses and work environment such as using insulated doors, gardening, using programmable thermostats etc. would create jobs in the small scale industry.

Using energy efficient infrastructure could be an extremely simple way to save the earth. Why use more power on an equipment that would not only effect your pocket but also release toxic gases such as Chloro Fluoro Carbons or pollute in some other forms, when investing in an energy efficient equipment would result not only in saving money, but also would consume less of the natural resources.

Not to mention, need for innovation and creative technology that would help in a greener earth is at its zenith today. Several small scale industries and startups such as the Toronto based Builddirect technologies inc or the Berlin-based Solarkisk today are coming up with plans and equipment that would help everyone to adopt to the climatic changes (Bulkeley, 2013). It is us who have to give these companies the chance to help us create a better environment. These companies have the ability to increase the hiring capacity in the current industry providing employment to simple labor as well as innovators who work on either sides of development (Hoffman, 2013). Energy industries may not need a lot of manual labor once set up but have the potential to increase the need to labor for pipelines, transportation and manual set up activities.

It is true that all the above ideas would cost us more than the conventional methods. But here we are not only giving our best to make sure we have a greener earth but are also providing employment to countless individuals. It is our responsibility to make sure that we take up the opportunity to see the bright side of a climate change investment, where we help create jobs and increase the country’s economy. Let us hope that our mere investment would be a contribution to everything that the Earth has given us.

References

Bulkeley, H. and Castán Broto, V., 2013. Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(3), pp.361-375.

Cohen, J., Screen, J.A., Furtado, J.C., Barlow, M., Whittleston, D., Coumou, D., Francis, J., Dethloff, K., Entekhabi, D., Overland, J. and Jones, J., 2014. Recent Arctic amplification and extreme mid-latitude weather. Nature geoscience, 7(9), pp.627-637.

Hoffman, A.J. and Woody, J.G., 2013. Climate change: what’s your business strategy?. Harvard Business Press.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014. Climate Change 2014–Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Regional Aspects. Cambridge University Press.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015. Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.

Rogelj, J., Meinshausen, M. and Knutti, R., 2012. Global warming under old and new scenarios using IPCC climate sensitivity range estimates. Nature climate change, 2(4), pp.248-253.

Stone, B., Vargo, J. and Habeeb, D., 2012. Managing climate change in cities: will climate action plans work?. Landscape and Urban Planning, 107(3), pp.263-271.

Trenberth, K.E., Dai, A., van der Schrier, G., Jones, P.D., Barichivich, J., Briffa, K.R. and Sheffield, J., 2014. Global warming and changes in drought. Nature Climate Change, 4(1), pp.17-22.