Personal Response - Are there solutions to climate change and global warming?

“There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change if we take strong action now.”

Ladies and gentlemen, we are being continually bombarded by news the negative consequences of climate change on the Earth. Some of these reports state that it is already too late to take action; however, like Sir Nicholas Stern, I believe that if we take strong action now, we can mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.

There are a number of possible solutions. First of all, it is vital that we significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, thereby allowing solar radiation to naturally enter and leave the atmosphere, leading to a cooler planet. Furthermore, we must greatly decrease the amount of waste, particularly plastics. The production of plastics also results in increased GHG emissions as well as taking thousands of years to bio-degrade. And where do we store all this rubbish? Moreover, rather than indiscriminately cutting down trees, which naturally store carbon in their roots and produce cleaner air, we need to encourage people to plant more trees to absorb harmful carbon deposits. But we must also protect the farmers and help them to farm using more environmentally-friendly techniques. Finally, while individually we have the power to help mitigate the worst effects of climate change, we need to persuade our governments, politicians and businessmen to consider climate change from a larger, global perspective.

To conclude my speech, I would like to say that we should not give up hope in the fight against global warming and climate change; however, we do need to work both individually and collectively to solve the problems. Thank you.