The Beginner's Guide to the Environment

An image of the planet Earth wasting away. Image Credit: Science X Network

It's time.

​After witnessing various social media campaigns, environmental disasters, and eco-friendly ratifications, you want to truly become a green advocate. However, it all seems a little overwhelming to stomach at first. There's devastating deforestation there, blistering fires here, and suffocating pollution all over the world. You don't know exactly where to start. Well you're in luck! Here is a simple guide to the issues any environmentally-conscious person ought to know.

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Let's start with the ultimate buzzword: climate change. What is climate change? Is climate change a hoax? How does one stop climate change? Put simply, climate change refers to Earth's rising global temperature. A few degrees rise in Earth's climate system can and has spelled out severe environmental disaster. Now this might sound ridiculous to you, and many others, but the amount of climate change evidence is staggering. Many respected scientific organizations have churned out study after study, providing us with as many climate change maps and climate change statistics you need to verify the validity of climate change for yourself. 

A graph illustrates the rising global temperature over the past few centuries. Image Credit: BBC

Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
                                                                                                - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

NASA has a great, comprehensive website dedicated solely to climate change; they not only have detailed graphic demonstrations and constant updates on current environmental events, but they also include information on how to stop climate change. (Hint: It includes mitigation and adaptation.)

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Let's move on to the next big topic. Pollution. It's probably the issue that's affected our daily life the most. Pollution is the cause for Teslas and metal straws and reusable bags. Still, many might be asking for the proper definition of pollution. Pollution is the presence of harmful and foreign substances in an environment.  To begin to further parse down the concept, we first must acknowledge that there's many kinds of pollution.  Air pollution, light pollution, ocean pollution, and plastic pollution are just a few forms. There are many pollution maps to help with visualizing this environmental issue–whether it's point source pollution, non-point source pollution, pollution by country, or pollution by city. National Geographic has a thorough encyclopedic entry on pollution.

A graph displaying how many people live in areas with dangerous exposure to air pollutants. Image Credit: World Health Organization (WHO)

A water pollution map. Image Credit: World Health Organization (WHO)

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Alright, let's tackle the next issue: deforestation. We’ve all probably heard of the Amazon rainforest deforestation, but really, what is deforestation? Put simply, the definition of deforestation is the permanent removal of trees to convert the land for commercial or urban use. Deforestation effects can be devastating to the native ecosystem–millions of animals are displaced every year due to new land developments, and it's gotten to the point where species are going extinct every day. (In fact, we're technically in the middle of a mass extinction right now.) Deforestation maps and deforestation statistics can clearly illustrate the exponential growth of this practice. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) gives more insight on this topic as well as solutions on how to prevent and stop deforestation.

This maps illustrates how much of the Amazon rain forest has been deforested and how much damage has been caused by the Amazon rain forest fires. Image Credit: The New York TImes

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​The next alarming thing on our list? The melting of the polar ice caps. Caused primarily by increasing global temperature, this disaster may have the most shocking visual effects. There are many photos documenting the exponential atrophy of the ice caps. And you may ask what exactly the effects of the polar ice caps melting are. Well, aside from acres and acres of habitat disappearing each week, this is the answer to another distressing question. Why are sea levels rising? At the current rate, many coastal cities and islands are going to experience severe and permanent flooding. In fact, this is already the case for the Marshall Islands, the Maldives, and Kiribati.

This picture demonstrates the contrast between the ice caps in 1984 and 2016. Image Credit: NASA

This graph shows the steady rise of global sea levels. It answers the question of how far are sea levels rising. Image Credit: NASA

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​And lastly, after learning about the various ecological issues plaguing Earth right now, you may be thinking about how you can begin green and smart living and start conserving. This website exists for that exact purpose. We are here to help teach you how to combat climate change locally and personally. You don’t need to be a part of the civilian conservation corps to help–the Ecolibrium Project will guide you on your journey towards being a more environmentally-conscious person!

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Angelina Suy is a high school junior in Central California. Alongside a variety of AP and honors classes, she loves to participate in service, culture, and science based clubs and activities including, but not limited to, the Women in STEM Club, Science Olympiad, and Robotics FIRST Outreach. She hopes to pursue Biomedical Engineering after graduation. Angelina hopes that with the Ecolibrium Project, she can spread awareness to help save the natural beauty of the world.