Remember, climate is an already established weather pattern for a given geographical region over a long period of time ranging between 30-35 years but before we move on let us draw a certain picture in our minds.

A climatic change picture in mind.

You are sitting in a balcony of your house looking and enjoying the beautiful scenery of your piece of land and the house compound surrounded with flowers.

The piece of your land is evenly covered with different types of green-leaved trees whereby the birds of the sky are playing over them and a small river is flow through your land which is graced with swimming fishes and flying butterflies. The environment is very green with clean air.

We all agree that that kind of environment is very pacifying and therapeutic to our bodies and minds.

None of us would like to loss that kind of serene environment. Preserving such green space, I believe, would be our number one concern.

Unfortunately, all over a sudden, some economic investors come into neighborhood and then construct an agricultural based factory.

Few months down the line, you start noting some changes on your piece of land and the house compound; butterflies are decreasing in number, some flowers and tree leaves are fading away, some fishes are dead floating on the river and worse still the air is becoming smoky as well as its freshness is decreasing. 

Human activities specifically burning of fossil fuels

With that picture in mind, that is how our climate has been and is changing due our human activities of burning fossil fuels: oil, coal, natural gas, etc to produce energy for our domestic, industrial and transport needs.

When these fossil fuels are burned they produce types of gases called the greenhouse gases (GHGs):

• Carbon dioxide – (CO2)
• Methane – (CH4)
• Nitrous oxide – (N2O)
• Hydro fluorocarbons – (HFCs)
• Per fluorocarbons – (PFCs)
• Sulfur hexafluoride – (SF6).

Then, these gases forms a ‘wall’/’shield’ in the atmosphere hindering the planet earth from warming and cooling in its balanced natural way.

At this point we get what we call the greenhouse effect which means that the earth becomes warmer day by day or rather the planet becomes hot and hotter due to the retention of the heat from the sun that was supposed to be reflected back into the atmosphere and then disappear into the space.

Consequently, this too much warming of the earth we are calling global warming directly cause the climate systems or patterns to change in a very big way negatively affecting our human lives, animals and plants lives.

If, for example, your region was receiving rain in a particular monthsor season of the year, you find out that the rainfall is sometimes decreasing in amount and or duration. Other times, the rain is getting delayed in a month time and when it rains it is heavy and shorter than usual.

The effects of the climate change

What follows is that, in a connected way, environmentally, a lot of bad things are affecting us; the people, the animals and the plants due to negative change of weather patterns and climate system. 

1. Drought

Some parts of the world are receiving minimum rainfall per year, well and springs are disappearing, some rivers, especially seasonal rivers have run dry and completely disappearing.

This has mostly affected those local communities and indigenous peoples who rely on these water sources to fetch water for their domestic and small scale farming.

Wild animals lack sufficient water since their drinking water points are drying away and therefore they walk for a long distance looking for drinking water; which makes them to move from their original habitats into new habitats.

On the same note, various types of plants, which [some] are used as food for peoples and animals, starts to fade away and finally they die out due to insufficient water.

2. Famine

When water is insufficient and/or there is none at all, what comes next is scarcity of food. This leads to starvation, and / or death of people and of animals as well.

We see this manifesting itself mostly in areas inhabited by people who do subsistence farming as their source of food and income.

Animals in parks and forests lack enough food [grass and shrubs] to eat and so they either die or becomes weak even unable to reproduce.

3. Human displacements

When weather and climate pattern becomes extremely risky to human life, people naturally move from their settlement areas and go to look for new settling areas which can be either within their national borders or in their neighboring countries if they live along or close to national borders. Such people are categorized either as Internally displaced persons [IDPs] or climate refugees.

If latter is true, they become climate refugees and if former is the case, they are environmental internally displaced persons.

4. Poverty

If certain people were relying on a particular sector for earning their livelihood and that sector is negatively affected by the change of climate, the poverty level rises.

Take fishing and marine tourism as example.

When marine fauna and flora are affected by climate change, ,may be due to destruction of fishing grounds, coral reliefs  and mangrove forests by rising ocean and sea water levels and strong ocean currents

The source of food for the coastal communities decreases causing to hunger thus leading to poor health. Furthermore, their economic activities also decreases thus poverty level increases.

Conclusion & the way forward

Altogether, the good news is that we can halt and reverse all these climate change ordeals if we take the right and just [positive] climate actions that are informed by environmental and climate scientific research reports.

To restore our climate in the right pattern and balance of nature, the first step is to shift from sourcing our energy from [burning of] fossil fuels to green energy [solar and wind] for it is readily available, renewable, affordable, green and clean.

It will take a lot of intellectual, financial and technical resources to achieve this green energy goal. Climate change is defeatable; climate actions are a must in overcoming climate crisis. Green energy is the real deal, the future we create.