By analyzing microscopic organisms, associate professor Daniel Clay Kelly in UW-Madison’s Department of Geoscience, studies the history of the earths’ climate that, explains how ocean acidification and rising carbon dioxide levels are causing catastrophic damage to our planet.
Deep-sea sediment records are used as an archived of the Earth’s climate that spans the last 170 million years of earth’s history.
“As paleontologists and geologists, we know the rock record is incomplete,” said Kelly. “It’s like …show more content…
One major concern, said Kelly, was the melting of polar ice caps, which will result in an increase in sea levels.
The majority of the world’s population lives in coastal areas and the increase in sea levels will force them to relocate, said Kelly.
“There will be a lot more people will be living in Wisconsin,” Kelly stated.
According to a report issued by the Pentagon, climate change is an “urgent and growing threat to our national security.”
The report also stated that global climate change would have wide-ranging implications for National Security because it will intensify existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, and environmental degradation.
Already, climate change is creating problems for the United States, according to an article by the Wall Street Journal. It is costing the economy billions of dollars as extreme weather such as flooding and drought hits every region of the country.
This problem, said Kelly, is increasing, and at an alarming rate and the human population is also increasing.
A recent report by the World Bank stated, that climate change could push more than 100 million people into poverty by the year 2030 which could have devastating effects on agriculture as well as increasing the spread of …show more content…
The United States and other countries have vowed to increase financing for climate change in developed countries to help them adapt to climate change as well as help decrease their emissions said the report.
Kelly noted that this problem is not the future, it is already happening. “The thing that scares me the most is with each successive human generation you are losing your natural heritage and you don’t even know it,” said