If the swiftly melting, swiftly heating planet isn’t enough to get you doing everything you can to fight the world’s climate emergency, perhaps this will inspire you to act: Climate change could, like, totally ruin your summer.
As the planet and its oceans heat up, big changes could be coming to the way we spend our holidays if we don’t quickly curb our greenhouse gas emissions. Here are a few ways that the changing climate could dramatically impact your summer plans:
- More heat waves
- More humidity
- Worse sunburns
- Higher air-conditioning costs
- More heat stress, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke
- More and worse air pollution
- Disappearing beaches
- Water shortages
- More summer allergies
- More ticks
- More mosquitoes
- More sharks at northern beaches
- More algal blooms taking over lakes
- Bigger storms
- More expensive barbecues
- Higher ice cream prices
- No more Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup
- Railroad disruptions
- Increasing travel costs
- Fewer landmarks to visit in the U.S. and abroad
- Less disposable income to spend on summer fun
- Your favorite rosé may disappear
If, however, countries meet carbon-cutting goals, proactively adapt to a warming world, and work together to make sure that global temperatures rise less than 2 degrees Celsius, as set out in the Paris Agreement, this scenario will be much less likely, and we could all go back to enjoying our summers.
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