Well despite our rather long reprieve from blogging, not that we have enthralling content or anything that you would miss, we are back. No excuses, just honesty, we have been tied up in changing up our catalog offering. So, here we are yet again back to reality and trying to generate content that is worthwhile for our shoppers. So, we landed on a rather large, and controversial one: Climate Change.
We all understand the climate is changing, the science is there. The point of debate, however, is what is affecting the climate. So, in this blog, we will uncover the facts that point us to the most plausible causation, and potentially, if we could, or for that matter should, be attempting to alter this change. Not to mention, whilst also shamelessly hyperlinking clothing we offer that could help keep you cool as things heat up… what… we are a business after all. Would you rather have us be honest, or sneaky? Plain, is to boring to be sneaky.
Temperature Fluctuations Throughout History
We aren’t scientist by any means, but we can indeed look up the data as is presented to us online, and throughout research papers. The Earth’s temperature has increased by around 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1880. Which can, and does seem rather alarming. Nobody truly likes change with their environment, and the pitfalls of a warming climate do outweigh the positives. Some of the most alarming being the eradication of species, and rising sea levels displacing millions around the world. There are some other rather alarming global warming figures as of 2020:
- Rate of warming 40 years: 0.32° F (0.18° C) per decade since 1981
- 2020 was the second-warmest year on record based on NOAA’s temperature data
- Averaged across land and ocean, the 2020 surface temperature was 1.76° F (0.98° Celsius) warmer than the twentieth-century average of 57.0°F
- The 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005
- From 1900 to 1980 a new temperature record was set on average every 13.5 years; from 1981–2019, a new record was set every 3 years.
The list goes on. All seemingly very alarming, and with the help of some summer shorts you can indeed keep a bit cooler this summer. However, to better fight this outside of changing our wardrobes, we need to understand more about how and why our environment is warming. Is it mainly because of human activity, is it something more natural, a bit of both, or something else entirely? To first unearth all of these questions, it helps to understand our history, and not just the history of the human race, but rather, Earth’s.
Seasons – The Bigger Picture
We are all familiar with how seasons work. In many parts of the world, the inhabitants are lucky, or unlucky enough depending on your point of view, to experience seasons. However, what many do not realize, is that our Earth, on a global scale, experiences its own kind of seasonality, of which is a much longer cycle than our own.
If we go back and look at the overall global temperatures which are derived from ice cores across two different studies; one being Annan & Hargreaves and the other Shakun Et Al we can see two fluctuations of temperature over time and bring about a standard level of confidence. Let us tell you, it was rather cold on this planet at the start of this study and the climate was rather different, I bet the primitive humans of the time would have enjoyed these jackets to keep them warm. Shameless plug aside, the data is there. However, once we roll back the bigger picture you can see an overall trend occurring. Starting at around -3.5 degrees at around 16,000 BC, over time however, the average temperature increases, slowly, over thousands of years. What caused these overall changes in temperature you ask? Natural rotations and position of the Earth in our solar system. Of course these changes affect how the sun hits our planet, and how the natural warming cause the glaciers to erode, thus, allowing the planet to reflect less sunlight, causing our planet to warm. Some other naturally occurring changes that affect climate change are:
- Orbital Changes
- Solar Activity
- Volcanoes
Human Activity
It is of no doubt that humans are shaking things up here on Earth. We have been kicking up around 48% of additional C02 in the atmosphere. However this number gets a bit complicated depending on exactly how you view it. In theory, that additional C02 is being generated from the additional burning of our fossil fuels. Some of that carbon gets reabsorbed into the Earth, and the rest remains in our atmosphere. There are other human activities that affect our environment which are: deforestation, ozone aerosols, and greenhouse gasses. It goes without saying that humans, as we progress, are affecting this number, but by how much, and exactly how much of that is truly altering our temperature? We again have to look back at the history. We can see that around the age of enlightenment and the industrial revolutions during the 1700s we see a massive shift in global temperature trends, along with other shifts like increasing land use, C02 emissions, life expectancy, population, and GDP growth. It goes without saying that the shift bumped us a heathy two degrees above the average, which I am sure makes those summer shorts and rompers much more attractive. Scientists are also predicting a vast increase in our temperature over the next few years should nothing be done, and an averaging out should we undergo major shifts in our work n assuring that we are reducing the amount of carbon produced in the atmosphere.
What Can be Done
There are a lot of things that could be done to reverse what is currently happening in our environment and for yourselves to better prepare for the increasing heat. The second is a bit easier, you can prepare by browsing some summer clothing on our website. We got shorts, short sleeve shirts, and hats to block out that scorching sun. You name it, we got it. But aside from those easier forms of keeping cool, perhaps we can tap into many different avenues for protecting our planet, other than just writing about it, complaining, or alienating others.
Some combatants are a bit easier to bring to mind. One essentially is campaigning with elected officials to help not only increase awareness of climate change, but enact policies to help decrease the rate of which businesses produce harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases that are impacting our way of life. We can also design more economically friendly forms of transportation, and energy emission. That, is not truly up to some specific governments, but individuals and businesses. For example, producing electric cars, may on the surface seem more economical, but they do harvest natural resources and product their own level of environmental impact when those resources are mined. Nuclear energy is another great alternative, and on paper, is much safer than traditional forms of energy production, however there is a lot of uncertainty and fear surrounding harm that these installations can produce should something go wrong. Perhaps even further, we can somehow produce giant reflective sheets, that mimic the reflectiveness that the eroding polar icecaps provided us in the past, which helped to keep our planet cool. Harvesting wind energy has also proven useful, but not efficient. The best play currently, is for deindustrialization, however that is going to impact global business and human well-being which does not seem feasible to many world leaders, not to mention people.
How do you think we can change the curve of our own impact on our climate? Feel free to leave this in the comments below and discuss, however, it may prove useful to think outside of the traditional box. There are other external factors that affect our climate like position of the Earth, where we are in the galactic position, and some even argue are universal position may affect climate as well. There are a multitude of factors affecting our temperature and climate, however it is important to understand, that we can make a difference, we just haven’t hit the right buttons yet, and there are things that are currently pledged that look rather promising. There are still many large industrialized countries that are not making substantial progress towards our environment.
Think of some ideas and slip them in below. We would love to see them. What was written here has been derived from a handful of sources that we will leave below, however Plain, as a brand, has no true position on climate change. We are just offering the ingredients, from a very broad non technical level, for discussion. You can prevent the heat from dressing down in the summer with a lot of items that we offer here too. But the true change we all want: do more research, think outside the box, come up with some ideas. Simple as that.
Citations:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/despite-decades-of-climate-awareness-earth-is-getting-hotter-deadlier/#:~:text=Since%201992%2C%20global%20temperatures%20increased,resulting%20in%20extreme%20weather%20disasters&text=AP%20%E2%80%94%20World%20leaders%20have%20been,much%20hotter%20and%20deadlier%20planet.
https://thebulletin.org/2021/01/broken-record-the-planet-is-getting-hotter-and-hotter-and-hotter/
https://www.space.com/2020-global-temperature-nasa-climate-change-interview
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature#:~:text=According%20to%20NOAA's%202020%20Annual,more%20than%20twice%20that%20rate.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7FAAfK78_M&ab_channel=NeilHalloran