Climate change is actually normal. However, global warming is not normal. What do you mean?! Aren't they the same? Let's explore and understand the definition of these terms together!
Climate change VS Global Warming
Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns regionally or globally; whereas, global warming is the long-term heating of Earth's climate system due to human activities.
Global warming is primarily related to fossil fuel burning, which increases the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
Q: Wah, greenhouse gases seems like a very bad type of gas. They make the global surface temperature rise so fast and caused accelerated climate change. Why don't we just get rid of them? A: Well actually, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide exist naturally in our atmosphere but at a lower concentration. They are important to help trapping heat within our atmosphere. Therefore, the most important thing to do is reduce our overall greenhouse gases emission or more widely known as carbon footprint, by changing our lifestyle.
Q: Har? I like my lifestyle leh. How to change oh? And why I need to change? Not like the Polar Bear give me food, they die or no die doesn't affect me also...
A: Climate change is actually life-threatening towards not only the animals like Polar Bear, but also towards human. The threatst come in the form of intensified extreme climate like heat waves, storm, drought and rising sea levels.
Q: Cheehhh.. Malaysia fengshui so good where got extreme climate one. Don't need to worry lah.
A: You might be right on the face that we Malaysians do not need to worry about the direct impact on our livelihood. But, with the rise of temperature, you will naturally turn on your air-conditioning more, causing your electricity bills to sky rocket. Besides, drought will cause agricultural commodities' price to rise, causing an increase in living costs. Global warming also causes coral bleaching, destroying the marine ecological balance, ultimately causing all seafood stock to collapse.
So Malaysians, if we are part of Planet Earth, climate change will affect us directly or indirectly. We may be fortunate but no one can escape the climate crisis. The only thing we can do is educate ourselves on what we can do, and do it.
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