I think it is finally time to delve into one of the main issues with fossil fuels: climate change. There has been plenty of scientific evidence to suggest that the burning of fossil fuels is related to the current climate change experienced across the globe that is not projected to get better if we do not change anything about our lifestyles. This is one of the main arguments for a complete or partial switch to renewable energy sources.

The past century has been spent burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gases, and this burning releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, more than ever before. This increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused a greenhouse effect where heat becomes trapped on the Earth’s surface and cannot escape back into space. This will inevitably cause the overall temperature of the Earth to increase, even though it may not seem like it in some places. Some people think that since the winter is still cold, global warming does not exist, but the truth about global warming is that the overall temperature of the planet is increasing. It can still be cold in some places but will become much warmer in others in order to have an overall positive change in the temperature. Just because it is snowing in January doesn’t mean climate change doesn’t exist.

In the past century, the industrial burning of fossil fuels and other activities has increased the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from 280 parts per million to 412 parts per million, a significant amount of carbon dioxide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a group of over 1,300 scientists from the United Nations, has ruled that there is a 95% chance that human activity is directly responsible for climate change.

Combined with all of the other benefits from switching to renewable energy sources, such as not having to worry about running out of energy, the potentially disastrous consequences of climate change really has pushed forward the movement towards renewable energy. As mentioned before, there are also a lot of challenges to switching to renewable energy, but because of this almost irreversible damage done to our planet from fossil fuels, it might just be time to seriously consider big changes in the way we think about energy. Many people don’t believe in climate change, but the facts are there if you look for them, and humans have been directly causing damage to our planet through the use of fossil fuels. Renewable energy may be difficult to implement, but the time is now to do something about this potentially dangerous situation we have put ourselves in.