Global warming is affecting the sea levels by melting the glaciers. Scientists have been studying how much water is frozen in the Arctic regions and they have calculated that it contains 90% of the world’s ice, together with Greenland. The sea levels will rise 230 ft if all the ice were to melt. If sea levels were to rise 4ft then electricity will be affected as coastal power will be flooded.

In the United States Florida is one of the states that is most at risk:

3 FEET:  If sea levels rise three feet, then houses close to the coast will no longer be good to live in anymore. By three feet Florida’s freshwater will be contaminated with seawater. Ports for shipping and trade will also be affected, and they will have to be replaced.

6 FEET:  Furthermore most Floridians will have to evacuate the state if the sea rises six feet. Some suggest the expensive last minute option of beginning construction on levees, dikes and dams around important coastal cities much like they have done in the Netherlands.

Scientists predict the sea levels will rise around 6 feet by 2100, and by 2200 sea levels will rise between 15-20tf. Sea level rising is a huge problem for the future.  Scientists have predicted that many cities in the USA will disappear, Europe will become smaller, Paris will be gone.  This will all happen if we fail to act now to make changes in our human behavior.  We need leadership that has the vision to protect our environment and the understanding of the potential future threat.

The candidate in the 2016 Presidential election who was most passionate about the environment is Green Party candidate Jill Stein.  http://www.jill2016.com/plan

Her #1 platform issue is stated as follows:

Climate Action: Protecting Mother Earth and Humanity

• Enact an emergency Green New Deal to turn the tide on climate change, revive the economy and make wars for oil obsolete. Initiate a WWII-scale national mobilization to halt climate change, the greatest threat to humanity in our history. Create 20 million jobs by transitioning to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030, and investing in public transit, sustainable agriculture, conservation and restoration of critical infrastructure, including ecosystems.

• Implement a Just Transition that empowers those communities and workers most impacted by climate change and the transition to a green economy. Ensure that any worker displaced by the shift away from fossil fuels will receive full income and benefits as they transition to alternative work.

• Enact energy democracy based on public, community and worker ownership of our energy system. Treat energy as a human right.

• Redirect research funds from fossil fuels into renewable energy and conservation.  Build a nationwide smart electricity grid that can pool and store power from a diversity of renewable sources, giving the nation clean, democratically-controlled, energy.

• End destructive energy extraction and associated infrastructure: fracking, tar sands, offshore drilling, oil trains, mountaintop removal, natural gas pipelines, and uranium mines. Halt any investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, including natural gas, and phase out all fossil fuel power plants. Phase out nuclear power and end nuclear subsidies.  End all subsidies for fossil fuels and impose a greenhouse gas fee / tax to charge polluters for the damage they have created.

• Protect our public lands, water supplies, biological diversity, parks, and pollinators. Ban neonicotinoids and other pesticides that threaten the survival of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

• Support a strong enforceable global climate treaty that limits global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius and provides just financial compensation to developing countries.

• Label GMOs, and put a moratorium on GMOs and pesticides until they are proven safe.

• Support organic and regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and sustainable forestry.

• Protect the rights of future generations. Adopt the Precautionary Principle. When an activity poses threats of harm to human health or the environment, in the absence of objective scientific consensus that it is safe, precautionary measures should be taken. The proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof.

• Invest in clean air, water, food  and soil for everyone. Clean up America.

• Enact stronger environmental justice laws and measures to ensure that low-income and communities of color are not disproportionately impacted by harmful pollution and other negative environmental and health effects.

• Support conversion to sustainable, nontoxic materials and the use of closed-loop, zero waste processes.

However, since Stein did not have a chance for winning the next best option was Hillary Clinton:https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/climate/

As Republican candidate, Donald Trump did not even mention the Environment as one of his major issues on his official website.

According to Hillary Clinton:

Climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time. It threatens our economy, our national security, and our children’s health and futures. We can tackle it by making America the world’s clean energy superpower and creating millions of good-paying jobs, taking bold steps to slash carbon pollution at home and around the world, and ensuring no Americans are left out or left behind as we rapidly build a clean energy economy.

On day one, Hillary Clinton would set bold, national goals that would be achieved within 10 years of taking office:

• Generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America, with half a billion solar panels installed by the end of Hillary’s first term.
• Cut energy waste in American homes, schools, hospitals and offices by a third and make American manufacturing the cleanest and most efficient in the world.
• Reduce American oil consumption by a third through cleaner fuels and more efficient cars, boilers, ships, and trucks.

Hillary’s plan would deliver on the pledge President Obama made at the Paris climate conference—without relying on climate deniers in Congress to pass new legislation. She will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 percent in 2025 relative to 2005 levels and put the country on a path to cut emissions more than 80 percent by 2050.

As president, Hillary would have:

• Defended, implemented, and extended smart pollution and efficiency standards, including the Clean Power Plan and standards for cars, trucks, and appliances that are already helping clean our air, save families money, and fight climate change.
• Launched a $60 billion Clean Energy Challenge to partner with states, cities, and rural communities to cut carbon pollution and expand clean energy, including for low-income families. Read the fact sheet here.
• Invested in clean energy infrastructure, innovation, manufacturing and workforce development to make the U.S. economy more competitive and create good-paying jobs and careers. Read the fact sheet here.
• Ensured safe and responsible energy production. As we transition to a clean energy economy, we must ensure that the fossil fuel production taking place today is safe and responsible and that areas too sensitive for energy production are taken off the table. Read the fact sheet here.
• Reformed leasing and expand clean energy production on public lands and waters tenfold within a decade.
• Cut the billions of wasteful tax subsidies oil and gas companies have enjoyed for too long and invest in clean energy.
• Cut methane emissions across the economy and put in place strong standards for reducing leaks from both new and existing sources.
• Revitalized coal communities by supporting locally driven priorities and make them an engine of U.S. economic growth in the 21st century, as they have been for generations. Read the fact sheet here.
• Made environmental justice and climate justice central priorities by setting bold national goals to eliminate lead poisoning within five years, clean up the more than 450,000 toxic brownfield sites across the country, expand solar and energy efficiency solutions in low-income communities, and create an Environmental and Climate Justice Task Force. Read the fact sheet here.
• Promoted conservation and collaborative stewardship. Hillary will keep public lands public, strengthen protections for our natural and cultural resources, increase access to parks and public lands for all Americans, as well as harness the immense economic potential they offer through expanded renewable energy production, a high quality of life, and a thriving outdoor economy. Read the fact sheet here.

 

BELOW you will find some resources that seek to make global citizens more aware of the threat of a changing climate.

https://www.tumblr.com/exotericenvironmentalism/129486273934/an-unsustainable-fossil-fuel-global-economy-and