As the world is heating up due to various wildfires, so is the issue of climate change. Climate change has been a topic on people’s minds for decades, but 2020 is the year for drastic improvement. Many researchers have concluded that 2020 is the year for action and a critical year for the climate’s future. Many different world disasters have occurred, such as the California wildfires, droughts across the Great Plains and flooding through the central U.S. All of these have their own effects on climate change, which only backs up the need for global awareness and adaptations.

With an ever-changing world, it is not surprising that climate change is inevitable. However, with the disasters that have occurred this year and a global temperature rise, climate change is the present issue at hand. This year was the most active fire year for the west coast, where California has seen the worst of it. These fires have been emitting carbon dioxide and many other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, and these emissions affect radiation, the clouds and ultimately the climate. The wildfires also affect air quality, not only to first-responders and those in close range, but toxic pollutants can transport through the air and affect regions farther away. The droughts across the Great Plains are also keeping the wildfires ablaze because California and surrounding areas have been in one of the driest areas. Flooding in the central U.S. has been another triggering effect on climate change, although they go hand-in-hand. Glaciers melting, flooding and the reshaping in land orientation are all affected by climate change. 

Climate change will bring loss of sea ice, sea-level rise and extreme heat waves. This leaves people not only from the United States, but from all over the world, vulnerable and concerned for their future. The global plan that has been and is being developed for climate action is the Paris Climate Agreement. This is the first truly global plan to tackle climate change, where all nations share a common cause. Its goal is to combat climate change while also learning to adapt to its effects that have already occurred thus far. Another goal is to keep a global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and a hopeful increase further toward 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century. Although there are still questionable ideas on what each country can do for climate change, the goal of this agreement is to ultimately avert climate catastrophe. Facing severe climate impacts and combating them will not be easy and 2020 is the year for action. Climate change is fundamentally caused by humans and the sooner action is taken, the sooner worldwide cataclysm can be prevented. 

Human-induced climate change is able to be lessened as people take action. If emissions and greenhouse gases are reduced, that is one step into a brighter future. The world must learn to adapt to already seen climate change, but work to prevent more, leaving 2020 a key year for reform. This issue has been seen in politics, recent endeavors and many other aspects of daily life. Climate crisis affects all who live on this green earth, and with help from each other, the world may still have a chance.