Climate change has constantly been increasing over the decades, becoming more of a problem now than it ever was before. Ice is melting in the polar regions, rain and snowfall have increased around the world, the high temperatures are affecting wildlife, and hurricanes are more frequent and stronger.

Florida has also been heavily impacted, with the more frequent flooding causing the loss of millions of dollars for real estate and the high temperatures making many of Florida’s coral reefs bleach, and as they die, not only do beautiful habitats that sustain life start to disappear, but Florida could also lose billions of dollars due to reef related tourism as a result.

There are many negative impacts that climate change has on the Earth, and if they continue, the impacts will get significantly worse. Sea levels would rise by 1.5-1.8 feet, affecting billions around the globe, during some summers there would be no ice in the arctic, people would be exposed to extreme heat waves every five years or less, rainfall and snow would be far more frequent causing an increase in strong floods, and many plants and animals could go extinct.

By 2100, it is a possibility that a large amount of Florida would be submerged. If climate change does recede, much of the global economy will get better, Florida could get back on track with its tourism, and the world would overall be healthier and safer.

Climate change cannot be stopped completely, but it is possible to slow it down enough to diminish its consequences. In order to do this, countries would have to move away from fossil fuels and use different ways to get energy.

“Where possible, we can switch to renewable sources of energy (such as solar and wind energy) to power our homes and buildings, thus emitting far less heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere,” according to climate.gov.