Climate Change is Affecting the World

February 2025

By Dominic Cerda and Angel De Blas, Staff Reporters

Climate change has affected the world in many ways: storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans.

In the United States, climate change is already causing serious problems. There are more heatwaves, especially in cities, which puts a lot of pressure on energy systems and makes it harder for people to stay healthy. Hurricanes, like Katrina in 2005 and Harvey in 2017, are getting stronger and causing more damage, while wildfires in the western U.S. are destroying communities and making it tough for emergency responders to keep up. Rising sea levels are also a big problem, especially in places like Florida and the Northeast, where flooding and erosion are wiping out homes and important buildings. In the Southwest and Great Plains, droughts are making water scarcer and hurting farming. On top of that, changing weather patterns and hotter temperatures make it harder for farmers to grow food, which affects everyone.

The effects of climate change go beyond the environment—they hit people hard, too. Disasters cost a lot of money to recover from, and ecosystems are changing, which affects animals, plants, and people’s jobs. Low-income and marginalized communities are especially vulnerable because they have fewer resources to bounce back after disasters. Public health is also in danger, with hotter temperatures and air pollution making breathing problems worse and spreading diseases like West Nile and Lyme disease. The cost of dealing with all this is huge, from higher insurance prices to financial stress on local governments. Industries like farming and real estate are also struggling to adjust.

In the end, climate change is a big challenge that affects everything—our weather, our ecosystems, and our daily lives. To fight it, we all need to work together by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, switching to renewable energy, and using more sustainable practices. If we act now, we can protect the planet for future generations and make sure our world is more prepared and resilient for whatever comes next.