Why am I here?

Cześć from Katowice, Poland! It's been four days since our arrival. However, the busy agenda at COP24 hasn't allowed me to post until now. Before reflecting on the various meetings and side events that I have attended here, I wanted to reflect on what lead me the conference in the first place.

During the Spring 2018 semester, I took a course with Dr. Diane Husic titled " Costa Rica as a Model of Sustainability and Tropical Ecology”. We met once a week to discuss relevant issues pertaining to these topics and visited Costa Rica over spring break. As a neuroscience major following the pre-medical track, I did not have a lot of free time to study abroad during my time at Moravian, so this opportunity was both unexpected and exciting. Prior to this experience, I practiced basic climate-friendly behaviors, such as recycling, limiting food waste, carpooling, and using electricity efficiently. However, through our weekly discussions, I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of tropical sustainability, biodiversity, ecology, and conservation. I became aware of the many problems that threaten not only the environment in Costa Rica, but the health of our planet.

Deforestation is a "buzz-word" right now at the conference, since the world is losing forests at an alarming rate each year. Forests around the world are exploited for lumber, land for agriculture, or land for factories. This is a critical issue in Costa Rica, where the tropical rain forests are the among the most biodiverse on the planet. Therefore, with loss of forests comes loss of habitats, threatening global biodiversity. Anyone residing outside of the tropics may not understand or appreciate this significant threat to biodiversity. However, the endangerment of many species in Costa Rica is indicative of greater global issues.

Tropical rainforests are carbon sinks, meaning they absorb carbon in the form of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Deforestation contributes to the problem of climate change by releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning it absorbs infrared radiation from the sun. When excess carbon dioxide is trapped in the atmosphere, the warming effects of greenhouse gases become more prominent.

Like forests, the ocean also serves as a carbon sink. Greater atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide distort the equilibrium of carbon in the environment, causing an increased concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide in the ocean. This is a problem due to the formation of carbonic acid, which lowers the pH of ocean water. More acidic conditions threaten aquatic habitats, which eventually effects the food chain in aquatic environments. This can threaten food security, since species higher in the food chain that we rely on for food cannot survive due to the bottom-up effects of food chain instability.

Increasing average global temperatures leads to the melting of the poles, causing sea levels to rise. Rises in sea levels can have detrimental impacts around the globe, from small island nations to the Jersey Shore. As the oceans warm with the rest of the planet, coastal flooding will become more prominent and stronger, more variable weather patterns will become the new norm. For example, storms like Harvey and Sandy used to be considered “one in every one-hundred year” weather events. Now, these events occur annually, causing billions of dollars in damage for the United States and the Caribbean.

Increasing global temperatures also promote the spread of tropical diseases, such as dengue fever and Zika virus, since these diseases thrive in warm, humid conditions. This means that as the planet continues to warm beyond 1.5°C each year, tropical diseases will spread northward and begin to have an impact on millions more people worldwide.

 These are just a few examples of how major environmental issues in Costa Rica are experienced on a global level. These examples serve as a strong reminder that our actions have widespread effects and the places and things on Earth belong to all of us. It is the responsibility of every individual on the planet to do their part to help reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. I'd like to think that before this experience, I consciously thought about preserving natural resources and reducing my carbon footprint. I thought I had a strong understanding of the value of the neo-tropics and its impact on the world. However, I had never experienced nature before like we did on this trip. I had never walked through a rain forest, visited with indigenous peoples, or witnessed sustainable practices in action. This experience was the catalyst to my interest in climate change. 

In closing, many of my friends and family members have said, "You're pre-med. Why do you care about climate change?" and "What are you going to COP24 for?".  To everyone that asked, my reply went something like this: climate change is everyone's problem. It’s effects do not discriminate against developed countries or developing countries. It threatens global heath, human rights, national economies, food and water security, peace, and justice. It is therefore in everyone’s best interest to learn more about this issue and make rapid changes to reduce their carbon footprint. This is important not only on an national level, but also at the local community level. I am attending COP24 because I know that the recent IPCC report said that we are all in trouble if we do not make changes. My goal is to learn as much as I can while I am here, and bring this information back to our campus community. I want to empower members of my generation to get involved in the conversations to fight this fight over the coming decades. My experience here has changed the direction of my career. I hope to not only practice medicine, but continue to stay involved in climate action by implementing the sustainable development goals (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/) in my practice and helping patients understand how they relate to health.