Hello, good afternoon! I was reading through the Guardians afterschool, and I found an interesting article, so I would like to share it with all of you! The news claimed that, according to a forecast by UK Met Office, 2016 will be the hottest year on record.

Climate Change and the peaking of the El Niño weather phenomenon are said to be driving global average temperature above the record in 2015. This analysis was released after few days since the announcement of COP21 in Paris with the goal of restricting the world temperature rise to 1.5C under agreement of 195 countries worldwide. With the data suggesting just a 5% chance the global average temperature in 2016 would be lower than the one in 2015 the goal of COP21 is getting attention.

This rise of temperature is due to huge El Niño impact. El Niño is a natural cycle of warning in the Pacific Ocean which has a global impact on weather. The report stated that the current El Niño is largest scale since 1998 and is predicted to reach its peak in 2016. Due to this effect, there are chances that we might see consequences never been seen before. The melting of the Greenland ice cap is definite example of the negative impact from climate change. This will lead to rise of water level. Seems to be too distant issue from you? Evidences can be found near us as well. I?ve recently noticed that the price of food, especially vegetables, has been rising dramatically. I heard news report saying farmers are afraid of growing crops due to lack of water from hot weather.

For instance, the hot heatwaves have caused climate change that lead to 40% of recent floods reported in northwest England. The increase of the greenhouse gas emission lead to even more heat trapped on Earth. The global warming will rise abruptly from now on. In fact, 2014 serves to be the first year the world passed the 1C of warming above the pre-industrial levels.

Simon Bullock at Friends of Earth suggested that this is yet more evidence that the world is warming fast, [and that] we will see far more savage storms and floods if governments do not [step up to] cut carbon pollution. He believes that the Paris agreement at COP21 indicates how responses are needed now. Bob Ward, the policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, also claims that Global mean surface temperature continues to rise. He believes that government must take action now to cut greenhouse gas emissions to keep the promise of COP21 Paris agreement.

So now, I believe it?s time for us to think. What can we do, from local level, to help out? How can we, the Tunza Eco-generation community, raise awareness of Climate change? And How can we individually put an effort to contribute? Thank you.

Credit: the Guardians, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/17/2016-set-to-be-hottest-year-on-record-globally.