It is August and the heat and humidity is brutal in Hillsborough, New Jersey. To escape the heat, a few friends rush to the local McDonald’s on Route 1 to order their favorite Big Mac sandwich and a nice, cold vanilla McFlurry. Down on Millstone River Road, Farmer Yash shakes his head in disappointment, as all his family’s hard work planting indigineous crops from heritage seeds have been lost as there has been no rain for six weeks, atypical for this time of year. On the other side of the world, an American teenager takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to France to see the Alps. She is excited to see the glacier, Mer de Glace, which has been around since the last Ice Age. She walks down 550 steps to reach the ice grotto, which she realizes is melting rapidly right in front of her eyes. The tour guide tells her that the ten hottest years in the past 142 years, have all been after the year 2000. There may not be a glacier when she goes back in twenty years. Three seemingly random events in August, but are they?

Take the Big Mac, for instance. To get the Big Mac to the table on Route 1, McDonalds needs to order beef from a cow farmer. This farmer may be located across the country. This farmer has thousands of cows that need to be fed grain, grass, and water. To produce one kilogram of beef, it takes seven kilograms of grain. This requires transporting grain and hay across the country, which is using fuel. Eighteen percent of the world's greenhouse gases including nitrous oxide and methane come from meat production. In turn, greenhouse gases play a big role in global warming.

Now, why did Farmer Yash’s crops fail this year? For the past six weeks, there has been no rain. Typically, it rains in spring and summer. Except starting about twenty years ago in 1998, summers began to be warmer than average. The temperatures are rising because of greenhouse gases caused by meat production, car fuel consumption, and factory air pollution. Almanacs were used to tell farmers when to plant their crops. Now because of climate change, early rain and late rain makes it hard to know when to plant and harvest. Farmers do not produce enough crops because of droughts and unpredictable heavy rainfall, so they do not have money to pay for housing, food, and other needed items. If small scale farmers do not have rain then there are no crops. When there are no crops then there is no food at the grocery store. This is a big problem for all of us.

How did the teenager get from Princeton, New Jersey to Chamonix, France? She went by car, which uses fuel, to the train, which uses fuel, to the plane, which uses fuel, to a bus, which also uses fuel. These actions create a hole in the atmosphere which leads to global warming. Ultimately, hot weather is melting the glacier at a very rapid pace.

What can we do about these problems? First, at a small level we can try to reduce how much meat we eat by starting Meatless Mondays in schools, homes, and workplaces. Second, we can bring school classes to local farms to teach them about what is happening to crops due to hotter temperatures and also show children where their food comes from. Third, we can find ways to reduce our carbon footprint, including eco-friendly transportation options and find ways to reduce electricity and water in our houses. We all have a part in reducing our impact on harming the environment as climate change has become our reality, clearly not fiction. A little step goes a long way.

Resources

umrit.org/

davidsuzuki.org/living-green/food-climate-change/

climateatlas.ca/agriculture-and-climate-change

britannica.com/place/Mer-de-Glace

bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-09-25/climate-change-on-mont-blanc-the-vanishing-mer-de-glace