In late 2018, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a climate action summit in hopes of making a change for the increasing global temperature. The Summit will be held on the 23rd of September in New York, New York. 

Guterres and other world leaders plan to discuss ways to reduce carbon emissions by 2020. Climate change has become a huge issue, so big that many studies suggest that we have only 12 years to make a change before irreversible damage occurs. Many along with António hope that positive change can come out of the summit. Plans for halting and shutting down coal plants, shifting to renewable energy, more electric vehicles, and so on are also to be discussed.  

Over the years, climate change has negatively impacted the world in countless ways: ice caps melting, higher sea levels, and longer-lasting heat waves. According to the United Nations, “The last four years were the four hottest on record, and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3°C since 1990.” To put that into perspective, the Australian Climate Skeptics blog wrote about the Arctic’s rising temperature and how that compares to the past. On their blog, they said, “New research shows that average summer temperatures in the Canadian Arctic over the last century are the highest in the last 44,000 years, and perhaps the highest in 120,000 years.” This evidence cannot and should not be glossed over. It seems António Guterres and many others finally realized that fact.  

Of course, at this point, all we can do is see what happens.