By Jacob Collins |Asst. Online Editor|

Climate Change is happening whether or not you choose to believe in it. Climate change is no longer disputed in the scientific community and there is a general consensus that climate change is happening.

The National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), among other major scientific bodies, have all announced their assurance that climate change is happening with a plethora of evidence to back their findings.

According to NASA there is compelling evidence for climate change including the fact that the sea level has risen by 6.7 inches over the last century. The sea level rise in the last decade was nearly double that of the last century.

The global temperature has risen as well. NASA states that the earth has warmed over the past century with the past 12 years being the warmest.

The amount of arctic ice has declined rapidly and ice sheets in the Antarctic and Greenland have lost hundreds of cubic kilometers of ice in the years of 2002 to 2005, according to NASA.

The oceans have also become increasingly acidic since the Industrial Revolution with the acidity of the ocean increasing by a whopping 30 percent, with the top layers of the ocean absorbing about two billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to NASA.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is at an all-time high of 399.73 parts per million, the highest level it’s been in 650,000 years, according to NASA.

On his show Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, a famous astrophysicist known for his numerous publications, public discussions, television appearances and series said, “We’re dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate the Earth hasn’t seen since the great climate catastrophes of the past, the ones that led to mass extinctions. We just can’t seem to break our addiction to the kinds of fuel that will bring back a climate last seen by the dinosaurs, a climate that will drown our coastal cities and wreak havoc on the environment and our ability to feed ourselves. All the while, the glorious sun pours immaculate free energy down upon us, more than we will ever need. Why can’t we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What’s our excuse?”

In the United States about 35 percent of Americans do not think that climate change is occurring, according to a Pew Research poll conducted in 2014.

Science doesn’t require your belief however and climate change is happening whether you like it or not.  Science by definition is the knowledge of the natural world through facts gained through experimentation and observation.

“Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position,” states NASA on their web page discussing climate change.

Climate change is occurring and the sooner we recognize it and its effects the better we and our children will fare in the future.