“I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” the famous Christmas song by Irving Berlin. This dream is straying further and further away from reality with each passing year. In my home state of Connecticut,  we haven’t had a “white Christmas” since 2017. The lack of snow and normal temperatures in different places have affected ecosystems worldwide. Maybe it's the Gen-zer in me, but I am very concerned about the current state of my planet. Climate change and its effects are increasingly becoming an enormous and irreversible threat to ecosystems everywhere. 

The winter months are not even winter months anymore. I look outside my window and wish there was snow. I don’t want to see the dead grass for 3 or 4 months, which is so depressing. Without the snow, a lot of plants don’t have a way to keep the soil warm, so their roots get damaged. For example, there is a tree in my front yard that lost its leaves in the fall and now it's just branches and a lone hawk nest. It's very creepy. The cold months without snow damaged the roots so bad the tree didn’t grow any leaves. 

The lack of snow is very detrimental to ecosystems. It is not just the plants that are affected. Animals in those ecosystems are just as affected by this. From polar bears to squirrels, the lack of snow disrupted the lives they had adapted to in their region. Jim Robbins explores how it affects animals in his article, “Warming Signs: How Diminished Snow Cover Puts Species in Peril.”. Robbins states that animals who are adapted to the snow are having a harder time chasing prey and escaping predators without the snow. The animals whose fur or color turns white in the winter months are less camouflaged 

Moving away from lack of snowfall, the rising temperatures have affected every ecosystem on our planet. From the oceans to the skies, from Antarctica to the Sahara Desert, it is a worldwide problem. In an article published by the UN titled “Biodiversity - Our Strongest Natural Defense Against Climate Change,” they investigate the effects on various ecosystems and animals. The UN shares that the rising temperatures has led to “the loss of local species, increased diseases, and driven mass mortality of plants and animals”. Climate change isn't just the many people with dreams of a white Christmas and animals who hunt or run. It is releasing diseases. The UN further goes to share that if the temperature grows 1.5°C 4% of mammals will lose their habitat. If the temperature grows 3°C 41% of mammals will lose their habitat.

Climate change is a much bigger issue than could ever be discussed in small discussions like this. In order to appropriately fight this global epidemic everyone needs to play their part. Ways to play your part in fighting this would be eating more vegetables, saving energy at home, recycling and trying to walk, use a bike or carpool more. If everyone plays their part today then a kid can watch the snow fall while opening presents on Christmas morning in the future.