Global warming has a more severe impact on politics and the economy than is generally acknowledged, climate change scholar Patricia Núñez García, M.A. ’15 told students in a presentation on Wednesday.

The most obvious effect of climate change, García said, is the increase in catastrophic storms and floods. Global warming occurs when gases build up in the atmosphere, heating the Earth and increasing the rate of evaporation from the world’s oceans. More water vapor in the atmosphere increases the risk of major storms like Hurricane Sandy and Boston’s record-breaking 2014 to 2015 winter snowfall, García told the students.

“It’s data, it’s not a conspiracy theory. … Science is not a liberal agenda,” she said, adding, “Everything I’m saying is so that when you’re in an argument about climate change, you have facts.”

Climate change affects humans’ access to staple resources like water and food, which can, in turn, incite social unrest, said García. She added that global warming-caused drought has put pressure on food producers; in 2016 alone, more than 400 farmers have resorted to suicide in Maharashtra, India, due to the ongoing regional drought.

Regional droughts have also diminished the amount of fertile land to grow crops on, turning about 60 percent of Syria’s fertile land into desert between 2006 and 2010, García explained. This, in turn, drove 1.5 million people into Syria’s cities, creating problems with overpopulation and resource shortages. “I’m not saying that climate change is the sole reason for Syria’s [ongoing civil war], but it’s part of it,” she said.

In that sense, García said, paraphrasing what Director-General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan wrote in 2009, “It was a mistake to have chosen the polar bear to be the poster child of climate change. It should have been a sick child and, I would add, a hungry child, a child in conflict, a child that is a refugee.”

Likewise, recent fears about the spread of the Zika virus and other tropical diseases can be traced to rising temperatures, which allow disease-carrying mosquitoes to live longer and travel farther, she said.

But while climate change has been kind to the mosquito population, it has also put the majority of the world’s species at risk; as it stands, the world is at risk of losing up to 50 percent of all living species this century, García explained. “In the most egocentric way, these species are responsible for your life. … And they’re indicating something.”

Projecting videos of bridges and roads collapsing from flooding and natural disasters, she also asserted that climate change puts further stress on cities and economies around the world, from China to Texas. “Our health, our biodiversity, our infrastructure are telling us, ‘You are not prepared [for global warming],’” she said.

However, García was careful to note, there is some hope to be found in renewable energy sources, which have the potential to reduce climate change. In fact, some energy companies in Texas have even begun to offer free electricity to their customers at night because the state’s wind turbines produce more electricity than needed during the day.

Moreover, the private sector contributed $243 billion — 62 percent of all funds contributed — to renewable energy development in 2014, according to the World Bank. That the private sector — which is generally focused on making profits — has contributed the majority of the funds to renewable sources suggests that green energy has a bright, profitable future, García said.

And, at the end of the day, the best way to stop climate change is to educate the people contributing to it, she said. “Please, please take this information to move other people,” she urged the audience. “I can’t do it alone. So talk to people. Make them change their ways, and change them by example.”

The presentation was a product of the Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit educational organization founded in 2006 by former Vice President Al Gore.