Synopsis
Climate change is the change in patterns of weather and associated changes in oceans, land surfaces, and ice sheets occurring over time periods of decades or longer. Climate change is directly associated with global warming, a phenomenon of rising temperatures on the planet due to an exponential increase of greenhouse gasses by human activity in recent decades, essentially trapping the heat in the atmosphere. The changing composition and rising temperature then begin to affect other parts of the climate system.
Some consequences of this are rapidly melting ice caps at the poles of the Earth, leading to rises in ocean levels, another domino which contributes to the climate disruption (Australian Academy of Science, n.d.). As a result of these events, weather patterns have changed, becoming more extreme, including in droughts, winds, storms, floods, and other elements. There are also other various impacts of climate change including changes to ecosystems that impacts many humans which rely on them for food and otherwise.
Mitigation efforts have begun with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement focusing on maintain warming under 3.6 °F and would require humanity to achieve near-zero emissions by 2050. The scientific community warns that if concrete steps are not undertaken soon, the planet will reach a point of no return in terms of being able to recover from human CO2 emissions. This will be devastating for many ecosystems and create disruptions to the climate system that will likely have devastating impacts to many human settlements and make some places in the world unlivable in one way or another (high temperatures, flooded coastal lines). The changing weather patterns and its devastation on human activity have already been increasing in recent years (Denchak, 2021).
Human-induced climate change began in the 1800s with the release of CO2 from the first Industrial Revolution. However, in the last 50 years it has reached unprecedented scales. Global warming had been identified since the mid-20th century, but the topic became a contended issues in the early 2000s when the scientific community began to sound alarms about changing patterns and ecosystems (Pidcock, 2016). The topic had become an issue of political and popular controversy because of the complexity of the topic and economic impacts. Within the scientific community, there is universal unanimous agreement on the existence and dangers of climate change.
However, politically, climate change has been denied continuously, suggesting that the shifts in the climate system were naturally occurring as they have been in previous millennia. Parties denying climate change suggest that human activity does not significantly impact climate. The issue is political and economic, because if climate change exists, then certain economic industries and human activity will have to be abandoned or drastically changed (Connolly, 2019). This includes energy sources (renewable vs. fossil fuel), production practices (sustainability vs. profitability), and consumption (commercial overconsumption vs. fulfilling basic needs).
Reason for Selecting the Topic
Each year climate change is becoming a more prominent discussion, due to severe warnings from the science community, discussions at the highest levels of government and industry, and even practical examples of widespread climate shifts and extreme weather.
The past couple years alone have shown highly abnormal weather anomalies attributed to climate change ranging from devastating fires in Western US, to intense snowstorms in Southern US to record-breaking temperatures rising with each year. It is a discussion that is not about abstract elements such as rising sea levels and high CO2 in the atmosphere. Climate change is beginning to impact human society consistently and severely in many ways, causing both human and economic tolls. Therefore, I wanted to select the topic of climate change, to learn more in the modern sense about the phenomenon that most people have heard for decades but are only beginning to understand now, when the consequences for the planet are potentially inevitable.
Survey
- Do you believe that the phenomenon known as “climate change” is real?
- Yes.
- No.
- Do you think human activity directly and significantly impacts climate and weather events on the planet?
- Yes.
- No.
- Do you consider climate change existential to the survival of human civilization?
- Yes.
- No.
- Is climate change a justification for society to change its practices, ranging from overconsumption to use of fossil fuels?
- Yes.
- No.
- Should the government have the executive and unreserved power to control economic and manufacturing activity which the scientific community identifies as impact climate change?
- Yes.
- No.
Results and Discussion
The survey was distributed to 15 individuals and results collected anonymously. For the majority of respondents, it is evident that climate change is recognized, as 100% responded yes to the first two questions. There was an 80-20% split regarding whether climate change represents an existential crisis. The biggest shift in opinion occurred in the last two questions, demonstrating an 80-20% split for Question 4, and 60-40% split for Question 5. This is indicative of the divisive political opinions on how to address climate change as some advocate for strong government interventions and regulations as a solution while others propose to let the private industry to develop own solutions and innovations while self-regulating.
For the most part these survey results agree with my personal opinions. I have always strongly supported climate change initiatives and agree with the scientific community that human activity needs to be reduced or changed drastically within the next decades to avoid irreversible impacts to the planet and its ecosystems. It surprises me that some people believe that nothing should be done or to let industry regulate itself, while it is largely the market and culture of overproduction and overconsumption that has strongly contributed to negative climate change patterns, particularly within the last 20 years.
Recent years with extremely severe weather events and effects on the climate are showing the first impacts on the planet, expected to get worse and more destructive in many ways, regardless which part of the country or climate where one lives. I would argue that this issue is not political, and the solution is evident, to reduce human footprint as rapidly as possible, which can only be done with government regulation as it is rare that industries can competently regulate themselves. Overall, as time goes on, more people are recognizing that climate change is a truly critical and serious issue, and there is much less denial or pushback on the topic as there was 5-10 years ago.
References
Australian Academy of Science. (n.d.). What is climate change?. Web.
Connolly, A. (2019). Why is climate change still so controversial to some people? Global News. Web.
Denchak, M. (2021). Paris Climate Agreement: Everything you need to know. NRDC. Web.
Pidcock, R. (2016). Scientists clarify starting point for human-caused climate change. CarbonBrief. Web.