Over the course of this blog, many environmental issues have been discussed, as well as their respective legislative counterparts (or lack-thereof). For example, recall the first blog topic: fracking. The controversy that fuels the debate of hydraulic fracking is based on whether or not people believe it will cause more economic gain than environmental damage. However, this issue fulfills a requirement that many do not even realize must be fulfilled in the first place: people believed that fracking existed. One might think that this is quite obvious – of course fracking is real. It can be seen and its effects can be felt. However, this is far from the truth in context of this next issue.
It is nearly impossible to argue what steps to take to prevent an issue when a large majority of people refuse to believe that said issue exists in the first place. Global warming is exactly that issue.
To fully understand the global warming, it is necessary to look at the factors that cause it. The process known as the Greenhouse Effect is the driving force being global warming. The Greenhouse Effect in and of itself is natural and necessary for life on Earth to exist. Without the Greenhouse Effect, the Earth would be approximately 30 degrees (Celsius) cooler, thus making it uninhabitable. Sunlight passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, gets absorbed by the planet, then reflected back as heat. Greenhouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone, are responsible for trapping some of this heat and subsequently keeping the Earth’s climate habitable (Greenhouse Effect).
Now, what does the Greenhouse Effect have to do with climate change and global warming? Most industrial processes, or any process that released carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, both cause more heat to be trapped in the atmosphere and deplete ozone, the gas responsible for preventing most harmful radiation from reaching the planet (Greenhouse Gasses). As more of these harmful gasses enter the atmosphere, more radiation from the sun reaches the Earth in addition to the overall atmosphere’s temperature rising.
Now that the Greenhouse Effect and its dependence on greenhouse gasses has been explained, it is time to discuss how this can negatively affect the planet. There are essentially two negative results that can come from climate change. One of these, as previously discussed, is the rising of Earth’s temperature. The issue with rising temperatures is that many species cannot adapt to such changes as quickly as they are occurring. Even slight shifts in climate can be lethal to a species living in the affected area. The other negative outcome of climate change is rising sea levels, which stems from the melting of polar ice caps and ice sheets. When talking about rising sea levels, it is often heard that they will grow by “only a handful” of inches. This, however, is a lot more drastic than it may seem, and can eventually engulf coastal cities, islands, and anything near shores (National Geographic). If that effect still seems too indirect, global warming can also create unpredictable and dramatic weather patterns, such as an increase in storms and even droughts.
There is a plethora of evidence proving the existence of climate change and dismissing the possibility of it being considered a hoax. Factors such as rising global temperatures, rising ocean temperatures, shrinking ice sheets, rising sea levels, and an increase in recorded extreme events have all been catalogued and can be traced back to global warming (NASA).
Despite this abundance of hard evidence, a trend has made itself present. About 20% of the United States population believes that there its not a substantial amount of evidence to back up the existence of climate change, and an additional 31% of Americans are convinced that global warming is a natural process that has not been affected by humans (Pew Research). Therefor, half of the population is not convinced that we need to do anything to slow climate change in the first place. This, of course, makes it difficult to pass legislation that actively seeks to prevent a rising global climate. Although there has been progress made in the past, such as the passing of the Clean Air Act, first issued in 1970, which prevented the ozone-damaging chemical species known as chlorofluorocarbons from being used in aerosol spray cans, there still remains controversy with the issue (Scientific American). A prime example of this is the President’s various tweets, such as “…it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS of dollars to protect against. Bundle up!” or, “It’s really cold outside, they are calling it a major freeze, weeks ahead of normal. Man, we could use a big fat dose of global warming!” (NY Times). This in and of itself shows that the current government is not keen on combating global warming, and is exemplified by the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Agreement, which was formed to, yes, combat climate change (Paris Agreement).
Climate change is a real issue, and one that should be addressed sooner rather than later. All previous civic issue blog posts can be in some way related back to climate change. Why do you think people choose to believe Global Warming is a hoax?
Good post topic! (I wrote a post very similar, so you probably already know how passionate I am about this topic). I guess people “believe” its a hoax because of bad information and a bit of ignorance. I think private interests also gets in the way. A political candidate funded by big oil, probably shouldn’t admit man-made climate change is a thing if burning fossil fuels directly contributes to warmer temperatures. Without a doubt, it’s easier to look at the short-term conflicts, saving the longterm problems like global warming for future generations to deal with—which is extremely irresponsible.