Eloquence

Background

Even before the earliest human societies were established, changes in the climate have taken place. Most evidence of this has been found through the scientific study of air bubbles discovered in deep sea mud and ice. Scientists believe that these climatic changes have most likely been caused by natural phenomenon such as volcanic eruptions, the Earth's orbit, changes in ocean currents and ice sheets, and changes in the sun's energy. ⁷ So humans have survived climate change. Around 200,000 years ago the Earth and its people endured an Ice Age. The temperatures were between 7 and 14 degrees cooler than they are today. Ten thousand years ago the climate warmed up and held steady, causing a population explosion. ⁸ The climate change we are facing is different, thought; is happening at a much faster rate.

Unlike the early humans, our complex civilizations of today cannot be quickly dismantled and then reestablished in a safer location. With our complex infrastructure, geopolitics, political boundaries, and economy the idea of moving an entire city's population would be difficult, if not impossible. Our way of life is highly dependent on our current climate and significant changes to our current climatic conditions would cause change to the way we grow food, the items we produce and use, and the way we use our land and resources. ⁹ Climate change adds increased pressure on our environment, humans and organisms. Significant changes in temperature have taken place in the Earth's history but not at the speed in which the change is taking place now. ¹⁰

How did we allow things to get to this point? Al Gore, former Vice President and environmental activist, explained that global warming can be traced to six families of pollutants including carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, halocarbons, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, and nitrous oxide. Of these, carbon dioxide is the major contributor to climate change; this is why most strategies to combat climate change focus on carbon dioxide. ¹¹ When carbon is released into the atmosphere, it warms the Earth through the greenhouse effect. As the temperature of the Earth becomes warmer, glaciers melt increasing the volume of water in the rivers they feed. With a greater volume of water, the river's course will likely change causing flooding in some areas and greater amounts of absorption in others. With more subsurface flow, there will be more evaporation leading to more precipitation and droughts depending on the location. ¹² Human activities are significantly changing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and we are beginning to see the results.

But greenhouse gasses are not the enemy: without them, the Earth would be too cold for human habitation. The problem is that in recent times, there has been too great a concentration of the greenhouse gasses trapped in the atmosphere causing the climate to change. The air quality diminishes with higher temperatures, especially in urban areas putting increased pressure on the electricity grid. In these regions, more pollution is released from power plants and higher concentrations of ozone result. Ozone at ground level poses problems for individuals with asthma and other respiratory conditions. The Environmental Protection Agency warns, "Humans have never experienced such a rapid rise in greenhouse gasses. In effect, a large and uncontrolled planet-wide experiment is being conducted." ¹³ The truth is we cannot predict what is going to happen with complete accuracy because this has never happened before.

So, where is all of this CO2 coming from? To understand the problem we need to understand our role in the CO2 emissions cycle. The majority of human-caused CO2 in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels. The world as we know it would not exist without these sources of energy. Oil-based products such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel are burned for transportation. To power our homes, businesses, and schools we rely on the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Burning of fossil fuels is 85% of the primary energy source of the world. Clearing land for building projects or burning away trees and vegetation accounts for 25% of the human-caused CO2 in the atmosphere. If current practices continue, humans may not be able to live on this Earth in the future. The Earth's surface temperature has increased by about 1.5 degrees over the past 150 years due to human activities. If heat trapping emissions continue, the temperature of the Earth is predicted to rise between 2 degrees and 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. In short, our current use of fossil fuels cannot be sustained in the long term. ¹⁴

Our reliance on fossil fuels has led to conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and will continue if the United States cannot move toward alternative sources of energy. Al Gore summarizes it at such, "The United States is still borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has got to change." This change, to a smaller carbon footprint, involves individuals but cannot be done alone, everyone, as global citizens, must work together to solve this global crisis. In essence, we need to work together as humans. Al Gore explains, "Our success in transforming the global economy to a low carbon pattern will bring about needed solutions for problems that have been allowed to fester for too many centuries." He believes that problems such as poverty, deforestation, pollutions, and dependency on fossil fuels can be solved through a global movement toward alternative sources of energy. Environmental changes and new ways of life may help to change the many people of the world that are living in extreme poverty with lack of food and clean water. Opposition to change in the United States and around the globe has made the transition to alternative energies difficult. ¹⁵

Those in opposition to climate change use the reliability of scientific projections to dismiss the impacts of climate change. Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist, explains, "The primary challenge in climate impact analysis is the reliability of future information. A common axiom warns that the only aspect of the future that can be predicted with any certainty is the fact that it is impossible to do so. However, in the case of climate change, we do know one thing: future climate will not be as it is today. That is why it is important to incorporate projected climate changes into long-term planning." ¹⁶ The scientific community is doing their best to make projections with fidelity. Computer simulations and circulation models have been created to predict the climate in the coming years. Models such the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and United Kingdom Hadley Centre's Climate Model have been created to take into consideration current and future emissions, natural and human, and predict the future climatic and weather patterns so we can make informed decisions. ¹⁷ Above all, we need to rely on the information we have to prepare for the future. The evidence is happening all around us.

Climate change has been a topic of discussion since the 1980s and several international agreements on climate change have been developed. The United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change took effect in 1994 and worked to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol was established in 2005 to also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change looks at the risk of human-induced climate change and develops adaptation strategies. Even with these international committees, change has not been easy. Mitsutsune Yamaguchi, in Climate Change Mitigation, expresses five main reasons why a global movement toward climate change mitigation has been entirely unsuccessful thus far: the necessary cooperation between diverse countries of the world, some countries are less motivated to change due to a belief that they will benefit from or will not be affected by climate change, a need for things to be "fair" from one generation to the next (same types of opportunities), an inability to monetize the value of climatic change that could take place if action is not taken, and uncertainty in the scientific predictions of temperature changes, sea level rise, damage, and costs. ¹⁸