Whoever chose to name what is happening to the world today as global warming should have talked to a marketing firm beforehand. Many scientists are attempting to rebrand global warming as climate change in order to properly name what is occurring on Earth. Climate change is a normal phenomenon occurring on the Earth since its very beginning.
History of Climate Change
According to NASA there have been seven different cycles of glacial advance and retreat in the last 650,000 years. These different climate changes have been attributed to changes in the Earth’s orbit that affects the amount of solar energy the Earth receives. Others have been attributed to the meteor impacts that affected gases and other materials in the atmosphere. The last ice age ended around 7,000 years ago, at the start of the human race thriving. The current climate change Earth is experiencing is particularly important because the rate of the increase in temperatures is unheard of throughout history. Throughout all of these climate changes there have been mass extinctions and changes in the living organisms on Earth.
Undisputed Facts about Climate Change
The Earth is warming up. Earth’s equilibrium temperature has been higher than it was throughout history, and is rising. This article in National Geographic outlines many different facts on global climate change. The Earth’s temperature has raised 1.4 degrees Celsius since 1880. Arctic and Antarctic ice is melting and animals living in these areas are suffering from the effects of loss of ice and effects on their ecosystem. There are far less Glaciers on Earth than there were at the beginning of the 20th century and they are not restoring the amount melting year by year. Finally, there has been an increased amount of natural hazards that are attributed to the warming Earth, including wildfires, heat waves and tropical storms that are fueled by warm waters in the ocean.
Why is Climate Change Such a Hot Topic?
The issue with climate change is not whether or not the Earth is heating up, its what is at fault and if/what policies should be implemented to attempt to decrease the negative consequences of the increasing temperature. As stated earlier, this is a normal, naturally occurring process on Earth. What complicates this cycle is humans. There is debate of whether or not humans are to blame for the increased rate of warming or if it occurs naturally. In the United States differing views on human involvement are usually split between the two political parties. Many efforts to downplay human involvement are politically or economically motivated by persons whose companies are to “blame” for the CO2 gas increase and thus the Green House Affect warming up the Earth’s surface. Climate change is also a more commonly debated in the public view then amongst scientists.
Here is an infographic courtesy of Column Five Media that outlines Americans views on climate change.
What Could Happen?
According to National Geographic the possible effects of climate change continuing at this rate are: sea level rise between 7 and 23 inches, stronger and more frequent tropical storms, decrease in species that depend on the current climate, more floods and droughts (depending on area of the world), disease (like malaria) may spread at a more rapid rate and ecosystems all over the world can change.
This infographic courtesy of WWF shows two possible futures of climate change.
What Should Happen?
One of the interesting sides of climate change is that no matter if humans are at fault or not, we are the ones that have the power to make a change in the rate of increasing temperature. The National Resources Defense Council published an article that outlines different steps that can reduce the increasing temperature contributing to climate change. Limiting the amount of pollution through capping carbon emissions. Driving fuel-efficient vehicles and car-pooling more. Use clean energy like wind and solar. Build and work in “green” jobs that are not contributing to CO2 emissions or harm the environment. There is no doubt that making all these changes would drastically help slow climate change.
All of these steps would need massive bill passing and restructuring of society that would cost a lot of money and be an inconvenience to many. One proposed solution is to tax pollution to encourage people to use less CO2. The New York Times published an article outlining the amounts different industries would have to pay based on a 65$ per ton of carbon emitted. This tax would add around $0.56 per gallon of gas. Exxon would possibly pay $8.1 billion dollars and farms would be subject to paying around $125 million. Although these numbers seem astronomical, it shows how much carbon these industries contribute to the Earth’s atmosphere.
Here are all of the bills current having to do with climate change:
So what do you think? Will the citizens end up paying more for these attempts at reducing pollution rather than the companies? Do you think that a pollution tax would aide in the efforts to decrease the amount of carbon released into the air? Are there any other processes you think would work better?
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Photo by NASA on Unsplash