Climate Change
What is your response to climate change science? What important thing did you learn? What did you find confusing? What are some potential concerns with the science behind it? Do you think climate change is being handled the right way? Provide your thoughts and an outside source in your response?
Although I understand the implications and trust the majority of data collected thus far, it does seem that scientists can appear somewhat over dramatic and often communicate their message in a manner that reprimands the public. Placing most of the blame on certain industries causes a certain portion of the population to feel attacked by environmentalists. Climate change is truly a collective problem. Although it is unlikely anybody intended for their activities to negatively affect the planet, I think many people feel scientists are chastising them for practices that have been utilized for years. Others want to change their behavior but lack the resources or access. For instance, purchasing an electric car is still unattainable for many people. While some may be willing to adopt new technology, they might not be able to afford it, or might not live in a region where it is practical. For these reasons, I think scientists need to find a more friendly approach to educating the public. At the same time, advocating for a more gradual change is more realistic. With this said, I do sympathize with environmentalists since they face such fierce push back from powerful entities such as oil companies. As our energy is so deeply rooted in the use of oil, these organizations have immense influence, and do not want to see the demise of fossil fuel. Scientists also face the challenge of proving their statistics. Because it is so difficult to track figures like the earth's temperature from thousands of years ago, trusting some of their estimates or actual findings comes with some hesitancy. Even newer values can contain some margin of error as consistency is always an obstacle. Despite this, there is a consensus that earth's average surface air temperature has increased by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. Human involvement in this change is apparent, and the rate at which the globe is warming is faster than past climate variations. These facts, which are hard to doubt, have particular impact on the oceans and ice sheets. If habitats this vast are subject to extreme change, the species that live in them are going to be in great danger. While I believe it will take more time to observe the development of climate change in order to solidify what exactly the future holds, humans must consider how their actions have the capacity to determine what life is like for generations to come.
Sources:
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/sites/climate/SITES_193558
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Although I understand the implications and trust the majority of data collected thus far, it does seem that scientists can appear somewhat over dramatic and often communicate their message in a manner that reprimands the public. Placing most of the blame on certain industries causes a certain portion of the population to feel attacked by environmentalists. Climate change is truly a collective problem. Although it is unlikely anybody intended for their activities to negatively affect the planet, I think many people feel scientists are chastising them for practices that have been utilized for years. Others want to change their behavior but lack the resources or access. For instance, purchasing an electric car is still unattainable for many people. While some may be willing to adopt new technology, they might not be able to afford it, or might not live in a region where it is practical. For these reasons, I think scientists need to find a more friendly approach to educating the public. At the same time, advocating for a more gradual change is more realistic. With this said, I do sympathize with environmentalists since they face such fierce push back from powerful entities such as oil companies. As our energy is so deeply rooted in the use of oil, these organizations have immense influence, and do not want to see the demise of fossil fuel. Scientists also face the challenge of proving their statistics. Because it is so difficult to track figures like the earth's temperature from thousands of years ago, trusting some of their estimates or actual findings comes with some hesitancy. Even newer values can contain some margin of error as consistency is always an obstacle. Despite this, there is a consensus that earth's average surface air temperature has increased by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. Human involvement in this change is apparent, and the rate at which the globe is warming is faster than past climate variations. These facts, which are hard to doubt, have particular impact on the oceans and ice sheets. If habitats this vast are subject to extreme change, the species that live in them are going to be in great danger. While I believe it will take more time to observe the development of climate change in order to solidify what exactly the future holds, humans must consider how their actions have the capacity to determine what life is like for generations to come.
Sources:
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/sites/climate/SITES_193558
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
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