Bringing a change to climate change
November 30, 2021
Climate change is an ever present issue in the modern world. Individuals and nations as a whole need to make strides in order to combat it and improve the health of the Earth.
Many more people have become aware of the problems that arise from climate change and there is a large push to help the planet, but how do you do that?
Nations as a whole need to focus more time and resources on finding ways to push back against climate change. An article by Pew Research Center written by the director of science Cary Funk and a research analyst Meg Hefferon shows that 2/3rds of adults in the U.S. think that the government does not do enough to reduce the effects of climate change. This shows that the majority of American citizens are not happy with the lack of effort that the country shows when fighting climate change.
People who oppose this idea may state that there are other, more important matters that should get the effort of the country. I would argue that climate change is the most prevalent and pressing issue we have today. If not handled everyone will see affects of it and it will only get worse.
Individuals need to be more knowledgeable about the problems that affect climate change. The article “Unleashing the creativity of teachers and students to combat climate change: An opportunity for global leadership” by Kristina Kruak and Rebecca Winthrop show why. It states that, Only 16 percent of high school students in high- and middle-income countries were to receive climate change education, we could see a nearly 19 gigaton reduction of carbon dioxide by 2050
Some may argue that because of the Internet everyone can learn all of the information they need, but an article by writer Kari Paul shows the danger to that. It is important that the information comes from a reputable and professional source and is taught to the individual well.
A beneficial step to slowing, or ending, climate change is that countries need to further subsidize clean energy so that it is more affordable and more attractive to citizens. This starts with easing subsidies toward fossil fuels. An article by climate journalist Jocelyn Timperely shows that countries spend hundreds of billions of dollars on subsidizing fossil fuels. The investment of clean energy would be a better alternative, making it easier to access and use clean energy for many people.
An issue with this may be that most countries are not ready to produce clean energy at a rate large enough to sustain their citizens. I would argue that does not matter. Nations will spend money, time, and effort, but that is worth the cost when the goal is to help sustain human life on the Earth.
Nations need to work together and hold each other responsible for efforts against climate change. This is present in November of 2021 as the COP26 summit is in full swing. This idea gets represented well in this article by CNBC writer Anmar Frangoul about the recent agreement between the United States and China. This agreement is important because the United States and China are the most powerful and influential countries, but they are also the countries who have the highest carbon emissions. Now that the countries worked together it is of the utmost importance that they hold each other accountable for this promises.
Skeptics may say that countries need to focus only on their own problems. This could work if all of the countries were able to commit enough on their own, but in this scenario it is too easy for a country to under-deliver on a promise. When many major countries work together there is a large amount of pressure to follow the others and make sure the ideas come into fruition.
Solutions can be as small as a single person being more conscious about the world around them or as large as agreements between the world’s most powerful nations. Climate change will not stop unless we come together to help the Earth.