Scientific Issue and Problems Involved with Climate Change - Coursework Example

Climate Change Introduction The earth has been in existence for more than 500 million years. This length of existence has been marked by different climatic conditions caused by different climatic patterns. The climatic changes have shaped the earth as they have led to either extinction or evolution of plants and animals. Extinct animals, for instance, dinosaurs were believed to have existed many years ago until climatic changes were too hostile for them to survive thus due to their inability to adapt to the new changes they became extinct. Animals and plants that survived the climatic changes had to adapt to the new climate (Coward, Hare and Hurka, 37). Climate change can be defined in different terms, but it is best understood as complex, uncertain and unpredictable rule of nature. Climate scientists have put much effort on trying to analyze climate changes for the past century to give the correct data that will help in their duty to forecast the future. This task bearing the complexity and uncertainty of climate changes most of the scientists have put much effort on global warming in their research. The aim of this project description is to analyze the scientific or technical issues and problems involved in the issue of climate changes and scientists point of view versus the public’s perception of climate change. The project will also analyze the political and ethical controversies on climate change giving their pros and cons before concluding with a personal opinion on the best public policies to address the issue of climate changes. Scientific issue and problems involved with climate change The major problems facing scientist are the complexity, uncertainty and unpredictability of climate change. These factors have led to the complexity of climate science, as scientists, although they rely on data analysis to give projection of the future most of climate changes are hard to forecast. Scientists believe that global warming, which has been rapidly increasing since 1970 is mainly fabricated by man’s activities, for instance, burning of fossils, greenhouse gases and industrial air pollution. The data shows that the increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is tampering with the ozone layer thus more sun radiation into the atmosphere and this heat is then trapped in the atmosphere by the carbon dioxide that acts like a blanket. This cycle continues thus more global warming. Many people have questioned these claims, as the earth is known to have its own greenhouse that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The critics of these scientific data states that scientists use thermometers to measure the temperature rises and their data is incorrect as they did not correct it in all parts of the world since some parts are inaccessible for instance in the oceans. The use of satellites by scientists has been used to prove that the earth is experiencing global warming at an alarming rate by showing the decline in ice sheets, but the scientists have been faced with a problem to prove that these occurrences are not natural. The scientists predicted that the earth temperature will continuously increase rapidly as experienced between 1970 and 1998 but the rate has decreased from 1.2 to 0.05 between 1998 and 2002. This change was not anticipated by scientists thus came as a huge surprise. The essence the scientists had forecasted a continues rapid increase in the rise of global warming and the unpredictability of the earth via its natural course to reduce the rate in such a drastic manner portrays that it has become difficult for the scientists to give correct information and give a justifiable allegation of the future due to global warming. The essence that there was a temperature rise before 1940 but decrease between 1940 and 1970 has raised different issues that are hard for scientists to answer without compromising their claims of global warming due to human activities. The decline in temperature between 1940 &1970 followed by continuous increase after 1970 may be due to climate patterns (Conway and Naomi, 57). Figure 1. Global yearly surface temperature fluctuations measured by thermometers for the period 1880 – 2004 (Goddard Institute for Space Studies). Some people think that the scientists have overestimated the calamities that the global warming has caused and will cause in the future. Scientists claim that global warming is responsible for the increased storminess in recent years. The lack of hard evidence or theoretical evidence to support these allegations proves that the scientists are more concerned at analyzing climate change based on the past century since use of technology has improved and the use of satellites that allows the scientists easily calculate the number of storms wherever they occur. This was difficult in the past, thus storms in remote areas were not recorded before the satellite age, it is thus impossible to prove that global warming is responsible for the rampant storminess. Scientists are faced with the problem of estimating the length or duration global warming will take to cause the anticipated calamities. This is a problem given the unpredictability of the climate change and nature its-self that tries to balance all imbalances. Climate scientists just estimate the length and duration based on climate changes, thus it has become difficult for them to confidently speak on matters regarding global warming due to the recent decline in global warming since 1998. This issue has made politicians use their influence in laying strategies that may hasten the process of global warming for their selfish desires, but since scientists have been unable to differentiate the extent of global, warming that is caused by natural or earth’s greenhouses and that caused by man activities (Grasso, 29). Scientists point of view versus the public perception Global warming has been a continuous process and the increasing rates it undertook since 1970 made scientists make it their priority when dealing with climate change. These scientists after accessing the random rise in temperature concluded that global warming is mainly because of human activities, for instance, burning fossil fuels and gases released from the increasing greenhouses and industries. These claims were released to the public in 1988. Several surveys portrays that in the mid-1990s and early 2000, the public was worried about the climate changes and were afraid of the repercussions of the increased global warming where about 67% of the interviewed public in most surveys claiming that they were very worried of the climate changes and afraid of the future. This number has declined over the last few years since the anticipated warmth rate has declined to the extent that some media televisions and newspapers claimed that there was insignificant global warming and started to question the scientists’ integrity on assuming that human activities were the primary cause for global warming (Maslin, 34). The scientists view the media as the reason behind scientific ignorance in the public where 76% of scientists claim that the media fails to distinguish findings that have good foundation thus resourceful and those that are not making the public ignore the call for scientists on environment conservation. The major problem of media as stated by scientists is their oversimplification of key scientific findings thus gives vague information that confuses the public, for instance the scientists discovered that global warming has been low as compared to the duration between 1970 and 1997 but the media claims that the fear is over as global warming has stopped. This creates mistrust and a different perception by the public towards scientists. This has led to changes in public view of the primary cause of global warming where only about 47% of the public believe that human activities are responsible for global warming even if 97% of scientists still state that the primary cause of global warming is human activities. These data come from research by John Cook, taken from a survey of a US representative sample (N=200) Political controversies on climate change Political controversies on climate can be termed on the different scope and factors that determine the will to enforce climate change. The most debated issue of climate change for the past 50 years in the world has been global warming with scientists claiming that human activities are the primary cause of global warming. The scientists have given strategies to reduce these activities, but the enforcements have been poorly manifested due to the complexity involved in climate change and the different political running of countries in the world. The political scene is important to ensure that the world is able to deal with the anticipated risks and calamities that are anticipated by scientists if the human trend of polluting the environment does not change. There are major political factors and controversies that have limited the international community from agreeing on the best strategy to deal with this issue. These factors are related to the economic growth of the nations where the countries are over reliant on the using fossil fuels to expand and develop their economy, thus the countries are unwilling to sacrifice their economic growth over conserving the environment. Fossil fuels are cheap and most countries lack advanced technology to generate energy from other sources, thus developing nations are more inclined to insist on using fossil fuels as they do not have the technological know how and capital to implement them. Governments of developing nations blame the developed nations for global warming since the development emitted carbon dioxide during their industrialization thus they should pay for the for their actions, but developing countries should not be limited in their venture to improve their economies (Hulme, 123). Countries have different ideologies in issues regarding climate change. These are the four main causes of political controversies on climate change. These factors affect the climate change in positively and negatively. Political controversies are also complex since they depend on the social, political setting and the government in power (Hulme, 123). If a leader is determined to acquire wealth though the sale of fossil fuels for instance leaders of oil producing countries are more inclined to deny that global warming is primarily caused by burning the fossil fuels they will tend to convince the world’s population that the global warming/climatic changes are primarily due to natural climate patterns (Newton, 23). This tends to be different when it comes to leaders more obligated to climate change. Such a leader will use his influence to educate the masses on the primary cause of climate changes and the best way to mitigate the risks of climate change. Pros of political controversies The developing nations claim that developed nations should take responsibilities of their actions of polluting the environment has made developed countries to lay strategies that will reduce global warming thus mitigate the impacts of global warming. United Kingdom, for instance, has embraced the development of nuclear energy to help in providing power thus ensure an end of fossil fuel use in the future. America’s president has also established a strategy that will help America reduce global warming by about 60% by 2030. This proves that the blame by developing nations have made the developed nations take the lead in mitigating and eradicating global warming. Since different countries have different ideologies to deal with climate changes, influential countries undertaking great mechanism to mitigate global warming will ensure other countries will follow suit. Cons Fossil fuels are the cheapest and most used, whereas they are the primary source of global warming. Political controversies will manipulate the users that the use of nuclear is expensive and will cause radiation, whereas nuclear as a source of energy is environmentally friendly. Economic crisis plays a huge role in ensuring that developed countries benefit from exploiting developing countries. This claim may limit the developing countries’ willingness to participate in using advanced energy technology as their political leaders may see it as a way to exploit them. This leads to use of fossil fuels and lack of initiative to pursue advanced technology for energy thus more global warming. Ethical controversies on climate change The ethic is the moral right or wrong in other terms it is defined as the moral obligation to choose a lesser evil over a bigger evil. The major controversies regarding ethic in climate change is complex since ethics are a philosophical term, whereas climate change is more scientific in nature. Different people have different opinion on the importance of ethics in climate change. Some claim that there is no need for ethics in matters regarding climate change, but most believe that the climate is changing towards a critical stage, thus for the government and the international community to make the best strategies that improve the climatic conditions and lives of the poor in developing countries they must be ethical in their decision making process. There is no accepted way to act, but the best and most beneficial act that has the least negative effects is ethical whereas the vice versa is unethical. Several strategies and researches have failed in trying to mitigate global warming. These strategies and researches have huge budgets, whereas billions of people in developing nations are living in absolute poverty. The living conditions are poor, thus facilitating poor health care and high mortality rate in most developing countries. The issue of global warming is very important, but most of the risks that are anticipated and the world is afraid of are based on assumptions and predictions of the scientists thus may never come to happen or may happen after several centuries. It is more ethical for the international community to help improve the living conditions of the poor before overspending on these researches. By improving the living standards, the international community will be conserving the environment since electrification in rural areas in the developing nations will limit usage of coal and fossil fuel, thus this will be an ethical and conservative trend towards mitigating climate change. Pros It is only by using one’s ethics that one is able to separate the dilemma of which is the best strategy to undertake when dealing with climate change and which one you should not undertake. Using ethics will improve the living conditions of the current and future generations. It will also ensure the public takes it upon themselves to facilitate a better environment thus limit global warming. Cons The complexity involved in ethics and climate change makes it difficult to include ethics in matters concerning climate change (Brown, 47). Taking strict measures sometimes even arresting the lawbreakers of a policy may be the best strategy to implement policies regarding climate change, but this may seem unethical thus, limit the chances of obtaining the desired goal. Public policies that clearly addresses climate change The best public policy should be set in higher learning institution level this is to ensure that the society understands the term climate change or global warming. The students should be educated for some time to gain extensive knowledge on the cause and ways to mitigate them. These students should then be allowed to contribute in evaluating the situations in the local societies and the factors that contribute to global warming. The students having had first hand information about the problems of the society that makes them pollute the environment helps formulate the best strategy to mitigate climate change. The students will be paid some motivation strategy to help educate their communities and help in voluntary services to cleanse the society. This policy should also involve political leaders who are influential in each community to ensure the communities are willing to participate in the educative sections and discussions. The political leaders will make the society change their idea on climate change as they look upon the political leaders to ensure they have better lives and living conditions (Greschke and Julia, 46). Pros The main positivity is that the political leader and the students portray the current and the future. The main obligation of a politician to improve the living standards of the citizens for a bright future, whereas the society has given rise to the youths thus the society is willing to do all it takes to ensure the future of their children is brighter and better. The ability of political leaders to manipulate the public into undertaking and participating in the climate change policy will ensure the public oblige the mitigation of climate change/global warming Cons The inclusion of political leaders who have different ideologies may change the general campaign of undertaking the policy since the greed of power may limit their attempt to talk about climate change but instead launch their campaign manifesto. The youths may not be motivated to undertake the task since most are on drugs thus involving them may limit the elderly involvement in the section thus may lead to policy failure. Works Cited Brown, Donald A. American Heat: Ethical Problems with the United States Response to Global Warming. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Print. Conway, Erik M, and Naomi Oreskes. Merchants of Doubt. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. Print. Coward, Harold G, F K. Hare, and Thomas Hurka. Ethics & Climate Change: The Greenhouse Effect. Waterloo, Ont: Published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press for the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, 1993 Grasso, Marco. Justice in Funding Adaptation Under the International Climate Change Regime. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010. Print. Greschke, Heike, and Julia Tischler. Grounding Global Climate Change: Contributions from the Social and Cultural Sciences. , 2014. Hulme, Mike. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print. Maslin, Mark. Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction. S.l.: Oxford University Press, 2014. Print. Newton, David. Science and Political Controversy. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2014. Read More