Climate Change - Literature review Example

Climate Change Name Name of Institution Climate Change Introduction Climate change is a topic that has attracted extensive levels of debate. Individuals across the globe are highly concerned about the topic as climate change is expected to have massive impacts on the global environment. In fact, the concerns of global citizens have pushed governments towards taking steps to combat climate change. However, civil society, individuals, and households can also play big roles in reversing the phenomenon. This essay will examine available literature to come with the definition of climate change and the main causes of the occurrence. A description of how civil society, individual, household, and collaborative political approaches can address the issue will follow. The paper will conclude with an explanation as to why the suggested approaches are the correct way of addressing climate change. Climate Change According to Maunder (2012), the term climate change defines the synthesis of daily weather conditions in an area. The major elements of climate are temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind velocity, and sunshine. This definition of climate facilitates the definition of climate change, which is inconsistency in climatic statistics in a given area. Maunder (2012) notes that the first World Climate Conference adopted the definition that climate change was the difference between long-term means of the climatic elements, where the specified time is a number of decades. A relevant example of climate change in Australia can be seen in the nation’s surface air temperature dataset. The data shows that the climate has warmed since 1910, with much of the changes occurring after the 1950’s. In total, mean surface air temperatures have risen by 0.1oC since 1910. The data has been obtained from over 100 stations with many of them reporting figures since 1910 (Climate Change in Australia 2015). Given that climate change is a reality, it is worth examining its consequences. According to Maunder (2012), Climate change is associated with extreme weather conditions. For instance, general circulation models have shown that hot spells will be more frequent and severe in Canada. Other negative impacts of climate change are the disruption of water supply through droughts and floods, wildfires, changes in seasons, melting glaciers, rises in sea levels, and conflict between states. In contrast, climate change can also have benefits as seen in the fact that the number of very cold days in winter will reduce. Maunder (2012) also illustrates that climate change can have benefits for agriculture as higher temperature can increase the areas where crops like soya bean and maize can thrive. However, the negative impacts of climate change outweigh any positives. The Causes of Climate Change The root causes of climate change fall into two categories, natural causes and human (Brown 2013, 192). It is evident that humans have no control over the natural causes of climate change. These causes include changes in the earth’s orbit, solar variations, ocean currents, and major volcanic eruptions. Each of these natural occurrences affect climate in different ways. For instance, ocean currents play a pivotal role in the global weather conditions as oceans cover over two-thirds of the earth’s surface. In the same way, large volcanic eruptions can send large volumes of debris into the atmosphere, and these particles might obstruct sun rays and lead to lower temperatures. Human activities also lead to climate change. The industrial revolution initiated the widespread use of fossil fuels that emit copious amounts of greenhouse gases. Rural to urban migration has further worsened the emissions as urban areas emit massive amounts of these harmful gases. Globalization is also a cause of climate change as it has increased the demand for natural resources like wood, leading to the widespread deforestation. Agriculture is another prominent cause of climate change. Farms have taken over large swaths of land that were previously under natural forests and vegetation. The use of fertilizers also leads to microbial action that emits large amounts of nitrous oxide and methane (NASA 2015). It is clear that individuals, civil society, households, and the political leadership can take actions to reduce some of the activities that cause climate change. Additionally, the actions can only work if they are implemented across the globe, as it is not sensible for some countries to reduce emission of greenhouse gases while the neighbours maintain or increase the emission of these gases that harm the ozone layer. How to Address the Issue of Climate Change As stated, the topic of climate change in general raises considerable debate. Part of the debate is on how governments, civil society, households, and individuals can address the issue. On the one hand, there are groups that suggest that individual actions like planting trees, recycling, and purchasing energy saving bulbs are the best ways to fight climate change (Roberts 2007). On the other hand, there are those who suggest that these actions have minimal impacts and that radical political action is required to reverse global warming (Tidwell 2007). This paper will adopt the second approach where individuals, households, civil society, and the political system will need to take urgent action instead of stating that climate change is the responsibility of individuals. Civil Society plays a vital role in modern society as its separation from state and the market allows it to advocates for the rights of the citizenry. The adoption of the view that individual actions like recycling and planting trees will not stop climate change means that that the problem can be solved by governments and businesses. According to Tidwell (2007), convincing people to purchase energy efficient bulb does not make sense when the law allows businesses to produce and market inefficient light bulbs. The only way to solve this issue is making legislative changes, and this can only happen when the public demands these changes. Civil society should educate the public on how to engage in political action and the importance of a sense of community in a very individualized world (Maniates 2002, 38). They should also encourage debate on the issue of climate change, as the world seems to have accepted the narrative that individual actions are the only means to stop climate change. When it comes to individuals, they should stop viewing themselves simply as consumers who can stop climate change by purchasing products that are marketed as environmentally friendly (Maniates 2002, 38). They should embrace their roles as active citizens who have a big say in regional, national, and global politics. This should allow them to get in the way of science, academic discussions and distant international negotiations about an issue that affects their daily lives and futures. When it comes to households, they have been convinced that they can use their purchases to ‘vote’ for or against climate change. This ignores the existence of a consumption problem that is present because of limited choices (Maniates 2002, 50). Like individuals, households should confront institutions and political forces to create meaningful changes in policy. The recommendations for households, individuals, and civil society shows that the political system is responsible for climate change. Additionally, the same system has the means to solve the issue and secure the future of humanity. This can only be achieved through collaboration where leaders come together to create meaningful legislation. Political leaders should ensure that they do not dilute the contents of proposed legislation as they form the last hurdle in passing legislation. A regrettable case of failure can be seen in the US where a vital food and beverage container reuse legislation failed (Maniates 2002, 43). The failure shifted responsibilities to consumers and companies continued to produce huge amounts of harmful containers. In addition to preserving the contents of proposed legislation, the political system should advocate for an increase in the Government’s power. The decision to allow businesses to regulate themselves is partly responsible for the increased levels of greenhouse emissions (Maniates 2002, 40). If politicians can collaborate and concentrate economic and political power in governmental institutions instead of corporations, they can be in a position to implement policies that can actually solve the issue of climate change. Conclusion To summarise, this essay has established that climate change is an emergency that has to be solved as soon as possible. Evidence from Australia has shown that climate change has accelerated over the past century, confirming that human activities contribute to significant changes in weather patterns. The paper has adopted the view that individuals are not responsible for climate change, and that individual actions like planting trees or riding bicycles to work will not reverse climate change. The recommendation is that individuals, households, and civil society need to work with politicians to create revolutionary legislation that will have noticeable impacts. This strategy will work as opposed to the little individual actions that are somewhat beneficial but will never reverse climate change. Successes in the Civil Rights Movement and the Second World War, two of the major challenges that have faced the world, show that political mobilization is the effective way of overcoming major global challenges (Tidwell 2007). Bibliography Brown, A. Donald. 2013. Climate Change Ethics: Navigating the Perfect Moral Storm. New York: Routledge Climate Change in Australia. 2015. Australian climate trends. Accessed April 29, 2015 http://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/climate-campus/australian-climate-change/australian-trends/ Maniates, M. 2002. ‘Individualization: Plant a tree, buy a bike, save the world?’. In Princen, T., Maniates, M. & Conca, K. 2002. Confronting Consumption (pp. 43-66). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press Maunder, W. John. 2012. Dictionary of Global Climate Change, 2nd Edition. London: UCL Press Limited. NASA. 2015. A blanket around the Earth. Accessed April 29, 2015 http://climate.nasa.gov/causes/ Roberts, D. 2007. The power of voluntary actions: Social scientists respond to Mike Tidwell. Grist: Environmental News and Commentary Tidwell, M. 2007. Consider using the N-word less. Grist: Environmental News and Commentary Read More