Environmental Ethics-Climate Change - Essay Example

?Running Head: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Environmental Ethics---Climate Change Scientists today all over the world have expressed grave concern over the severe impacts of climate change. Global warming occurs when heat from the surface of the earth cannot escape into the space as it gets blocked by certain gases in the atmosphere. Climate scientists agree that the principle cause of global warming is the greenhouse effect which is essential an anthropogenic phenomenon i.e. caused by human activities. However, this grave issue has so far been neglected on a large scale by politicians. This lack of action on climate change has the potential to turn this world into an inhabitable place for the future generations. Climate change can be considered as one of the most challenging issues in this era of development, and it has to be the moral responsibility of every individual and government to take action against climate change to make this earth a safer place for future generations. A recent report commissioned by the World Bank has stated that by the end of this century the world will become warmer by 4oC and to avoid this, stringent measures need to be taken immediately. The report has already observed the negative impacts of climate change on human health from events like rising sea level, draughts, heat waves etc (Climate Change Report....., 2013). Climate change Some of the sun’s heat that reaches the earth’s surface gets absorbed and the rest gets radiated back to the atmosphere in the form of infrared heat. However, 90% of the heat gets absorbed by the greenhouse gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc and is radiated back to the earth’s surface thereby rising the temperature of the earth. Human activities are to a large extent responsible for the creation of these gases. The most common factor is burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil which increases the level of carbon dioxide (CO2). Some lesser contributory human factors for production of greenhouse gases are clearing of land for agriculture and industry. Today, human beings heavily rely on industrial activities, and these have “raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years.” The general belief among climate scientists is that greenhouse gases produced by human activities have a 90 percent contribution towards the rise of earth’s temperature in the past five decades (A Blanket around the earth, n.d.). The impacts of climate change are manifold. Ice has been melting at a rapid pace all over the world especially at the poles like mountain glaciers and ice sheets in West Antarctica and Greenland, and also Arctic sea ice. There has been an increase in rain and snowfall across the world, and sea level has risen considerably in the last century. Continuous global warming can cause increased rate of natural calamities like hurricanes and other storms, floods and draughts (Effects of global warming, 2007). Climate change is also affecting the economy and health of human beings. The increasing heat and heat waves can have extreme effects on health and can also cause deaths. Climate change also increases the probability of diseases that get transmitted by food, water and insects (An Introduction to climate change, 2011). Climate change is also having negative effects on global economy. According to a recent study, nearly 400,000 people are dying annually all over the world that puts a dent in the world economy by $1.2 trillion. This decreases the world GDP by 1.6%. The effect is more common in developing countries whose main occupation is agriculture. Climate change can destroy crops and other agricultural products and this leads to massive deaths caused by poverty, malnutrition, hunger and other related diseases. Burning of fossil fuels causes air pollution that kills almost 4.5 million people per year. But the extreme impacts of economies will be caused by weather extremities like droughts, floods and hurricanes that can cause reduction of US GDP by 2% by 2030. Although most governments have taken to believe that climate change can cause severe global crisis in the long run, scientists and researchers carry the opinion that extreme negative impacts of climate change are already being felt. According to scientists Arctic sea ice is melting at such increasing rapid pace that there is every possibility it will become ice free within the next few years (Harvey, 2012). Limited action against anthropogenic climate change The research question that is being addressed in this paper is “Why has there been such limited action against (anthropogenic) climate change?” The principal reason behind this is that there is a large section of people that includes scientists, politicians, journalists, authors and fossil fuel companies who deny the fact that human activities are principal reasons behind climate change. The starting point of discussion about climate change is the consequences caused by the negative impacts of global warming. The results of such discussion always lead to the belief that high emitters of greenhouses gases are morally wrong and should be replaced by low emitters of greenhouse gases. This phenomenon is more applicable in developing countries where low economy leads to application of high emitters. Moreover, if the replacement can be done then it will help to reduce damages caused by global warming and the victims can be compensated. However, this is overcome by the fact that there is widespread denial of climate change. There are five perspectives that lead to denial of climate change. The first one is complete denial of climate change, but going by the global consequences and also the rarity of such belief do not allow such belief to be taken into consideration. The second perspective is denial of global warming, although this perspective has changed from recent records of global warming impacts. The third perspective denies that there are any kinds of negative impacts of global warming. The fourth perspective includes denial that human activities are major reasons behind global warming, and the fifth perspective states that anthropogenic climate change does not have any negative impacts. For several decades there have been scientific debates on the issue of climate change. Although majority of climate change supporters believe that human activities are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming, there are still a group of scientists and politicians who refuse to connect human activities with global warming on the pretext that there are no factual evidence (Gremmen, 2012, p.93). Views against anthropogenic climate change have many advocators. The first group consists of journalists, authors, politicians and also a few climatologists who use the TV or radio as media to preach their beliefs that there is no such thing as climate change. This group of people backs their views with credible sounding reasons, although their claims never go through strict scrutiny. The mainstream media give them undue attention and so their views become difficult to ignore. Then there is another group who deny that human activities cause climate change. This group consists of oil, gas and coal companies who have a vested interest in this kind of perspective. These companies have a different strategy; they do not put forward any plausible scientific explanations. They merely spread confusions and misinformation that lead to slower pace of initiatives against climate change. The reason behind this is these fossil fuel companies want to keep their profits high by preserving the consumer demand of fuels. The third group consists of politicians who want to play safe by not antagonizing fossil fuel corporations and industrial sectors who are the main contributors of greenhouse gases. To protect their political ideologies and economic interests, these politicians choose to deny anthropogenic climate change. Then there are common people who believe in human causes of climate change yet continue to live their regular lives like driving cars, using excessive energy and so on (Chivers, 2011, p.23). The topic of climate change, its impacts, predictions and denials have been discussed on high levels for decades. However, in spite of large number of scientific evidences supporting human activities as causes for climate change there has been very slow real progress made to combat climate change. In as early as 1978, the National Climate Program Act was passed by the Congress. This Act was passed in order to assist any policies that would understand and respond to the natural and human affected causes of climate changes and their repercussions. This legislation stated that “the United States lacks a well-defined and coordinated program in climate-related research, monitoring, assessment of effects, and information utilization.” (Powledge, 2012, p.8) Even after more than thirty years, the Act has not been applied and the issue of climate change remains unaddressed. This kind of alarming situation exists even though IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has presented dozens of scientific evidences filled with data on climate change. This is because the issue becomes an arguing point every time presidential election creeps nearer. Thus, the scientists are left with no viable ways to communicate properly with the policy makers (Powledge, 2012, p.8). Religious beliefs also play a big role in constructing the mindsets of the common people on anthropogenic climate change. In many cultures, it is believed that weather and climate are too grand and human activities cannot alter their course of action. Many agricultural societies believe that although human beings can manage lands, the weather is controlled by God (Donner, 2011, p.1297). In current times, when anthropogenic climate change and its impacts have been accepted by most governments, it is the responsibility of the scientists to convince public of the impending crisis. There is a misconception among scientists that common people do not take steps on issues like climate change because the people do not have correct information. The actual fact is that “culture affects the way an audience receives information and is critical to engaging the public on controversial scientific issues.” (Donner, 2011, p.1299) A rational way of explaining information will have less effect than emotional way of explaining the same information. For instance, people may choose to believe past religious or cultural knowledge over scientific evidence on anthropogenic climate change (Donner, 2011, pp.1299-1300). Studies are being conducted to examine how non-believers of anthropogenic climate change can be convinced to get engaged in measures on combating climate change. It can be accepted that any measures taken to control climate change can have co-benefits like increased developments and health improvements. Less emphasis has been given on identity benefits of actions taken on climate change although this may be more important to believers and non-believers. Social psychologists have observed that people tend to live in communities that are competent and have moral values. People also tend to live in societies that have thriving economy and less crime and poverty. Therefore, non-believers may be motivated to participate in activities on climate change where they think “climate change action would result in people becoming more moral, interpersonally warm and competent, and where action would lead to greater societal development or reduced societal dysfunction.” (Bain et al, 2012, p.1) Recent studies on economics of climate change conducted by the UK government have confirmed the enormous costs of failure to control climate change. The economic and social impacts of these costs will mostly affect the poor populations equally in both developed and developing countries. The analysis report of the European Commission shows that “the investment needed to achieve a low-carbon economy would cost only around 0.5% of world GDP between 2013 and 2030.” (EU action against climate change, 2008, p.7) Such investments are required to stop the global temperature from rising beyond 2oC. These measures can lead to an average reduction of 0.12% of GDP growth up to 2050. Moreover, there are benefits from cutting emissions like reduced negative impacts of climate change, lesser costs on health issues due to reduced air pollution, and greater savings of energy (EU action against climate change, 2008, p.7). Conclusion Climate change is a matter of grave concern as it is the single biggest issue that can cause risk to human life on earth. Its negative impacts on the environment, economy, health and agriculture are manifold and should be beyond controversy. The increasing level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere traps the heat that radiates from the earth’s surface causing rapid global warming with dire consequences. It is imperative that human beings act now to generate the adaptation of cleaner energy sources at home and abroad. Although reports have confirmed the enormous costs of failure to control climate change, the developed countries like the U.S. can combat some of these negatives effects of climate change with their abundant resources. The brunt of the issue will fall on poorer countries, and this may lead to greater immigration to the U.S. References A Blanket around the earth (n.d.). NASA, accessed on April 5, 2013 from: http://climate.nasa.gov/causes An Introduction to climate change: what it could mean to you and your family (2011), NRDC, accessed on April 5, 2013 from: http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/ climatebasics.asp Bain, P.G. et al. (2012). Promoting pro-environmental action in climate change deniers, accessed on April 6, 2013 from: http://www.climateaccess.org/sites/default/files/ Bain_Promoting%20pro-environmental%20action.pdf Chivers, D. (2011). Climate Denial: A Spotter’s Guide. New Internationalist, No.442, 23 Climate Change Report warns of dramatically warmer world this century (2013). World Bank, accessed on April 5, 2013 from: http://climatechange.worldbank.org/content/ climate-change-report-warns-dramatically-warmer-world-century Donner, S.D. (2011). Making the climate a part of the human world. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 92(10), 1297-1302 Effects of global warming: signs are everywhere (2007). Nationalgeographic, accessed on April 5, 2013 from: http://environment.nationalgeographic.co.in/environment/global-warming/gw-effects/ EU action against climate change: Leading global action to 2020 and beyond (2008), accessed on April 6, 2013 from: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/campaign/ pdf/post_2012_en.pdf Gremmen, B. (2012) The ethics of climate change denial, pp.90-94, Potthast, T. & S. Meisch (eds), Climate change and sustainable development: ethical perspectives on land use and food production, Wageningen Academic Publishers Harvey, F. (2012). Climate change is already damaging global economy: report finds. The Guardian, accessed on April 5, 2013 from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ 2012/sep/26/climate-change-damaging-global-economy Powledge, F. (2012). Scientists, Policymakers, and a Climate of Uncertainty. Bioscience, 62(1), 8-13 Read More