How much are you willing to risk and pay to have quick wins and rewards? The cost you ask? Only a depleting ecosystem, higher health risks and massive global political conflict. I hope you picked up on my sarcasm.
(2020) ClimateCentral Map of potential rising seas levels within the next 200 years or soon if carbon emissions continue on the same path.
This could easily be our future if a solution is not put into effect to address the climate change issues. There’s a multitude of arguments when it comes to acknowledging Global Warming as an issue but for the most part, people agree that a push into the future for clean energy is necessary, However, according to several resources, the tactics and the time line cannot reach an agreement. We the people, need to push our government to increase the regulations on fossil fuel polluters, the cap and trade system, along with investment into clean sustainable energy.
The issue of global warming remains the most important problem facing the biosphere eclipsing all others and requiring a broad range of responses by humans that challenge the very way we define economics and progress. Environmental scientists generally agree on the scale, pace and intensity of the problem but not on the solutions. Policy makers must devise an international system that will reduce the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide in a short period of time. The suggestions made so far do not follow a “command and control” model but offer instead market-friendly solutions; One, the "cap and trade" system whereby carbon emissions can be traded in a free market and gradually reduce the production of the gas; two, a carbon tax that would use the market to accelerate carbon gas reductions in an environment where the costs of emissions would be graduated upward to affect the largest producers (EJ Matters, AB32 Act Article).
There are several articles that provide perspectives that examine the issues. I will reference sources to explain the impacts with the general global warming pieces and suggest a tactical solution to the human caused climate change and the policy options represented.The rising atmospheric temperatures and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing our oceans to warm up. While the oceans are warming it is having an early affect on our coral reefs. Bleaching of the reefs is caused by a two degree temperature change in the ocean. The life living in these areas have been affected as well as the livelihood and economic wealth of communities in the areas affected. Fast forward, the reef bleaching is occuring at an alarming rate and could affect the entire food chain in the ocean if it is lost forever. Incoming solar energy comes into the atmosphere where it is absorbed by the earth and plants (Pearson Education, 2015). The ocean participates in heat exchange where the heat is unable to escape the atmosphere because of the increasing amount of CO2 and CO4 in the air. Where is this increase in Carbon coming from? A large portion is coming from the fossil fuel industry and massive beef industry (Before the Flood).
According to Countdown to Oblivion: The Real Reason We Can’t Stop Global Warming, “greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and particulate matter such as black carbon) are key causes of climate change” (Sassen, 2018). There are a number of effects that the author mentions and connect back to humans. Greenhouse gases are the number one cause of climate change. The large production and industrial plants generate chemicals such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and black carbon according to Sassen. These chemicals have a huge impact on the processes that our ecosystem naturally, and by naturally I say, typically use to do because a lot of what used to be normal systems no longer exist. The process would include, according to Pearson Education, the entering of sun radiation into our atmospheric layer around the earth. The layer includes the essential gases such as oxygen to assist with the important role of absorbing radiation and maintaining climate control (P.Edu Ch. 13, Slide 5). When our system has been disrupted the way it has, it causes a weakening and malfunction of our natural processes
Industrial emissions have caused a numerous amount of direct issues and indirect cause and effect outcomes and yet we continue to accept the sale and trade of an essential component to our livelihoods. We are damaging the very spaceship we live on, refusing to commit to dramatic changes, not because we don't have the means to do it but for a more simplistic reason, CAPITALISM. The question still remains, are you willing to put a price on yours, possibly your future children, or your neighbors' livelihood so you can have the newest iphone, car, or beef for dinner?
The solar radiation acts as a buffer to regulate temperature on earth's surface. The increased methane released by cows for beef, a mostly 50% agriculture production, prevents solar rays from exiting our atmosphere causing our earth's temperature to increase. Our increasing satisfaction to get what we want when we want as a world, specifically North Americans, has caused a mass production of beef and other industrial materials or goods. Many people can not immediately see the damage that humans are having on the ecosystem and therefore are in denial or refute the claims.
The strawmans fallacy is a philosophy concept that explains people's reasons for objecting in response to someone's argument. The argument in response is typically incorrect because the argument is attacked for an explanation that has never advanced . For example, Scientists claim that there is Global Warming that is occurring that is causing a shift in climate change because of the increasing number of chemicals being polluted into our system. With this argument you are getting Scientists, who make this argument and then two, get deniers of Climate Change because the area in which they live has little to no increase in warming. The argument is incorrect because it attacks a position that never advances. Global warming is not claimed to be having an increase in global change everywhere but rather global changes.
According to Pearson Education, the increased temperature in one reason may cause a jet stream of weather systems that would move at an increasing dramatic loop that is stuck in a wavelength pattern that can cause extreme weather patterns in certain regions. For instance the recent increase in dry summers and now extremely wet winters in Los Angeles along with hot summers in New York and beyond normal below freezing temperatures in the winter. Jeff Wattenhofer’s article in, Curbed Los Angeles maps part of Los Angeles future could be underwater if nothing is done about climate change. Jeff states that pinpoint how long and how fast the increase in sea levels could take because of the warming of the glacier; however, urges for the general public to be aware and do something about it (Wattenhofer, 2015).
Losing the ozone layer would mean that there would be an increasing amount of Ultraviolet light in our atmosphere. Typically the ultraviolet breaks up O2 single and bins and creates 03 and transferring energy absorption prevents them from reaching earth; however, with the stratospheric ozone it would have a harder time protecting us. Like I mentioned before, there are deniers that have an out of sight, out of mind mentality and can not put two and two together because it's a somewhat intangible concept --- which is false. One example that shows the immediate effects of Carbon Dioxide is industrial fog that can be created by coal plants or in areas that use an increasing amount. To keep warm during the winter, “Donora, Pennsylvania, at midday in its 1948 smog event” the coal and oil being burned created a combustion of sooth and sulfur dioxide that mixed with the oxygen and water vapor in the area and created Sulfuric acid (Pearson Education, Chapter 13 Slide 33). The thermal inversion prevents cold air from rising like a hat increases pollution trapped. Once the areas moved to a natural gas the area cleared. Though there are still some concerns surrounding natural gas as a solution, the argument being made is that there are cleaner technologies and choices out there.
The AB32 Global Warming solution act warns and encourages dialogue about what they claim as an irreversible but inevitable outcome but one that can be prolonged. They refute the argument that cap and trade restrictions will provide certainty for minimization but rather putting a price on the certain outcome of our livelihood. The concern again about wanting it all but staying blind to the effects is California’s governor Jerry Brown’s continued discussion to continue the cap and trades leniency even though “seventy-two percent of allowances under the current cap and trade go to the oil industry” through sale and trade (Aronoff, 2017).
In conclusion, globally and locally we need to come together to decide on immediate solutions and green sustainable energy because our livelihood is at an ever alarming rate of being jeopardized. Having a cap and trade program is literally putting a price on our future and pushing an ever inevitable agenda of doom, if we do not do something about it today. If you feel moved by this cause that has no borders, is not discriminatory and will affect us all, I encourage you to tell a friend, learn how you can get involved and participate. The more people we make aware of our capitalized influence on climate change then maybe we can create a better tomorrow.
Citations
Aronoff, K. (2017, July 17). California Gov. Jerry Brown is Backing a Climate Bill Full Of
Giveaways to Polluters: Regulators Say the Measure Would Make it Impossible to Meet
The State’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets by 2030. Nation of Change.
https://www.nationofchange.org/2017/07/17/california-gov-jerry-brown-backing-climate-bill-full-giveaways-polluters/ (file accessed 01-28-2019)
ClimateCentral (2020) https://choices.climatecentral.org/#11/33.7432/-118.0659?compare=scenarios&carbon-end-yr=2100&scenario-a=unchecked&scenario-b=extreme-cuts
Environmental Justice Matters To Address Climate Change. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
ADVOCATES. (file suit to force California to follow the law on implementing the AB32
Global Warming Solutions Act)
https://www.agricanto.org/uploads/5/2/6/3/52634281/ej_matters_captrade.pdf (file accessed 01-28-2019)2
Pearson Education Lecture Slides Chapter 1 - 16 (2005).
Rosenhall, L. (2015, July 25). Cap and trade: Is California a leader or a loner? CALmatters.
(accessed date: 01/26/2019)
Saskia, S. (2014, May 18). Countdown to Oblivion: The Real Reason We Can’t Stop Global
Warming. Salon.
op_global_warming/ (file accessed 01-25-2019)
Wattenhofer, J. (2015, October 16). Map Shows Part of LA that Could Be Underwater If Nothing’s
Done to Stop Climate Change. Curbed Los Angeles.
https://la.curbed.com/2015/10/16/9910258/interactive-map-shows-regions-of-la-that-could-be-underwater-in-2100 (file accessed 01-24-2019)
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