Recognizing that human activity, the rise of industrialism, has been the leading contributor to the rise in global temperature, is the first step to creating and employing effective techno and socio-technological fixes before reaching catastrophic points. Now is the opportunity to change the global tendency to be reactionary to becoming proactive in both preserving and healing our environment and atmosphere.
Contrary to the majority of techno and socio-techno fixes that have developed in the past decade focusing on how to address the effects of climate change, the focus should move toward mitigating the rise of temperature in general. There has been great discussion regarding attempts to trap emissions lower in the atmosphere before the o-zone is further affected. I personally do not see how this is sustainable and could not come with myriad negative consequences even short-term let alone long-term. Creating a sense of responsibility and giving the independent power to smaller group, such as indigenous peoples and local communities, to implement approaches and policy of climate change mitigation would both strengthen the societal focus and improve the thought processes behind said fixes (IPCC Headlines p. 3).
Regardless of the “age” of the research behind climate change, there is a plethora of undeniable statistics showing the rise in temperature and its contributors. Furthermore, I truly can’t understand the value of claiming that something is too young and therefore shouldn’t be focused on as we continuously see the repercussions of remaining reactive. Why not push to understand and address something before potential catastrophe?
I love the title for your blog post! Very punny:) I liked your comment about changing the world’s tendency of being reactionary to being more proactive. I thought that was a good way of thinking about how humans tend to act with decisions like climate change. I agreed with what you said about trapping further emissions not being really sustainable. I thought the same thing when I read the articles. It just seems counter-intuitive to trap further emissions when there’s tremendous issues with the emissions we already have. I especially liked how you ended with the idea that we should push the subject of climate change before the point of no return (although it’s possible that we’ve already reached that point). At what point will the majority of human kind realize that we have ruined the only world we have, and it’s far too late to make any corrective changes? I think all these articles call this into question, and it certainly made me think about what environmental changes we’ll see in our lifetime. Great blog post, I really enjoyed reading it!
Nice post, Shayne. I think you expressed your thoughts and opinions on the necessary shift in the mindset of society regarding climate change well. I also think you presented an interesting idea to address climate change when you said that we should allot the power to smaller groups such as communities or indigenous peoples. It is widely accepted that an effective approach to combat global temperatures would result in a huge change in global economy. I am curious as to your thoughts on this. Would you accept an abrupt turn of the economy, possibly toward a less productive and stagnant model, to start remedying the effects of climate change? I am not sure that it would be possible or ultimately beneficial to stifle the economy to begin reversing the effects humans have had on the world. Do you think China and India would be on board?
Hello Shayne, great post! For starters I really liked the title of your blog post for this week. I like how you began your post by stating that we need to first recognize that human activity and industrialism have been two huge contributors to the rise in temperature. I agree that now is the prime time to change our habits as a society. If we do than we can preserve and get on the path of healing our environment. I would also have to agree that we need to concentrate our focus on lowering the overall temperature in the atmosphere. There are many stats that point to a steady rise in temperature and we need to be cautious instead of being sorry.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post, it is well written and I agree with you. With all of the facts that scientists have gathered and documented over the last 100 years regarding climate change and its contributing factors, it is ignorant for anyone to deny that climate change is occurring or that humans are not primarily responsible. I don’t think that climate change science is new as in the last 20 years, but it has definitely more recently progressed to the point that it is undeniable, and not just a few elite scientists theories. Many of the techno fixes as said many times before are just putting a band-aid on the issue, but that may be exactly what we need. We cant sit back and do nothing, and we cant completely reform and reshape a society overnight, so we are left with no other choice. Everyone in America wont give up their gas powered vehicles, just like industrial factories in china wont close their doors to save the arctic. Techno fixes are not long term sustainable but they are necessary until the issue is so severe that the drastic measures have to be taken by all.