By 2040, we may see severe climate conditions. Unbridled carbon emissions are projected to cause an overwhelming rise in global temperatures, resulting in the destruction of all coral reefs, significant rise in sea levels, and irreversible damage to many ecosystems and social environments. Not only can a technological fix be implemented to help combat the CO2 levels in the atmosphere, one may be necessary. New technologies including electric cars, efficient and cost-effective solar panels, and new ways to store energy are being developed every day. Widespread implementation of these innovations could help to reduce our impact on climate change. However, a successful shift to a more sustainable world requires commitment at the personal, governmental, and global levels. To reduce emissions in such a short time period, there needs to a massive shift in the collective efforts to fight climate change. It is hard to imagine that the world will turn on a dime to face the issue head on. It may even take us until 2040 to convince everybody that global warming is real. Barring a large-scale, effective campaign to raise awareness and implement new programs the world over, I unfortunately do not see us meeting the goals detailed in the Paris Agreement.
John Tyndall described what would become known as the greenhouse effect as early as 1861 (Reidy). Despite what climate contrarians may say, global warming is an issue that has, at the very least, been considered for over 100 years. The idea that global warming may actually affect us is the idea in its infancy. It is only recently that we have been able to examine the extreme effects of climate change and confirm that we have caused the Earth to heat up since the start of the industrial age.
The Paris agreements aren’t even enough unfortunately. The frustrating thing is that not only politicians, but society at large is either too apathetic to realize the gravity of the situation or themselves climate change deniers.
In recent years the anti-science movement has gained a lot of ground over some really, really stupid things. Things like flat-earthers now exist that didn’t in the early 2000s, the anti-vax movement has gained so much ground that Europe has recently experienced a measles outbreak, and the list goes on and I think we’ll all be depressed if I continue. Much of the problem lies with how terrible of a job we’ve done in making sure that our society understands and values the scientific progress, and the right kind of skepticism.
I do believe that the findings that those articles concluded with are right. It’s technically possible, and scientifically possible to stop these bad effects if action is taken now and techno-fixes are implemented. Problem is, humans are kind of idiots and it takes a lot of effort just to convince them, and you’re right. I don’t see us even managing to get everyone onto the same page by 2040. Even if we did, there’s going to be even more arguing over who does what and how we proceed from there that is going to slow down our ability to respond to this properly.
Sometimes, humans are too slow.