Why you should care about climate change
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, extreme weather events caused by climate change were responsible for over 370,000 deaths, including 136,000 deaths from heatwaves, between 2001 and 2010. That’s 20% higher than the previous decade. These extreme weather events are also responsible for an estimated 660 billion US dollars of economic damage.
When we think about climate change and global warming, we often think about it as a future problem, but the reality is that climate change is happening right now, and is already having devastating effects.
We can see the magnitude of this devastation from the statistics above. And the impact has doubtless grown since then. But if we’re thinking about why we should ‘care’ about climate change, then we have the think about our human capacity for caring. There’s no denying that 370,000 is a big number, but it can be hard to quantify. This is known as ‘scope insensitivity’ and the best example to demonstrate is is a 1992 study [1] which asked three groups of people how much they would pay to save the lives of migrating birds from drowning in oil pond. Each group was given a different number of birds to save: 2000, 20,000 and 200,000, and yet each group responded with approximately the same price: $80, $78 and $88. When asked questions like this, we tend to imagine one oil-soaked bird and our emotional response is based on that, but we aren’t good at measuring scope and visualizing what 200,000 birds looks like compared to 2000.
Our capacity for caring is limited. We have an emotional response when we think about the impact of climate change on one person’s life, but it’s impossible for us to multiply that response by 370,000 to accurately reflect the magnitude — if we felt that level of emotion, we’d probably break [2].
If we add to that the idea that climate change doesn’t always feel like an immediate problem, or one that personally affects us (‘so we’re having hotter summers in the UK, why’s that such a problem?’), then we can see why a lot of people struggle to care about the issue. Plus, most of what we see, hear and read about climate change is a narrative of doom and gloom and blame on humans for our excessive consumption and wasteful lifestyles. That may be true, but we tend not to respond well to despair and blame, feeling defensive rather than wanting to make change.
So why should we care about climate change, and what will make us care?
The stories behind the statistics
I’ve already mentioned this, but just to be clear, climate change is not a problem of the future, it’s a problem of right now. Measurements show that the average temperature on the Earth’s surface has risen by 1°C since the pre-industrial period, 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st century and each of the last 3 decades have been hotter than the previous one. But we’ve said that statistics tend not to make us care. So let’s look beyond the statistics and look at some specific stories of things that we cherish on our Earth that are being directly affected by global warming.
The statistic: climate change is heating up the arctic faster than anywhere else, with sea ice shrinking 14% each decade.
The story: polar bears rely on sea ice to find food, ‘still-hunting’ by sitting on ice and waiting for seals to surface. Melting ice is already causing polar bears to starve to death — you might remember the distressing video published in December 2017 of a skeletal polar bear collapsing whilst searching for food, clearly close to death. If sea ice continues to decline at the current rate, we’ll lose two-thirds of our global population of polar bears by 2050.
The statistic: Our oceans are 26% more acidic than in 1990 due to increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Combined with the increased temperature of the sea this is causing unprecedented coral bleaching, from which it is unlikely to recover.
The story: The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is a unique marine ecosystem, and the world’s largest coral reef — home to over 400 species of coral. It also appears on many of our bucket lists, many of us dream of snorkelling over the reef one day. Due to higher temperatures and levels of acid in our waters, caused by greenhouse gases, the reef is predicted to reduce by 95% by the end of this century. So for your children, the Great Barrier Reef may be a mere memory of the past, not even a bucket list option.
The statistic: Our sea levels are rising and could rise a further 6 metres in coastal areas, even if we limit warming to 2°C by 2100. Plus, flood frequency will increase by 42% across the globe, affecting up to 90 million people.
The story: Rising sea levels means losing land. If we take America as an example, then by 2100 we could be missing Miami Beach in Miami and Venice Beach in Los Angeles, two of the most famous beaches in the US. Water would be reaching the steps of City Hall in Boston. Significant portions of Manhattan would be underwater, as well as the La Guardia airport in New York. Louisiana would be 4 feet underwater. The roadtrip that you had planned along the coast of the USA suddenly looks very different. And it’s already happening. In October 2018 we heard that Hawaii’s East Island had been completely erased by a hurricane [3], and back in 2016 we lost five of the Solomon Island’s in the Pacific due to the rising sea levels [4]. Those small, deserted, white beach islands could soon be extinct.
These are just three examples; there are countless more: the orangutan families losing their home to palm oil production, the fatalities and displacements caused by powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic, the tragedy that climate change will hit poor countries the worst [5], even though they are least to blame for the increase of greenhouse gases. These stories are why we should care about climate change: behind every statistic that you read, there’s a story of what that statistic really means — so next time you read one, try to think of the story, not just the number.
Our generation can be the one to make the difference
So far this piece has been about climate change as a disaster — which it totally is — but I’ve said that people find it harder to care about rhetorics of doom and gloom, and if we feel like there’s nothing we can do to prevent the problem. So this is a reminder that there are things that we can do about climate change. We are the generation that can make a difference for the future of our planet. We know the science, we know we’re already in the danger zone, we can see the impacts happening, and so we need to make change happen.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their most recent report this year, recommending a warming limit of 1.5°C in order to keep the impacts of climate change at a manageable level. At current rates, we’re likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052. That means we have 12 years to make sure that global warming slows dramatically.
“It’s [the IPCC’s report] a line in the sand and what it says to our species is that this is the moment and we must act now.” (Dr Debra Roberts, IPCC co-chair)
So how do we ensure that warming slows? Ultimately change has to come from the top: we need governments to enforce policy that minimises greenhouse gas production. But on an individual level, we need to be pressuring governments to make those policies. We should also be looking at our own household environmental impact and making changes where possible to keep fossil fuels in the ground: switching to renewable energy, reducing our reliance on single-use plastics, walking and cycling instead of driving, eating less meat and dairy. To get started with these individual changes, check out our free 4 week low impact challenge.
And then there’s the beer argument…
If none of this has persuaded you that you should care about climate change, then I have one more trick up my sleeve:
- The main ingredient in beer is barley, a crop very sensitive to changes in temperature. So, with global warming we will see substantial decreases in the crop and so an increase in the price of beer.
- Higher temperatures and water scarcity will also change the taste and aroma of our grape varieties, meaning that wine may start to taste very difference, and become much harder to come by.
- We’re very likely to experience shortages in coffee too — a Climate Institute report claimed that climate change will halve the area suitable for the production of coffee beans by 2050 due to erratic weather and increased amounts of pests due to warmer weather.
We’re joking, of course — you should definitely care more about the direct impact on people’s lives than about a lack of beer. But the point is that whoever you are and wherever in the world you live, climate change will have an impact on your own quality of life, and the things that you enjoy and currently take for granted.
References
[1] Desvousges, W. Johnson, R. Dunford, R. Boyle, K. J. Hudson, S. and Wilson K. N. (1992). Measuring non-use damages using contingent valuation: experimental evaluation accuracy. Research Triangle Institute Monograph 92–
[2] More info on this idea at http://mindingourway.com/on-caring/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/24/hawaiian-island-erased-by-powerful-hurricane
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/sep/27/climate-change-poor-countries-ipcc
