Climate Change Does Not Exist: and Other Fairytales
- Global warming cannot possibly exist because we still have snow storms and cold weather throughout the world.
- Climate change is not our fault, it is the fault of countries like China and Thailand.
Let's start with the basics. On January 28th President Trump tweeted “In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!” Other then the fact that the president spelled warming wrong, there are a few things wrong with his statement. First of all, we have to understand the difference between climate and weather. Climate is the overall temperature of different parts of the world while the weather in an area can change on a daily basis. According to the New York Times, “while climate scientists expect that the world could warm, on average, roughly two to seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century — depending on how quickly greenhouse-gas emissions rise — they don’t expect that to mean the end of winter altogether. Record low temperatures will still occur; they’ll just become rarer over time,” (Kendra Pierre-Louis). While scientists are not exactly sure why such extreme winter weather is occurring more often, there are studies being done that suggest, “‘…that winter is shortening, but you’re getting these more intensive periods in that shorter winter,’ Dr. Cohen said,” (Kendra Pierre-Louis).
Secondly, let’s tackle the blame game. A 2014 study showed that the United States is only responsible for 15 percent of Global CO2 emissions. Many people have used this research as proof that global warming is not the fault of the USA and therefore not our problem. Ignoring the obvious fact that 15 percent of global CO2 emissions is still a massive amount of emissions, the research here skews our perception of who is responsible for the majority of global warming on a historical level.
Historically The United States is responsible for almost a quarter of the emissions that have contributed to global warming between the years of 1850 and 2011. This means that although at this very moment we may not have the highest rate of global emissions being released, we are still massively responsible for the state of our world today. Not only that but the countries who are suffering the most from these emissions are countries who have the least historical impact on climate change. In summary, the countries being hurt by global warming are not the same ones who created the problem.
Today we need to take responsibility for our actions, we need to admit that we created a problem and we need to work to become part of the solution. Not only does that mean decreasing our carbon footprint on an individual level by using reusable shopping bags, using reusable energy sources like solar panels, and saying no to unnecessary plastic straws, but this also means working together as a country to regulate big corporations, to lessen and eventually stop the release of CO2 emissions, and to make investments in our future and in our earth.
