Who’s Responsibility is it to Care About Climate Change?
We are able to see the effects of climate change everywhere in almost every aspect of our lives these days. From less snow to rising temperatures climate change is no longer deniable. Boulder County has seen some of its warmest days in recent years, reaching temperatures in the 80’s in April in 2019, 2022, and 2023. This temperature increase has led to drastic effects on snow and rainfall totals, both of which have negatively affected many parts of Boulder’s gorgeous and thriving ecosystem. Now that we can no longer deny the imminent threats of climate change, I often ponder the question, who is responsible for the damage to our planet?
Society has been more keen to climate change in recent years as can be seen by many different page views on Wikipedia articles. I think there has been a general shift from people questioning if it exists to seeing it in their daily lives. One of the most telling effects is watching the page views on the general climate change page decrease, just as the page views on the effects of climate change increase. This shows that people all around the world are now just accepting that climate change is happening and are seriously worried about the effects it will have on us. Below is a chart, where blue is the “Effects of Climate Change” page and red is the “Climate Change” page. You can see a significant increase in mid 2020 in the blue line which is likely when people’s eyes really began to open up about how big of a deal this really is. This disturbing truth once again brings me back to my initial question, who is responsible for this, and what can we do? It is clear that the government is making little to no steps towards a solution, it is time for someone to step up to the plate.
One user in particular on Wikipedia may feel as strongly about this matter as I do, and shockingly, they were the top editors on both pages I looked at in this investigation. With edits on the “Climate Change” page dating back to 2014 (green line in time series plot below) I suggest that this user was ahead of their time in concerns for our planet. More recently, their first edit to the “Effects of Climate Change” page starting in 2019, as depicted by the blue line in the time series plot below, I get the impression that they feel the same sense of irreversible hopelessness many of us are beginning to feel. With 2,090 edits total this user clearly is concerned and interested in educating others on our planet about the irreversible damage we are doing.
Perhaps the responsibility lies in the small steps that we all can take everyday to reduce our carbon emissions footprint. In Boulder County at least it seems that some of our peers are following this lead, especially on their commute to work. More specifically those who studied Biology, Agriculture, and/or Environmental Studies in their undergraduate bachelors degrees. In Boulder County there is a positive correlation between the mode of transportation to work and the number of these kinds of majors. Maybe this is encouraged by their jobs, more sustainable workplaces as a whole, or maybe this is still a pattern that is happening at the individual level, but the numbers here are incredibly important. When examining the first method of transportation, carpooling, I found that there was a relatively strong positive linear correlation of 0.3636. Additionally, when looking into a second mode of transportation, walking, I found another strong positive linear correlation of 0.3639. The scatterplots below show that the years 2019 and 2022 may have had the most people in natural sciences with bachelor’s degrees while also having relatively higher numbers in sustainable transportation to work. It is interesting to me that this timeframe lines up with when people seemed to be getting concerned about climate change as a whole as seen in the wiki page views.
I would argue that many of the natural science majors, especially in Boulder County, are aware and properly educated about climate change. I also feel that they would do many things in their power to educate and inform others about all of the small changes that they could be making in their lives to help reduce their carbon footprint. This likely means that they feel a strong personal sense of responsibility to help stop the damage that has been done.
On the other hand of this argument comes the people who may feel little to no personal responsibility for climate change. I looked into those who got a bachelor’s degree in Computers, Mathematics and Statistics and using public transportation (excluding taxis) for their commute to work. Here I found a strong negative linear correlation of -0.5603 meaning that as the number of these majors went up, the number of people who used public transportation went down. Other climate conscious choices like carpooling and biking also had a negative correlation with this major, in fact the only positive correlation came from walking to work. Seeing this relationship made me begin to believe that not everyone feels obligated to reduce their carbon footprint.
Understanding the popularity and common use of wikipedia pages to spread knowledge, I began to think about other ways that people quickly use the internet to spread information on topics they are passionate about. I also recognized the importance of identifying a group of people who will listen to your messaging, such as how natural science majors would tend to listen to climate change information more than math science majors. Users often turn to social media as they feel it is a collective responsibility to fight the good fight and engage with others who feel the same.
Many activists like Greta Thunberg and Mr. Beast have been able to turn to social media to lead successful campaigns to show the world that we all must take some responsibility for saving our planet. Thunberg has been able to reach 6 million people in 150 countries and an article by ASEAN has credited her with “the Greta effect” which opened the eyes of millions to climate change. Mr. Beast also took on a #TeamTrees with an initiative to plant 20 million trees to help the earth and has garnered support from big names like Elon Musk. Both of these huge movements took place starting in 2019. This lines up with the incredible surge in wiki page views and transportation preferences in 2019 that I explored earlier in this article.
These successful campaigns lead me to believe that to get everyone to understand that climate change is a collective responsibility we must turn to social media. Spreading the message will help get each and everyone of us to understand that this is not something that just the wiki nerds, natural science majors, and climate activists should care about. Looking at the histograms below to see the distribution of page views for the wiki pages it is easy to see that there are at least 100 views of these pages a day. Imagining what increasing that awareness to 500 or even 1000 could do to educate the general public about this topic is something that I feel incredibly passionate about.
The evidence is irrefutable: climate change is no longer a distant threat but a reality affecting every aspect of our lives. Boulder County’s soaring temperatures and altered precipitation patterns demonstrate this crisis on a local level. As society collectively acknowledges climate change, evidenced by shifts in Wikipedia page views and transportation habits, the question of responsibility still stands.
Individuals must step up to the plate because it is clear governments are not going to. Education plays a pivotal role, with natural science majors in Boulder County leading the charge towards sustainable practices and advocacy. Social media emerges as a powerful tool to utilize for education and awareness.
May this article be a reminder that we must recognize the responsibility that lies within each and every one of us to act before it is too late.
