Climate Change-Hoax or Reality?
Debating the two sides of the same story
By Moina Rohira
In the words of Donald Trump, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Let’s go along with this statement and assume that climate change is indeed mythical, non-existent, a big money-making hoax if you might; how would one explain the rapidly increasing temperature of the Earth, with 17 of the 18 warmest years on record, all taking place every year since 2001? Not to mention how 279 billion tons of ice just ‘disappeared’ from Greenland this year. While the evidence is unequivocal, there are those who still don’t believe in climate change, the world focusing on this ridiculous debate while climate change continues to exist as a threat to our very existence.
One reason why climate change deniers exist is because of their own personal experiences. Let’s say you live in the American Midwest and still have snow and ice in winter; so how does that explain the hot, boiling, mess society says the world is turning into? A cold winter in the USA does not disprove climate change. Did you check how much hotter it was in Asia and Africa that same year? We need to look globally and much farther back than the last few years. A common misconception people have is that because it is raining more, things cannot possibly be getting hotter. Researchers from the University of Hull have examined the weather patterns of the last 10,000 years and it is precisely increasing temperatures that are causing more rain. The more heat there is, the more the oceans evaporate and the more the rain falls. For those saying that climate has always changed, yes, climate change is a natural cycle, but the speed with which glaciers are melting, carbon dioxide is increasing, and sea levels are rising, is far from ‘natural’. Recent changes do not look like past natural cycles; they are simply much too great and much too fast. Rises in global warming that once took centuries are now seen in just 40 years.
Then there are those who refuse to look at the evidence of climate change’s existence simply because scientists cannot come to a consensus about the matter. The problem behind this is that the world gets its information about climate change from the media. The media tries to portray the issue without bias and often lines up scientists against each other-one denier versus one believer. Ironically, in their attempt to represent this debate accurately, not only do they inaccurately portray that the scientific community is equally conflicted about this matter, but also encourage people to oppose an extremely prevalent global issue that needs to be dealt with at this very instant. The actual disagreement present in the scientific community is not 50/50 but more like 97/3; you can guess which way. Some deniers believe that any proof of the existence of climate change is a type of ‘fake science’ in hopes of changing public opinion. Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery was publicly released to voice that glaciers are melting all over the world and the warming seen currently is occurring ten times faster than during the last Ice Age. As if that isn’t terrifying enough, ice cores drawn from Antarctica show that the melting of their snow-capped mountains this year was mainly due to the increased levels of carbon dioxide from human activity which is oh, just 250 times faster than the increase seen in the last Ice Age. That definitely would have taken more than just a year. All the evidence that is being released now is definitely in hopes of changing the public’s opinion; by that, I mean changing the laidback attitude with which people approach climate change. Deniers feel that the world is against them when it is really their ignorance that has caused the Earth to begin its descent to termination.
A good number of people today, deniers as well as believers, refuse to accept that climate change is simply because…of us. It is because of anthropogenic(man-made) issues that glaciers are melting, storms are arising and some islands are already underwater. Yet some still continue to believe it is just a conspiracy created to claim tax money. The warming of the Earth as a result of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the felling of trees, corresponds with the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that has been exponentially increasing since the industrial revolution. Man-made climate change is the biggest environmental crisis of our time and a significant number of people still believe that climate change is a future problem. This is simply not true and we already have the technology and resources needed to move to 100% renewable energy by 2045. What is needed is for political leaders to address the climate crisis and every nation to take responsibility and seriously invest themselves.
Whether it is the Illuminati, the government, scientists trying to make money or even aliens, there are hundreds of conspiracy theories refuting climate change. IT IS REAL. As real as it can be and we are the last generation that can do anything about it.
Works Cited
“10 Myths about Climate Change.” WWF, www.wwf.org.uk/updates/10-myths-about-climate-change.
Bradenton, and Bradenton Herald letter to the editor. “Don’t Mess with Mother Earth. Climate Change Is a Hoax: Letter to the Editor.” Bradenton, Bradenton Herald, 18 Nov. 2019, www.bradenton.com/latest-news/article237480339.html.
Cheung, Helier. “What Does Trump Actually Believe on Climate Change?” BBC News, BBC, 23 Jan. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51213003.
“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?” NASA, NASA, 6 Oct. 2020, climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
“Why Do Some People Think Climate Change Is a Hoax?” BestValueSchools, 2 Sept. 2020, www.bestvalueschools.com/faq/why-do-some-people-think-climate-change-is-a-hoax/.
“Why People Still Believe Climate Change Is Fake… and Why We Know They’re Wrong.” University of Hull, www.hull.ac.uk/special/blog/why-people-still-believe-climate-change-is-fake-and-why-we-know-theyre-wrong.
