Politicians, governments, and often even our own parents, don’t truly understand the extent to which climate change is effecting our planet. Some people believe that the earth will be able to sort itself out, or that that we as individuals can change the course of nature. This belief is called ecocentrism. Others hold faith in the advancement of technology to save us, a belief that is called technocentrism. Then of course, there are people who truly believe that climate change is a hoax.
Politicians love to ignore climate change in favour of speaking about the economy, many politicians hold large stakes in big oil companies and such, and at the end of the day, they are getting rich off the destruction of our planet. They completely ignore the fact that they are exploiting the earth’s natural resources to such an extreme that soon we won’t have enough natural resources to keep us alive, let alone sustain economic growth. They fail to realize, or to care, that soon we won’t have enough natural resources to keep us alive, and if we’re all dying, how can the economy grow.
The most basic form of logic will tell you that for us to save our planet, economic growth will have to be placed at a lower priority and might have to slow down for a period of time. Still, we must make this sacrifice so that in 50 years there is an economy to keep growing.
Most people don’t realize how serious the issue of climate change is, if we were to look at the situation optimistically, we have at a maximum 50-60 years of natural resources left. Aside from that, we have already reached the calculated ‘point of no return’, even if we were to start sucking toxic gasses out of the air and stop all transport etc. etc. we cannot stop the inevitable. Oceans are rising and sea life that is vital to our survival as a species are dying, at the rate we are going at, places like Melbourne and Florida, along with smaller islands will be completely submerged. We are getting new temperature records globally, meaning that the weather is changing NOW. Small farming towns are reporting animals whose coats aren’t growing correctly, because the weather is getting disrupted to the extent to which that animals cannot tell what season they’re in. Animals cannot tell what season it is because we are changing weather patterns that have been around for as long as anyone can remember. Due to all the toxic gasses in the air, we have acid rain which is corroding statues that haven’t changed in decades. As well as this, we are inhaling these toxic gasses which are binding to the haemoglobin in our bloodstream, which is causing major health problems worldwide. People will tell you that talcum powder causes cancer, but at the end of the day, breathing in air can give you cancer as well. We are having major weather catastrophes that are devastating costal cities and small islands who are the LEAST responsible for climate change.
We have the technology to slow down climate change, and if we want to survive for more than 50 years we need to act now. Scientists have already found the placing solar panels in a small portion of the sahara desert could literally power the entire world, and if the project had more recognition and funding, we could eliminate fossil fuels entirely. This isn’t out only option, many scientists have projects that, given the funding, could dramatically aid the fight against climate change. People who live waste free lives do eliminate a fair amount of toxic gasses from entering the air, but at the end of the day there is no one thing that can save us. We need to work together as individuals to use more public transport, waste less water, but most importantly hold our officials responsible so that we can make sure that there is a future for our planet.
