Blog 9: The Day After Tomorrow

Everyday, I wake up in the morning and check the news and almost every morning there's always an article related climate change. For example, two days ago, I read an article about the great coral reef and how it has suffered irreversible damage due to an underwater heat wave caused by rising temperatures. No doubt, this is a downer but like the title of the movie about the consequences of climate change made in 2006 suggests, it is an inconvenient truth. How many of us, over the years, have heard that climate change is real and the affects can be seen happening in present day? Probably everyone at this point, hopefully. Yet, when I read this:

"Is it an existential threat? Is it something that is unsustainable, or what kind of effect or harm is this going to have? I mean, we know that humans have most flourished during times of what? Warming trends," Pruitt said. "I think there's assumptions made that because the climate is warming, that that necessarily is a bad thing. Do we really know what the ideal surface temperature should be in the year 2100? In the year 2018? I mean it's fairly arrogant for us to think that we know exactly what it should be in 2100."

I have to throw my hands up in the air. This comment was made by the United States chief of Environmental Protection Agency this past February and he is without a doubt wrong. Now, I don't like to make bold claims but when over 15,000 scientists pen a letter warning everyone about the danger of climate change and the possibility of an extinction level event, I think I know who to follow.

While this is a serious topic, only 33% of people occasionally discuss it with friends or family, according to an article by the New York Times. The article also mentions that while 69% of people from the United States believe in climate change only 52% believe it is caused by human activities and only 38% believe it will harm them personally (you can find more of these statistics from this study conducted by Yale to see where most of these stats originate from). So why do some people don't believe in climate change or attribute it to human cause? Having someone like Pruitt who is in a position to influence the public as well as also having a President who does the same is one factor. Politicians who rely on corporations for funding and try to spread false facts to placate their benefactors is another.  We can also take into consideration that humans are programmed to respond to fight or flight situations in the face of immense threats so when dealing with climate change, which is slow moving and a complex problem, we prove to be unmotivated. But I also believe it is because many of us who avoid an inevitable truth end up embracing denial instead. Why believe in a gloomy future and accept blame when its easier to say it doesn't exist? There is not a singular answer to explain why people continue to deny climate change but we do know for sure that even if they continue to  disbelieve, it'll still be here.