Climate Change Debate: Examining the Evidence and Arguments

Throughout the years, climate change has been talked about in articles, news stations, and has even been a topic in movies. Due to the burning of fossil fuels, global warming has gotten much worse and has become a threat to all life on Earth. Since the rise of this issue, many Americans have debated whether it is a huge problem that needs action now or just a hoax that our Earth is slowly dying. Touched by this global issue, I'm compelled to present an argumentative essay about climate change. The points to be displayed comes from scientific and objectives perspective to ensure the possession of well-informed knowledge.

In the article, “Understand faulty thinking to tackle climate change” by George Marshall, the author talks about having to make sacrifices now in order to prevent problems from getting out of hand in the future. However, in the essay “Global Warming Feels Quite Pleasant” by Patrick J. Egan and Megan Mullin, they speak about Americans having a likeness to the idea of global warming due to winters being less cold and summers being less hot. I believe that it is important for not only Americans, but people in general, to stress the importance of tackling climate change. When looking at the different factors that can be affected, we must take precautions to ensure that the different situations taking place won’t escalate quickly. By looking at the different points of views from the people, we see the seriousness and opinions they have towards the issue of global warming.

Expanding the idea of climate change can make others aware of the seriousness about the issue. It can help spread awareness about the major consequences at hand and the effects it has on life. For instance, since climate change has occurred, there have been droughts across different regions. According to Richard Wike’s research “What the world thinks about climate change charts” there have been “59% droughts or water shortages” in Latin America alone and 44% globally. This includes other regions like Africa, Asia, and the U.S. With these droughts, wildfires can occur destroying the homes of people and animals forcing them away from their environment. Not only has climate change caused droughts, but there has been a rise in sea levels. Because of this, more floods can occur on land and agricultural soil can become contaminated due to the salt in oceans. Furthermore, it can destroy the habitats of fish and other aquatic plants. With this knowledge, mankind can step up and find ways to prevent these disasters from getting worse and saving all forms of life on Earth.

Spreading the message about climate change can be more convincing depending on the different forms. Such as in movies and books. In the article, “Why Are Climate Change Docs So Boring? Because It Works” Sarah Kollmorgen explains the benefits of how watching post-apocalyptic movies can better teach others of what is to come. Movies like “The Day After Tomorrow”, speak about natural disasters happening because climate change. When moviegoers watched the film, it left them with high concerns and even made them take “environment friendly actions”. This shows how simple, yet persuasive, a film can have an effect on others allowing them to believe the outcome of a catastrophic event. Furthermore, another example of a film that can teach well about the effects of climate change is the documentary Seeds Of Time. In the film, agriculturalist Carry Fowler talks about the decrease of plants in the past couple of years. According to Fowler, the U.S. has had a “7% decrease of vegetables” in the last century. She introduces this idea to show that a further decrease in crops can cause a shortage of food supply in the nation. Viewers who see the documentary can realize how severe the consequences are; thus making them take further actions to ensure no future shortages can occur for the sake of all living creatures.

At this point, it is pretty much safe to say that the major cause of global warming is humankind itself. George Marshall in “Understand faulty thinking to tackle climate change” has brought up many points about the issue. One that stood out to me in particular, was the fact that we are the ones that brought this upon ourselves. Overtime, we had to face obstacles and challenges that we soon have evolved from them. Humankind has brought up ideas that can save us, but have caused more harm than good to our environment. Marshall mentions Stanley Cohen, a sociologist at the London School of Economics, that it has come to our attention that we know “very well” of the actions we have caused, but don’t take full responsibility of it. The idea of who to blame for such tragic events can be tough to admit. Especially having to figure out who should start helping by making a change. People who have already been affected by climate change believe that rich nations should take more action than those who are in developing nations. 54% of those who saw this statement agree with it, while others think that most everyone can do is “change policies and lifestyles”. With the help of other nations and limiting greenhouse gas emissions, we can decrease the probability of our Earth’s temperatures for the sake of our future.

On the contrary, spreading the dangers and harms of climate change doesn’t affect some from becoming afraid. Since global warming has occurred, the seasons have been a little off. Winters have become less cold and summers have become less hot. Because of this, Americans have been in favor of climate change and see no need to take action to stop it. In fact, many Americans have moved to different regions in the country where the weather isn’t as severe. Since they heard about climate change, their daily experiences of weather has been more positive than before. Another reason some may not care or even want to try to reverse climate change is because we are “too late”. In the essay, “Global Warming Feels Quite Pleasant” Patrick J. Egan argues that in order to spread awareness is to not talk about the rising temperatures. He believes that when discussing temperatures, we should acknowledge the “pleasant side effects” of global warming rather than stress about it. Although his intentions are good, it doesn’t portray the urgency of climate change which can make others believe that it isn’t a big problem. Furthermore, there is less of a chance that people will make sacrifices or take action to reverse climate change if no one takes it seriously enough.

Ultimately, it is important to spread awareness of global warming. If others see the severity of climate change, they are more likely to take action to slow down the effects of global warming. With everyone’s attention and participation, we can collaborate together and help keep our Earth clean for the sake of our future.