What kind of "issue" is global warming?
I feel like a doomsayer at times. You see, I work as a door-to-door campaigner for a local environmental organization, and sometimes I feel like the watchman who comes a-knocking, warning the village of raiders from the far east.
"So I'm sure you've heard of the problems global warming has caused," I say to a poor, unsuspecting homeowner, as part of my usual rap.
"The last week it's been rather cold, actually. I don't think global warming is happening," he responds.
I smile, nod, then bid him goodbye.
The environment is a slow, sleepy giant. It takes a lot to wake him up, but when he does wake up, he is awakened (just catch the previews for the "2012" movie). At the moment, he is just barely stirring, tossing around in his sleep. We haven't seen all he can do yet. We can draw the charts, cite the figures - the giant will do so and so when he awakes - but until people feel his breath down their necks, the giant of climate change is just a speck far off in the horizon.
Worse, climate change is just an "environmental" issue. The earth gets a little hotter. So what? No one's going to die because of a little heat. Fine, we lose some polar bears, but why don't we focus on something more important, like feeding the poor?
Feeding the poor is a worthy cause, but the logic behind "it's just an environmental issue" faultily partitions off the "environment" from the "human." Thus the popularity of nuclear power plants. The possibility of relatively cheap, gargantuan amounts of energy - with just a little buried radioactive waste that we don't have to worry about yet - is too enticing. Think of the energy savings for humans!
We forget that the human lives in the environment. The world around us is our home, and if it goes down, so do we. It's not enough to understand that the environment is your home. The environment is our home. The actions of one country - say China or the U.S. - affect every country, such as islands who are threatened by rising sea levels.
Not only do sea levels rise as temperatures increase, but hurricanes do as well. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in history; the most notable hurricane of that season was Hurricane Katrina.
As temperatures increase, so do the severity of droughts. Who gets the brunt of the droughts? Oh, Africa.
What kind of "issue" is global warming? It certainly is environmental, but it's also economic - hurricanes and droughts are extremely costly. Because all issues boil down to philosophy and ethics, it's ultimately an issue of global justice. We may not experience the full impact of global warming in our lifetime or in our country, so global warming is an issue that forces us to think big (globally) and to think long (for future generations)
"So I'm sure you've heard of the problems global warming has caused," I say to a poor, unsuspecting homeowner, as part of my usual rap.
"The last week it's been rather cold, actually. I don't think global warming is happening," he responds.
I smile, nod, then bid him goodbye.
The environment is a slow, sleepy giant. It takes a lot to wake him up, but when he does wake up, he is awakened (just catch the previews for the "2012" movie). At the moment, he is just barely stirring, tossing around in his sleep. We haven't seen all he can do yet. We can draw the charts, cite the figures - the giant will do so and so when he awakes - but until people feel his breath down their necks, the giant of climate change is just a speck far off in the horizon.
Worse, climate change is just an "environmental" issue. The earth gets a little hotter. So what? No one's going to die because of a little heat. Fine, we lose some polar bears, but why don't we focus on something more important, like feeding the poor?
Feeding the poor is a worthy cause, but the logic behind "it's just an environmental issue" faultily partitions off the "environment" from the "human." Thus the popularity of nuclear power plants. The possibility of relatively cheap, gargantuan amounts of energy - with just a little buried radioactive waste that we don't have to worry about yet - is too enticing. Think of the energy savings for humans!
We forget that the human lives in the environment. The world around us is our home, and if it goes down, so do we. It's not enough to understand that the environment is your home. The environment is our home. The actions of one country - say China or the U.S. - affect every country, such as islands who are threatened by rising sea levels.
Not only do sea levels rise as temperatures increase, but hurricanes do as well. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in history; the most notable hurricane of that season was Hurricane Katrina.
As temperatures increase, so do the severity of droughts. Who gets the brunt of the droughts? Oh, Africa.
What kind of "issue" is global warming? It certainly is environmental, but it's also economic - hurricanes and droughts are extremely costly. Because all issues boil down to philosophy and ethics, it's ultimately an issue of global justice. We may not experience the full impact of global warming in our lifetime or in our country, so global warming is an issue that forces us to think big (globally) and to think long (for future generations)
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