I think both sides are missing the point. The truth of claims
that human activity (carbon emission, to be precise) is
causing the climate to change in the ways we are seeing,
such as rising sea levels and global temperatures is sort of
irrelevant, despite being glaringly obvious. I think a simple
word change can end the angry debate and unify people to
action, which is what really matters here. Whilst we stand
around arguing about whether or not we're the direct cause
of the world changing to the point of being uninhabitable for
humans, that change is happening anyway.
I think it would be much smarter and more efficient to agree
to disagree about the matter of climate change and start
talking about pollution instead. There are three reasons for
this.
Although I definitely think we are
the cause of the climate changing as
drastically as it is, the problem with
the argument is that there is room for
doubt.
With pollution, this is not the case: there is no way to
deny that humans are poisoning the world in a variety of
different ways. Plastic is flowing into the oceans, climbing
up the food chain and is now even getting into human food.
Deforestation continues to rage through many areas of the
world, species are going extinct at an alarmingly faster rate
than they have in the past, cities suffer terrible air pollution…
the list goes on.
Pollution is so much easier to
understand than climate change, which
is quite a vague and general idea, and
therefore makes it easier to solve.
Really understanding how the climate changes and all the
factors that are involved in it is a hugely complicated task,
and you could even say it's impossible, as everything has
an impact on the climate. The climate is everything. The
ISSUE 108 / 2018
GUESTLIST
One of the biggest debates of the 21st Century so far has been over climate change, a.k.a global warming. The scientific
consensus and resultant media coverage has asserted its reality, and the opposition says it is a misunderstanding of data at
best, and a hoax or conspiracy at worst.
CLIMATE CHANGE VS POLLUTION