Climate Change
I know I am a bit late to this party but when this issue was raised, I didn’t have a blog. Then came corona where this issue seemed to have completely faded from the normal conversation. Now that voting season has passed, I finally have time to get around to writing about climate change.
Full disclaimer, I will most likely fret in this article since there are just so many triggers revolving around this topic. It is also unbelievably hard to talk about this topic without sparking any heated political conversation. So, there are other reasons for putting off this topic.
Climate change as a topic only got me pondering when other people are talking about it. I would never really think about this kind of topic on my own without any active external input unlike my many of my other articles.
When it comes to political topics, I always have an opinion, which I am unwilling to share. Nevertheless, after forming an opinion, I just leave the topic be and move on to other topics that pick my mind more.
As a future scientist, climate change has been and will be part of every conversation I have in the future. Nevertheless, the conversations about climate change among scientists are vastly different from the conversations among normal civilians.
Since scientists, they agree that climate change is a thing. A phenomenon that is happening. Amongst common civilians, every second conversation about climate change I hear is about doubting or underplaying climate change, which could be dangerous if driven to extremes.
Therefore, it is hard to talk about climate change since not everybody is on an even playing level. Since I am not as informed about climate change as a scientist is, I would rather write about climate change from a common civilian’s standpoint with a pinch of a scientist´s.
My chemistry professors never miss a chance to discuss climate change and its impact. To be fair, my professors have every right to talk about climate change, not only because it is relevant but also because science is to a certain extent at fault for climate change.
Every other lecture held at uni is a professor talking about greenhouse gases and which chemical reactions create them. Let´s just leave it at chemistry is sometimes not the most environmentally friendly subject one can study and work in.
Sometimes, hearing all those reactions which create greenhouse gases as a by-product gets me thinking that scientists are at fault for climate change yet that could not be further from the truth. Greenhouse gases are woven into every industry and every aspect of our lives whether we realize it or not.
Therefore, there is no “one person/industry” to blame for this global threat to the environment and everyone is at fault to a certain extent.
I know what everyone is thinking at this point. What about the people who protest climate change and are living environmentally friendly? To that, I can only say that most of those protesting climate change are hypocrites.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are many people trying their level best to change their personal lifestyles to contribute to fighting climate change. And those kinds of people are rare and amazing because I know I will never be able to make the sacrifices they made.
Nevertheless, I have to point out that there are many people out there who just go to the Fridays for future rallies but who are unwilling to make significant changes in their personal lifestyles that will combat climate change.
Those people buy phones imported from Korea, clothes manufactured in Bangladesh, bags from China, and drive to school/work yet still visit a rally protesting the very thing they could and would never give up. That is the literal definition of hypocrisy, and it is just incredibly frustrating to me.
Because those who attend those protests are the exact same people who love to brag about it as well. As if going to a
This is exactly the reason why I dislike talking about political subjects because I know I tend to talk a big game, but I do nothing to make a change whether it is in my own life or on a larger scale. By talking about climate change or any other political subject, I am turning into the people I despise, and it just feels wrong.
Besides feeling like a hypocrite whenever I am writing about climate change, there is also another reason why I am being so negative about the climate protester´s demands and it all has to do with the concept of reality.
From a realistic standpoint (one does not even have to get science involved at this point), all energy comes from one of three energy sources either renewable, fossil, or nuclear.
According to what I understand about the demands from the climate change protesters, they would want a complete eradication of the fossil and nuclear sources for very understandable reasons. Since fossil is bad for the climate and nuclear is bad for humanity.
However, complete eradication of those energy sources would lead to a 52% energy vacuum since renewable energy only makes up 47.3% of all energy production in Germany even though renewable energy production is rising steadily.
Where exactly would nearly half the energy come from if the government does decide to get rid of fossil and nuclear completely right now. From an economic standpoint that demand is just well misplaced. This is just one of the many examples of imaginative future-building. Nevertheless, I do like the optimism.
Climate change protesters are dreamers but the reality is that it is hard to make a change when change requires a complete uprooting of the current infrastructure and that is just going to cost a lot of money, which is currently unaccounted for.
Now I might sound like an old white politician, and I wouldn’t deny that comparison. The truth is I would love to live in a world that is like what the climate protesters are painting it to be but it is unreasonable to dream without making actual plausible plans because there is more to climate change and its infrastructure that needs to be considered.
If a plan is poorly planned will just cause more problems than good even if the plan is executed with the best of intention.
I know I am bad-mouthing climate change demonstrations and their protesters but I do it without ill will. The heart of the protesters is in the right place, they just need a bit more planning to perfectly execute their plans.
Nevertheless, I have to admit that climate change protesters are much better than climate change deniers. Since climate change protesters at least acknowledge the fact that climate change is a global threat to all.
There has already been so much research put into researching climate change and its effects, that it doesn’t make sense to me why some people would not believe its existence. I mean sure, it is good to think critically about these large-scale issues yet completely denying it is completely implausible.
Maybe it is now a good place to define what climate change actually means because I believe that even I don´t know the whole definition despite the fact that I have been rambling on about climate change and anything revolved around it.
Besides, I am mostly with climate change on a scientific level (as in causes and effects) and not as much on the conceptual level of climate change (as in what it actually is).
According to the dictionary, “climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil and gas), which produces heat-trapping gases.”
I would like to get into the details of the greenhouse effect because it is simpler than many people believe it to be but I would not get into any scientific details today since I want to understand climate change as a normal citizen of the planet earth.
Climate change does not only threaten humanity by not letting crops grow which sustains our food intake. It also causes water scarcity in some places and increases flooding in some other places. Climate change is also responsible for extreme heat which will cause us to take extreme environmentally damaging measures to combat the heat.
Climate change as a whole is just a vicious cycle, which will take huge sacrifices to break. It goes without saying that climate change will cause huge amounts of losses (not only in the sense of land mass but economically speaking as well) and all of us should be prepared to deal with those losses.
However, currently, I am unsure how climate change can be understood without getting science involved because I believe that part of this climate change problem is that the science behind it is a bit complex and we should treat the cause of the problems and not the symptoms.
I just don’t believe, one can understand the impact of climate change as a normal citizen since climate change and its impact are just playing such a huge part in the problem.
Another thing I wanted to point out is how dealing with climate change should not only be in the hands of the normal everyday average joe and jane´s because big corporations should cooperate and take the steps to reduce their impact as well.
The reason why I am bringing up corporations specifically is simply because of a little something called greenwashing where the corporation only markets itself as green and eco friendly without changing a thing when it comes to their business practices.
Since I always adore a good dictionary definition… The dictionary describes greenwashing “as a form of marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.”
Funnily enough, the more you look into any company the worse each company becomes. Yet a complete boycott of every company in existence is nearly impossible and only buying from environmentally friendly companies is going to make a dent in your expenses.
Recently, I found a video of one of my favourite youtube scientists who tackle this topic in depth, which I don’t have to the resources nor time to get into.
As mentioned, climate change is all about sacrifices but as the climate activists are protesting, it doesn´t have to be. Since eco-friendly should be a widely available option and not a luxury.
Until then everyone can do small steps to slow down climate change like switching up one´s diet. In no way am I saying that you should boycott meat completely, I am just saying that you could implement Meatless Monday as a thing because the meat you are not eating on Mondays will add up.
Small changes in one´s lifestyle will probably feel very insignificant when they come to huge humanitarian issues like climate change but it is unbelievable how the smallest of changes can have huge impacts even though you might notice it.
To be fair, making small changes will not going to yield immediate results like the things we do every day. Making small changes will however act as an investment into your future and the future of future generations.
At this point in the article, I might sound like a salesperson trying to sell a product that is a huge scam but unlike a salesperson, I have nothing to gain from this personally. I only have something to gain as a society.
In this article, I thought I would only ramble about climate change and every issue I had with it. I didn’t quite think that I would be able to make myself understand this issue far better and even learn something as well.
Tip: Did you know that if you should google climate change (which you totally should btw) right now, google has shortcuts for its causes, effects, and actions? Under actions, you can find tips on how to save energy at home or how to generally make your life more sustainable.