Climate Change: Social Issues Becomes Money-Making Tool

Cortado, K., Linga A.

Introduction

Over the years, people have been debating or having advocacies on protecting the
Earth against climate change. A lot of projects all over the world were proposed and
funded to address the concerns on global warming. The question is, was all these
actions enough? Are proposed solutions really are solutions or did these became a root
of another problem? Do people really understand what climate change or global
warming is?

The earth’s climate has been changing over the years. It was always changing and
there is a point of time that the earth’s temperature is warmer than it is now or
cooler. So it could be a rise of the global temperature or a decrease of it but the
increase in the global temperature is more associated to the term “climate change”
nowadays for some people. So this gradual rise of the earth’s atmosphere temperature
over a period of time is referred to as “global warming”. Global warming are observed
as the sunlight begins to reach the Earth. This results for the surface to eventually heats
up as well as the atmosphere, allowing the growth of life. As the Earth warms up, this
solar energy is radiated by thermal radiation and infrared rays, propagating directly out
to space, thereby cooling the Earth.On the other hand, the outgoing radiation is strictly
captivated by carbon dioxide, water vapors, methane and other gasses present in the
atmosphere are radiated back to the earth’s surface.

There are two known causes for climate change; the natural causes and
anthropocentric causes. The latter is more known and is believed to be the main cause
of climate change in the present. The earth has gone through many warm and cool
phases throughout the time even before humans have exist. The sun’s intensity,
volcanic eruptions, and changes in naturally occurring greenhouse gas concentrations.
This is actually a slow process which happens over hundreds and thousands of years. It
was stated by NASA that over the years human activities greatly contributed to the
increase of greenhouse gases. Burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil increase the
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) from heat-trapping pollutants bringing humanity
closer to the dangerous level of global warming.
 Some effects would be the planet would become hotter; some regions will
welcome warmer temperatures and some may not, strong greenhouse effect may
eventually melt ice glaciers or other ice which will increase sea level, ocean water will
rise and will further give rise to sea level. Some crops may respond favorably to the
increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), whereas they would grow vigorously and
may use water more efficiently, but changes in climatic patterns would change the area
where certain crops would grow best and would affect a lot of communities.

Global carbon cycle are specifically represented by the atmospheric carbon dioxide
present in our environment itself. This global carbon cycle is considered as a series of
reservoirs of carbon in the Earth system that undergo various fluxes which are known to
be connected.

The carbon cycle is most easily studied as two interconnected sub-cycles.These are
dealing with rapid carbon exchange among living organisms and dealing with long-term
cycling of carbon through geologic processes As a brief overview, carbon exists in the air
largely known to us as carbon dioxide gas, in which it dissolves in water and reacts with
water molecules to produce bicarbonate. One example of its production is by
photosynthesis by plants, bacteria, and algae converts carbon dioxide or bicarbonate
into organic molecules. Organic molecules made by photo-synthesizers are passed
through food chains, and cellular respiration converts the organic carbon back into
carbon dioxide gas. Matter from living organisms that are found deep underground or at
the bottom of the ocean that eventually forms into a sedimentary rocks are called long
term storage of organic carbon. Volcanic activity as well as human induced carbon
dioxide by burning of fossil fuels takes part for the stored carbon to go back into the
carbon cycle .Compare to the formation of fossil fuels, the humans ability to release
carbon is greater than it.

All of these processes mentioned above are fluxes that can cycle carbon among
various pools within ecosystems and eventually releases it back to the atmosphere. As it
is tackled before all of these are linked together on the basis of temporal scales and on a
range of spatial thus, forming a global carbon cycle.

Problem Statement

Based on the stated effects above, climate change has become a more of a social
issue than an environmental one that will alter people’s lives in countless ways which
many are not aware of thus many have taken advantage of the people’s lack of
knowledge and concern. Some of the reasons why climate change has or is more of a
social issue are the following: Small farmers are greatly affected, They barely get right
prices or income for their goods, a continuous struggle to protect their crops and goods
from the weather and pests, the hardship to compete with large-scale monoculture
agricultural systems to stay in business. Climate change makes it harder for the farmers
the change in climate and agricultural zones, changes in production patterns due to
higher temperatures, and more extreme and changing precipitation patterns all of
which threaten crops. Such an unexpected result has the capacity to take away
livelihoods and main source of income of many families and also would be detrimental
to the whole communities who depend on selling the fruits (and veggies) of their labor.
Farmers are part of our society as well and the effect on them could further threaten
food supplies and security as well.
 Rural and urban poor will be hardest hit, Billions of people will still live in extreme
poverty in the future and a lot of them depend on their surrounding natural resources
for survival. Poverty and inequality, which have been a concern for decades and many
are trying to improve will only get worse with the changing climate because
disadvantaged groups do not have the capability to cope with effects such as extreme
flooding or droughts that may occur and would change their life drastically.

There is an unequal capacity for adaptation, developing countries, who actually did
not significantly contribute to the increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, will have more difficulties or struggle upon dealing with the effect of
climate change. Developed countries are already in a difficult situation due to lack of
infrastructure, less technological and financial resources and being in these situations
will hinder them to adapt with the change.

Women, children and the elderly will become more vulnerable due to a decrease in
supply it would be more difficult for them to find other sources of water and firewood
as a resident in a rural area. This will disrupt or lessen their time for their other tasks or
chores and be more difficult for some as they have to go farther to get some supplies
or other resources. Younger generations and the elderly are prone to climate change
associated health concerns such as heat-related ailments due to higher temperatures,
malnutrition due to increased excessive demands on food supplies/increased prices,
some diseases are also acquired from flooding. Women also have these responsibilities
or be the head of the household in some countries which make them feel more
pressured as how they would adapt to the change for survival and for the sake of their
family.

Lastly some communities will be relocated since one effect of climate change is a
rise in sea level which will eventually lead to flooding or extreme drought. By these
phenomena it will result in a scarcity of food supplies and other resources but relocating
also means a change of the usual supplies and resources they have which would change
their way of living.

We have been aware of the threat of anthropocentric climate change caused by the
production of greenhouse gasses for more than 50 years. Yet, emissions continue to
increase at an alarming rate, resulting in dangerously high levels of CO2 in the Earth's
atmosphere. Our meager response is a puzzling phenomenon given what we stand to
lose. It is apparent that something is holding us back from making a serious effort to
adjust our carbon‐intensive behavior. Individuals prefer to adapt their beliefs and
attitudes concerning climate change rather than change their carbon‐intensive behavior.
Such rearrangements include denying or doubting climate science, arguing that one's
personal emissions are too insignificant to make a difference

Climate change is natural occurring, however human activities only hastens the
process which in turn affects humans irapably. Due to the social issues stated above this
has become a money-making tool for some by scaring a lot of people who are actually
not well aware of what climate change really is. Since Humans can’t deny that they fear
of facing more struggles and difficulty in the future. A tool for greedy people to gain
more power and money by wearing a mask as protectors of the earth or as a
concerned citizen. They create mathematical climate models, projects that require
billions of dollars from different poor nations saying that these models would help them
survive climate change but for the past 19 years there’s no improvement at all. No
improvement and or evidence that the money was used for a good cause but they gain
more profit or income from it.

It is indeed a fact that global warming will have a devastating impact on the
livelihoods, health, and quality of life of many. It won’t be gone or stop in an instant,
and their solution is through protest, false advocate, But some organizations or
industries continue to increase earnings because of climate change.

It is unjust to take advantage of the people whose knowledge is not enough to

understand certain circumstances that are society is experiencing. These circumstances
are not solely due to human behavioral acts and way of living but only takes part on it
since it is considered as a natural phenomena. Those that have high understanding on
this topic makes it a tool to reciprocate ideas to make people fear from climate change
and what harm it can cause by blaming those who are in low level society.

Resolution

People in the society should learn to seek the facts behind controversies that led to
confusion and misunderstanding of some rural areas . This simply implies that the
government can easily puppet those that have no power as well as to discriminate
them.There should be local seminars and educational paraphernalia that is supported
with those scholarly person who ought to defend and lift up the rights of the common
good. But these does not exempt those at the higher ranks . They should not be
overwhelmed of their position to drag people down by making false accusations and
blaming them. They should be the one to take an example to lessen their doings such as
business that emits carbon dioxide for the sake of money since they are not one who
are greatly affected but instead Other people is facing a terrible dilemma.
 National Government also should pioneer such drastic changes is not only because
of human greediness but must explain its just natural and only humans can lessen it but
not prevent it. All these circumstances, are only getting difficult by each one of us
stepping each others backs wanying for power regardless of what the social issues is
truly about and its purpose to serve the people
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