Climate Change: Winners and Losers
Lesson 5: Winners and Losers
Page 1 Page 2 Summary
Summary:
Wealthy countries like the United States can probably handle many of the changes brought about by climate change. For example, many of our homes are covered by government-backed flood insurance. If we lose some of our farmland to desertification, we can still grow and buy food from other places. Other countries--poorer countries--don't always have these options.
Global warming and climate change are a direct result of the industrialization in the western world over the past 100 years or so. Our industries have made us very wealthy. Some of that wealth is beginning to spill over into poorer regions of the world, but most of it remains here with us. It is a sad fact that the countries that have contributed the least to global warming will suffer the most because of it.
Climate change is an extremely complex issue, and many aspects of it are not yet fully understood. If we decide to confront climate change, to slow or reverse its effects, we will need to be realistic about the decisions that we make. There will be some mistakes. Many decisions will be unpopular, and many people will resist them.
One of the questions that I would like to hear discussed more is: "How do we decide whether to prevent climate change or to prepare for it? How do we strike a reasonable balance between these two approaches?" As we have learned, some climate change is inevitable. We cannot go back and reduce the amount of CO2 that we have put into the atmosphere over the past 100 years. But we can reduce how much we add in the next 100. So some combination of prevention and preparation is needed. To rely on only one approach and exclude the other is a recipe for disaster.
We know that sea levels will rise. We know that farmland will dry up. We know that millions--perhaps even tens, or hundreds of millions--of people will be forced to abandon their homes and find new places to live. Even if we stopped adding any more CO2 to the atmosphere tomorrow, we know that many disruptions to our comfortable, western way of life lay ahead for us. Imagine how much better we can make things for our future selves if, in addition to taking steps to reduce the severity of climate change, we also started planning now for some of the consequences that we know are coming our way in the near future.
We are part of the natural world. And as part of the natural world, we have the same right to have an impact on it as any other living creature. But we also have the ability to recognize when we are harming it. We need to realize that, since we are part of the natural world, when we damage it, we damage ourselves.
This is the message that I hope you will gain from these lessons: we are all in this world together. In addressing some of the issues posed by climate change, we are not saving the planet. We are merely trying to reduce the harm that we are doing to ourselves and our future generations. Climate change will not cause the extinction of the human race. But rapid climate change could lead to mass upheaval. Too much change too quickly could bring about the collapse of our social bonds and our political and economic systems. If we allow the addition of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere to continue unchecked, or if we do not prepare for the changes certainly coming our way, we may well see the end of our comfortable, western lifestyles.
Thank you for reading these lessons and thinking about some of the issues posed by climate change.
End of Lesson 5
Back to Lesson 1: The Greenhouse Effect
Back to Lesson 2: Earth's Climate History
Back to Lesson 3: Melting Polar Ice
Back to Lesson 4: Desert Belts