What would be the single most serious environmental problem of the 21st century? Climate change is the most likely answer. Climate change is a serious problem that affects many people, creating a large ripple effect and becoming worse over time. In order to understand exactly what it is, the following three aspects should be kept in mind:

 

First, unlike weather, climate is the description of the long-term consistent pattern of meteorological conditions in a particular area. The weather forecast at the end of prime-time news is not about climate but weather. Climate does not change easily, as it is a pattern that occurs over a long time.

 

Second, climate is a system. A system is a whole where several parts come together affecting each other to enable new tasks or functions that could not be done by each of the parts. The Earth is a system consisting of land, water, air, ice, and numerous organisms, and the interactions between them create a climate system.

 

Third, climate change means man-made change, rather than natural change (climatic variation). The Earth's climate can be changed by different natural reasons, such as volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, and earthquakes, while “climate change” is distinguished as variation caused by greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, etc.) emitted by humans.

 

Considering the three features, climate change can be defined as “continuous and significant man-made change in the global climate system consisting of land, water, air, ice, and numerous organisms.”

 

Let's look at the evidence. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced that global average temperatures have risen by about 0.6℃ over the last 100 years. For citizens who want to live happily in the 21st century, it is inevitable to develop the ability to understand climate change and properly respond against it. This is because climate change has a huge impact directly and indirectly on our safety and health as well as our survival and sustainability.

 

How will climate change affect the lives of people? As explained earlier, one extremely hot summer day or one heavy snowy day in winter cannot be called climate change. Of course, it is likely that such phenomena was caused by climate change. In other words, it is hard to say that an extremely hot day itself is climate change, but it can make summer days much hotter than the past.

 

Since climate is a system, changes in any part of Earth (e.g. desertification) affect the entire planet, and the effect can be on the parts that make up the whole. If climate changes, human society and ecosystems receive significant effects. By the end of the 21st century, temperatures are expected to rise by 4℃ and precipitation by 17%. If the average temperature rises by 2°C, up to 30% of all species could be endangered. With a temperature rise of 4°C, mass extinction could occur around the world.

What would happen at the coast? Antarctic glaciers are expected to melt, increasing the sea level by about 50 cm by 2100. Globally, most coasts are under threat, and a 4°C increase could make 30% of the world's coastal wetlands disappear.

 

Extreme weather events such as floods and droughts are becoming common. Heavy rains and storms have become frequent worldwide, including the 1966 and 1997 Rhine River Floods, the 1995 China Flood, the 1998 and 2000 Eastern Europe Floods, the 2000 Floods in Mozambique and Europe, and the Bangladesh Monsoon Floods in 2004 (60% of its national territory was submerged) (UNFCCC, 2005). In 2011, the strongest tornadoes ever recorded hit several regions in the United States, and La Niña has been considered the cause. In contrast, droughts are very serious in Africa. In Niger, Chad, and Senegal, the total amount of available water is decreasing by 40-60%, and desertification is accelerating with a decrease in the average annual rainfall in South, North, and West Africa.

Water is an absolutely necessary substance for many living things, including humans. Climate change is expected to have a major impact on global water resources as well. With reduced water supplies, most regions are at the risk of water shortages. If the concentration of carbon dioxide doubles, mountain glaciers are expected to reduce by more than 25% by 2050.

 

Climate change can bring a dramatic change to the food production and supply system of humans living on Earth. As climate zones shift around the world, changes will occur throughout food production. Different kinds of crops will be produced, and crops will have radical changes in output. As the paths of fish change, completely different fish will be caught in the ocean, and fish-related industries and cultures will inevitably become different. Changes in ocean ecosystems, reduced oxygen levels, and increased disease in fish are expected to strike a blow to the fishing industry.

Climate change has a negative impact on people's health. Heat-induced stress and disease are expected to double, and the spread of infectious diseases will also increase due to the changes in the distribution of infectious disease entities.

 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established under the United Nations, unfortunately, the climate change we are concerned about is already underway. There may be differences in the degree of change depending on what efforts we are making from now on, but for the time being, climate change is impossible to stop. If so, we can think of two ways to respond: adaptation and mitigation.

 

Let me first talk about adaptation. Climate change is already happening, and is so widespread and complex that there is no place where its ripple effect will not reach. Therefore, we need to find ways to minimize the damage that can be caused by climate change and to continue to live in its midst. Since climate change can be particularly fatal to vulnerable people and groups that have less ability to respond, it is required to take care of and help them.

 

For example, people with low mobility such as the elderly can be seriously affected by heat waves or cold waves caused by climate change, just like slow-moving sessile organisms living at the bottom of the sea can be in danger, if sea temperatures rise.

 

Furthermore, those who live by the sea need to retrofit their houses in response to sea level rises due to climate change. In preparation for climate change, we need to re-examine all our lifestyles, including architecture, transportation, and leisure, create new alternatives and apply them on a trial basis, and find the best ways and share the wisdom with others.

 

The second way is to mitigate. It is taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the causes of climate change, to fix already released greenhouse gases to prevent climate change from getting worse, and to stabilize the climate. In order to effectively cope with climate change, the global community established the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)” under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in accordance with a UN General Assembly Resolution in 1988 and has introduced the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, the expected effect has not been achieved due to conflicts of interest between different countries.

 

Greenhouse gases that cause the greenhouse effect are emitted in all areas of our society. Since our activities of daily living, including industrial facilities such as factories, transportation facilities such as automobiles, air-conditioning equipment at homes, and power plants, are connected to greenhouse gases, it is important to reduce unnecessary energy consumption, improve the efficiency of all equipment and devices that can emit greenhouse gases, and increase the proportion of renewable energy that does not emit greenhouse gases as soon as possible. These efforts are to minimize the carbon footprint that each of us leaves on Earth.

In the process of responding to climate change, there are two sides to the development of science and technology. As Einstein pointed out, it may not be appropriate to use science and technology to solve problems caused by the development of science and technology. If used in the right place with a more integrated perspective, however, the development of science and technology may be an important means of addressing climate change.

As long as we live on Earth, it will be wise for all of us to adopt both options. Considering future generations, we also need to take ethical and responsible measures by prioritizing fundamental efforts to prevent climate change.

 

Source: Eco-generation Korean Website