Research Paper
Andrew Silvestri
Ms. Maslanka
TERM
2 March 2023
Climate Change: Impacts on the Earth and Solutions From Youth
"Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence)" (AR6, Core Writing Team). These two statements are found in the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), produced in 2021 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The very high confidence labels above designate that the top scientists producing this paper have at least a 90% chance of being correct. How did humanity get here, what is humanity currently doing, and where should humanity go from here? Comprehension of the general climate ideas is needed to answer these questions.
A climate is the average weather conditions (temperature, humidity, precipitation, weather events) in a specific area over a period of time. Although a climate seems similar to the weather, the impacts of the two are very different. A helpful way to distinguish weather from climate is, as the National Center for Environmental Information notes, "Weather tells you what to wear each day. Climate tells you what types of clothes to have in your closet." (ncei.noaa.gov).
When speaking about climate change, this refers to the Earth's climate. The planet's climate is most commonly found by taking the temperature of many different areas on the Earth's surface. Planet Earth is large, as is its climate—meaning measurable minute changes within it can have considerable impacts. So how do humans even influence the climate?
Fossil fuels contain hydrocarbons (carbon chains blanketed with hydrogen bonds) within the Earth's crust. Fossil fuels are particularly useful for producing immediate and cheap energy.
When a normal energy-creating reaction (combustion) occurs, three products are made—water vapor, heat, and carbon dioxide. When heat is added to fossil fuel, the hydrocarbon and oxygen molecules break, and the oxygen in the air now individually reacts with the freed carbon and hydrogen atoms. The formation of CO2 and H2O molecules produces enough energy to overcome the heat energy needed to break apart the molecules—and that “left over” energy is used to fuel anything from a car to a cargo ship. It is fuel from fossils. Well-known examples include coal, petroleum and natural gas. Although CO2 is the main gas produced, methane and nitrous oxide are also made from similar reactions.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) trap heat in the atmosphere when released. Although there are about ten notable greenhouse gases, the primary one that humans influence is CO2.
These gasses stay within the Earth's atmosphere, trapping heat and warming the planet. Some of these gasses (mainly CO2) remain in the atmosphere for decades. Although many studies claim different answers as to exactly how long, they all are within a range of multiple decades to centuries. Regardless of what the true to life number is, the overproduction of these gasses has been going on for quite some time—centuries in fact.
How we add GHG emissions into the atmosphere can be thought of as adding water to a bathtub. Humanities emissions—CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and so on- come from the tub's spout. And at the base of the tub, there is a drain. In Earth's climate, this drain comprises carbon sinks—our oceans, rainforests, and modern technologies that retake CO2 from the air. Usually (without humans or human activities in the mix), this carbon cycle works fine—balancing itself without too much fuss. But with a rapidly developing and growing population of humans still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, the faucet has been outpacing the drain for some time now—leading to overflow.
Humans have been aware of all this information for decades, with the link of carbon dioxide production to an increasing planet surface temperature in 1938 (history.aip.org). And since then, there has been a steady increase in scientists who believe that global warming is real, caused by human GHG emissions, and will bring adverse effects.
World leaders and professional climate scientists have been trying to solve the issue. Many attempts have been made at protests, agreements, or technological advancements to combat climate change. And current solutions to climate change have led to measurable progress—but it isn't enough. Innovative solutions are needed right now to help fight climate change—and the current ones are not cutting it or aren't being put into practice. According to Warren Bergers A More Beautiful Question, "The glut of knowledge has another interesting effect. It makes us more ignorant." (Bergers 24). Although children have fewer opportunities to create real-world change than adults, since children have been proven to be better learners than adults, focusing efforts on informing them about climate change is one of the best ways to generate new and innovative solutions to climate change.
Multiple sectors contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Almost all emissions are primarily generated by the consumption of fossil fuels. Drawdown, a research group focused on providing realistic solutions to climate change, has sorted emissions into six groups: electricity production (25%), food/agriculture & land use (24%), industry (21%), transportation (14%), building (6%), and miscellaneous (10%).
Energy production is the biggest hurdle in overcoming climate change, making up a quarter of all GHG emissions. Since fossil fuels are so effective at producing relatively cheap and instant energy, the only downside to utilizing them is the climate and sustainability aspects—but those two downsides currently outweigh the positives.
Since humanity has been producing energy with fossil fuels for centuries, modern society has come to rely heavily on them. Concerning America's electric grids, "Power plants burn coal or oil to create heat which is used to generate steam to drive turbines which generate electricity" (World Nuclear Organization). Power grids power everything from residential homes to schools to airports— providing instant gratification through electricity.
Regarding the "land sector," activities include tree harvesting, deforestation, and other natural disruption ventures. Trees and forests act as significant carbon sinks, trapping and containing carbon within their systems for centuries. When trees and woods are destroyed, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere.
The topic of agriculture focuses on three main ideas: livestock, crops, and soil. Producing livestock (meat or byproduct) requires lots of energy for a relatively meager result. "When a [animal] eats a plant, about 20% of the energy within that plant will be passed on to the [animal] to use as fuel or rebuild body tissue. Now, let's say that a human eats that livestock animal. There would be energy loss a second time. This time the energy loss involved in the animals eating plants and then humans eating the animal are combined and greatly reduce efficiency, or only 20% of the 20% of the energy." (PSU.edu). The described process is shown in the numbers, as the Environmental Defense Fund notes that cows are responsible for over 40% of the U.S.'s methane emissions (EDF).
Although crops (plants) are the most efficient food energy-wise people can grow, current methods of producing them are not-sustainable. Almost a third of the food produced is not even eaten, which means the energy expenditure for that production is extra and unnecessary. And when it comes to food that is eaten, an excess of overall calorie consumption is seen in the populations of wealthier, middle-class abundant countries—USA, U.K., etc.
Like trees and forests, the soil is a natural carbon sink. This sink is disturbed by the process of crop cultivation. But the distribution level is exasperated by the volume of pesticides used, food produced, and overworked soil.
The industry covers many topics but mainly focuses on raw material extraction, component manufacturing, and recycling/disposing of industrial waste. Plastics, metals, and cement are the materials that make up the modern world. They are in everything from the phones people communicate with to the roads they drive on. These resources are also considered non-renewable, and their production/modification of them generates lots of GHG emissions. For example, Insider Climate News notes, "Manufacturing concrete similarly requires power, but the chemical process of making cement produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Altogether, roughly 1,370 pounds of CO2 is produced for every metric ton of cement manufactured" (InsiderClimateNews).
The transportation sector is a significant portion of emissions, making up about 14% of the pie chart. The GHG emissions from this sector come down to one central idea—fuel.
Transportation is simple and can be broken down into moving people, goods, or other cargo from one place to another. From advancements in transportation technology, humans have come to rely on cars, boats, and planes that utilize fossil fuels. These fossil fuels undergo reactions within the vessels (combustion reactions) that produce GHGs.
Buildings comprise the last significant portion of the total emissions. This category includes heating, lighting, cooking, refrigeration, and any other jobs that require energy within a building. These activities occur within housing, office space, schools, or any building in general.
There are multiple ways people and institutions produce emissions, just as there are multiple effects these emissions have on the Earth.
There are two ways to look at the effects of GHG emissions: current impacts, and future impacts. One of climate change's most striking and visible effects is the rising volume of extreme weather events—including droughts, wildfires, heat waves, and flash floods. Other effects of climate change can also be viewed as evidence that climate change is happening in the first place. The AR6 is the most recent (2023) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. It combines heavy scientific, technical, and economic information surrounding global climate change. In this report, they provide the following vital insights regarding the previous weather events: "frequency and intensity of hot extremes have increased (virtually certain), the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events have likely increased at a global scale, more regions are affected by increased in agricultural and ecological droughts (high confidence)" (IPCC).
On NASA's website dedicated to the Earth's climate, central points of climate change evidence and effects are highlighted. The global temperature is rising. This temperature rise affects the planet's largest heat absorber (90% of the extra heat energy), the ocean. "The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969." (Climate.Nasa.gov).
A rapidly changing climate affects not only the weather, land, and ocean but also the animals and humans living on that land. Towards the north and south poles, alarming data on ice and snow have been noted, including shrinking ice sheets, retreating glaciers (not limited to the poles), decreasing snow cover, and declining Arctic sea ice coverage. Regarding ice sheets specifically, Greenland "has lost an average 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019." (Climate.Nasa.gov).
According to the New York Times, "wildlife is disappearing around the world… (and) climate change and other pressures make survival harder." Although a growing human population and agricultural/land use is the primary factor in decreasing habitat space, climate change also plays a role. And in the future, "Scientists expect climate change to become the main driver of biodiversity loss as temperature, rainfall, and other conditions continue transforming ecosystems" (New York Times). The effects of climate change are not limited to the environment and the animals that live within it—people are affected as well.
People in the U.S. are currently living through a period of high inflation (inflation being the rise in goods and services expenses)—with 6.04% as of early April 2023. This high rate can be attributed to several things, including climate change.
Products made from cotton rely on those crops to grow in the first place. But in a hostile environment with highly volatile weather, harvests are not large enough to keep up with demand. So, the products (including bandages, tampons, jeans, etc.) have marked-up prices to satisfy the law of supply and demand.
The effects of a warming globe are seen today and have become more significant. So, scientists have looked towards humanity's future to try and see what could happen then with current emission rates.
A significant hurdle that immediately comes when answering this question is that scientists don't live in the future. Any guesses as to what will happen will be just that—guesses. But scientists are highly confident and concerned about climate tipping points being real. A tipping point can be referred to as the point of no return, where any actions after a certain threshold will have little to no effect on the events that will be self-perpetuating. According to science.org, "analysis indicates that even global warming of 1 degree (Celcius), a threshold that [humanity] already passed, puts us at risk by triggering some tipping points." (sciORG).
Many scientists and researchers are looking into tipping points, as it is a significant concern for the planet's future. The volume of people in this field yields various findings and conclusions about what that is and when it could happen, so the exact future is still uncertain—giving us all the more reason to find a solution to climate change.
There are three ways of applying the word "solution" to climate change. The first is the agreements, meetings, and summits to address and publicize the problem. The second is the policies and laws that are put in place. The third is the palpable changes that need to be made. These are the additions/replacements made with renewable energy, supporting GHG sinks and reducing emissions.
Signed on December 12th, 2015, at the COP21 (Climate Change Conference), the Paris Agreement was and is seen as a landmark event in the climate change world. It is the first worldwide climate agreement. The Paris Agreement had one primary goal, "substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees" (UN.ORG, The Paris Agreement).
It accomplishes this in two ways. The first is to review the countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (total countrywide carbon emissions) every five years. The second is to provide financing to developing countries to mitigate climate change. Regarding the second point, the Paris Agreement "Calls on [all] developed nations to give $100 billion annually (starting in 2020) to developing countries" (CBC.ca).
Although this was a significant step in fighting climate change, "Experts say the Paris Agreement is insufficient to prevent the global average temperature from rising 1.5°C. When that happens, the world will suffer devastating consequences like heat waves and floods." (CFR.org). This statement assumes that all countries are on pace to reduce overall GHG emissions to what is expected, which isn't the case. In 2021, only one country (The Gambia) was on track to reach the 1.5 Celsius threshold.
Another issue with the agreement is that no penalties exist for a country not following the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The Paris Agreement doesn't hand out financial or trade penalties, solely imposing peer pressure on countries to keep up with their agreement. Although the threat of a climate crisis would seem enough, there is no motivation besides the sustainability factor. What if there was an incentive? What if not following climate goals was an issue with the law?
Regarding climate law, they can be sorted into industry-wide, single-country, or multi-country.
Industry-wide laws aren't always explicitly made for climate change, but the law can still affect GHG emissions. Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. established tailpipe emission standards (maximum volume of pollutants allowed in discharged car exhaust) with the Clean Care Act. And in 2017, the ICAO "adopted the first-ever international standards to regulate CO2 emissions from airplanes." (EPA). These are just two examples of laws that positively impact the climate and environment.
While plenty of single-country climate laws have been written in as acts (see Act 17 from Puerto Rico), these never hold any legal incentive—and are not as effective as the other forms of law.
The most effective and well-known multi-country climate law is European Climate Law—specifically the Green Deal signed in 2019. The Green Deal's law is 20 pages of legal and supporting documents, and Consilium Europa was able to sum up the writing in two sentences. "E.U. countries are committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, delivering on the commitments under the Paris Agreement. The European Green Deal is the E.U.'s strategy for reaching the 2050 goal." (consilium.europa.eu). This commitment is backed by legal punishment, including daily and lump-sum fines for countries not following agreement. In fact, Greece has had to pay over 5 million pounds in fines for environmental-related fines. When the country wasn't giving up the funds, the European Commission threatened to withdraw E.U. regional aid—and Greece then proceeded to pay the fine (clientearth.org).
The previous two solutions were more about reaching the goal rather than providing help getting there. This solution helps reach the goals set. The technology built can be broken down into two categories: new and innovative technology and improvement of previous technology. New technology is a device or process that can disrupt existing industries or create new ones. Catalytic converters, solar power, wind power, nuclear power, and hydroelectricity are examples of this technology. Improvement of previous technology refers to more of the efficiency of the current processes. Examples include car efficiency (mpg), battery life, heating/cooling refrigerants/material, etc.
Although all these solutions seem varied, they all have a common denominator—adults. Adults conduct research, create policies, and invent solutions. Adults are currently trying their hardest to think outside the box for solutions to this crisis. But kids naturally think in innovative and curious ways. According to Alison Gopnik's study in 2015, "Younger learners are better than older ones at learning unusual abstract causal principles from evidence." (cocosci.princeton.edu). Utilizing the natural creativity instilled in youth would greatly benefit the generation of solutions for climate change. Although the exact reasons for the cause are still unknown, there is a consensus that knowledge naturally makes a person less creative (Berger, 83).
There are only two downsides to having the youth become the brains of generating solutions: the ability to gather thoughts and real-world experience. Compared to adults, children usually are measurably "worse" at both. And even though innovative solutions are what humanity is looking for, the solutions need to be grounded in reality—the real-world aspect could be helpful. To make these issues as minor as possible, aiming for an age range where the reading/writing skill intersects with the creative talent would be ideal. Since real-world experience comes with age, they should preferably be older when it comes to being a kid.
On page 44 of Berger's book A More Beautiful Question, a graph notes two linear trends, increasing reading/writing skills and decreasing creativity. The two lines intersect at age 11, so the best target audience would be around that age.
With the target population for the solution settled, the adults are to provide the kids aged nine to eleven with two things, information about climate change (without too much on solutions) and a place to submit, discuss, and revise solutions with each other's ideas.
Although children have fewer opportunities to create real-world change than adults, since children have been proven to be better learners than adults, focusing efforts on informing them about climate change is one of the best ways to generate new and innovative solutions to climate change. Climate change is a complicated subject, and scientific knowledge is needed to fully understand how the climate is changing—and how people affect it through GHG emissions.
There are numerous ways in which GHG is released, but all methods of emissions can be simplified to the consumption of fossil fuels and general reliance on non-renewable resources and practices. Effects of a changing climate are currently present in numerous ways, and solutions (although currently available and in place) are not delivering enough measured progress. An optimistic solution that is currently underdeveloped is utilizing creativity in youth to help draw up innovative solutions, and further work in this area could be rewarding.
It is demoralizing when most people talk or hear new information on climate change. With a constant stream of negative media regarding the outcomes of climate change, staying positive and hopeful in this field is difficult. Although creating and implementing major solutions to help fight climate change is an arduous task, giving up hope is not an option.
If children come up with excellent solutions to help solve climate change, there will be a need to push that solution into the public eye—and that is where the reader should come in. Whether through grassroots lobbying, protest marches, fundraising, or volunteering, joining an organization against climate change is the best way to help.
Ms. Maslanka
TERM
2 March 2023
Climate Change: Impacts on the Earth and Solutions From Youth
"Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence)" (AR6, Core Writing Team). These two statements are found in the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), produced in 2021 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The very high confidence labels above designate that the top scientists producing this paper have at least a 90% chance of being correct. How did humanity get here, what is humanity currently doing, and where should humanity go from here? Comprehension of the general climate ideas is needed to answer these questions.
A climate is the average weather conditions (temperature, humidity, precipitation, weather events) in a specific area over a period of time. Although a climate seems similar to the weather, the impacts of the two are very different. A helpful way to distinguish weather from climate is, as the National Center for Environmental Information notes, "Weather tells you what to wear each day. Climate tells you what types of clothes to have in your closet." (ncei.noaa.gov).
When speaking about climate change, this refers to the Earth's climate. The planet's climate is most commonly found by taking the temperature of many different areas on the Earth's surface. Planet Earth is large, as is its climate—meaning measurable minute changes within it can have considerable impacts. So how do humans even influence the climate?
Fossil fuels contain hydrocarbons (carbon chains blanketed with hydrogen bonds) within the Earth's crust. Fossil fuels are particularly useful for producing immediate and cheap energy.
When a normal energy-creating reaction (combustion) occurs, three products are made—water vapor, heat, and carbon dioxide. When heat is added to fossil fuel, the hydrocarbon and oxygen molecules break, and the oxygen in the air now individually reacts with the freed carbon and hydrogen atoms. The formation of CO2 and H2O molecules produces enough energy to overcome the heat energy needed to break apart the molecules—and that “left over” energy is used to fuel anything from a car to a cargo ship. It is fuel from fossils. Well-known examples include coal, petroleum and natural gas. Although CO2 is the main gas produced, methane and nitrous oxide are also made from similar reactions.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) trap heat in the atmosphere when released. Although there are about ten notable greenhouse gases, the primary one that humans influence is CO2.
These gasses stay within the Earth's atmosphere, trapping heat and warming the planet. Some of these gasses (mainly CO2) remain in the atmosphere for decades. Although many studies claim different answers as to exactly how long, they all are within a range of multiple decades to centuries. Regardless of what the true to life number is, the overproduction of these gasses has been going on for quite some time—centuries in fact.
How we add GHG emissions into the atmosphere can be thought of as adding water to a bathtub. Humanities emissions—CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and so on- come from the tub's spout. And at the base of the tub, there is a drain. In Earth's climate, this drain comprises carbon sinks—our oceans, rainforests, and modern technologies that retake CO2 from the air. Usually (without humans or human activities in the mix), this carbon cycle works fine—balancing itself without too much fuss. But with a rapidly developing and growing population of humans still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, the faucet has been outpacing the drain for some time now—leading to overflow.
Humans have been aware of all this information for decades, with the link of carbon dioxide production to an increasing planet surface temperature in 1938 (history.aip.org). And since then, there has been a steady increase in scientists who believe that global warming is real, caused by human GHG emissions, and will bring adverse effects.
World leaders and professional climate scientists have been trying to solve the issue. Many attempts have been made at protests, agreements, or technological advancements to combat climate change. And current solutions to climate change have led to measurable progress—but it isn't enough. Innovative solutions are needed right now to help fight climate change—and the current ones are not cutting it or aren't being put into practice. According to Warren Bergers A More Beautiful Question, "The glut of knowledge has another interesting effect. It makes us more ignorant." (Bergers 24). Although children have fewer opportunities to create real-world change than adults, since children have been proven to be better learners than adults, focusing efforts on informing them about climate change is one of the best ways to generate new and innovative solutions to climate change.
Multiple sectors contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Almost all emissions are primarily generated by the consumption of fossil fuels. Drawdown, a research group focused on providing realistic solutions to climate change, has sorted emissions into six groups: electricity production (25%), food/agriculture & land use (24%), industry (21%), transportation (14%), building (6%), and miscellaneous (10%).
Energy production is the biggest hurdle in overcoming climate change, making up a quarter of all GHG emissions. Since fossil fuels are so effective at producing relatively cheap and instant energy, the only downside to utilizing them is the climate and sustainability aspects—but those two downsides currently outweigh the positives.
Since humanity has been producing energy with fossil fuels for centuries, modern society has come to rely heavily on them. Concerning America's electric grids, "Power plants burn coal or oil to create heat which is used to generate steam to drive turbines which generate electricity" (World Nuclear Organization). Power grids power everything from residential homes to schools to airports— providing instant gratification through electricity.
Regarding the "land sector," activities include tree harvesting, deforestation, and other natural disruption ventures. Trees and forests act as significant carbon sinks, trapping and containing carbon within their systems for centuries. When trees and woods are destroyed, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere.
The topic of agriculture focuses on three main ideas: livestock, crops, and soil. Producing livestock (meat or byproduct) requires lots of energy for a relatively meager result. "When a [animal] eats a plant, about 20% of the energy within that plant will be passed on to the [animal] to use as fuel or rebuild body tissue. Now, let's say that a human eats that livestock animal. There would be energy loss a second time. This time the energy loss involved in the animals eating plants and then humans eating the animal are combined and greatly reduce efficiency, or only 20% of the 20% of the energy." (PSU.edu). The described process is shown in the numbers, as the Environmental Defense Fund notes that cows are responsible for over 40% of the U.S.'s methane emissions (EDF).
Although crops (plants) are the most efficient food energy-wise people can grow, current methods of producing them are not-sustainable. Almost a third of the food produced is not even eaten, which means the energy expenditure for that production is extra and unnecessary. And when it comes to food that is eaten, an excess of overall calorie consumption is seen in the populations of wealthier, middle-class abundant countries—USA, U.K., etc.
Like trees and forests, the soil is a natural carbon sink. This sink is disturbed by the process of crop cultivation. But the distribution level is exasperated by the volume of pesticides used, food produced, and overworked soil.
The industry covers many topics but mainly focuses on raw material extraction, component manufacturing, and recycling/disposing of industrial waste. Plastics, metals, and cement are the materials that make up the modern world. They are in everything from the phones people communicate with to the roads they drive on. These resources are also considered non-renewable, and their production/modification of them generates lots of GHG emissions. For example, Insider Climate News notes, "Manufacturing concrete similarly requires power, but the chemical process of making cement produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Altogether, roughly 1,370 pounds of CO2 is produced for every metric ton of cement manufactured" (InsiderClimateNews).
The transportation sector is a significant portion of emissions, making up about 14% of the pie chart. The GHG emissions from this sector come down to one central idea—fuel.
Transportation is simple and can be broken down into moving people, goods, or other cargo from one place to another. From advancements in transportation technology, humans have come to rely on cars, boats, and planes that utilize fossil fuels. These fossil fuels undergo reactions within the vessels (combustion reactions) that produce GHGs.
Buildings comprise the last significant portion of the total emissions. This category includes heating, lighting, cooking, refrigeration, and any other jobs that require energy within a building. These activities occur within housing, office space, schools, or any building in general.
There are multiple ways people and institutions produce emissions, just as there are multiple effects these emissions have on the Earth.
There are two ways to look at the effects of GHG emissions: current impacts, and future impacts. One of climate change's most striking and visible effects is the rising volume of extreme weather events—including droughts, wildfires, heat waves, and flash floods. Other effects of climate change can also be viewed as evidence that climate change is happening in the first place. The AR6 is the most recent (2023) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. It combines heavy scientific, technical, and economic information surrounding global climate change. In this report, they provide the following vital insights regarding the previous weather events: "frequency and intensity of hot extremes have increased (virtually certain), the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events have likely increased at a global scale, more regions are affected by increased in agricultural and ecological droughts (high confidence)" (IPCC).
On NASA's website dedicated to the Earth's climate, central points of climate change evidence and effects are highlighted. The global temperature is rising. This temperature rise affects the planet's largest heat absorber (90% of the extra heat energy), the ocean. "The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969." (Climate.Nasa.gov).
A rapidly changing climate affects not only the weather, land, and ocean but also the animals and humans living on that land. Towards the north and south poles, alarming data on ice and snow have been noted, including shrinking ice sheets, retreating glaciers (not limited to the poles), decreasing snow cover, and declining Arctic sea ice coverage. Regarding ice sheets specifically, Greenland "has lost an average 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019." (Climate.Nasa.gov).
According to the New York Times, "wildlife is disappearing around the world… (and) climate change and other pressures make survival harder." Although a growing human population and agricultural/land use is the primary factor in decreasing habitat space, climate change also plays a role. And in the future, "Scientists expect climate change to become the main driver of biodiversity loss as temperature, rainfall, and other conditions continue transforming ecosystems" (New York Times). The effects of climate change are not limited to the environment and the animals that live within it—people are affected as well.
People in the U.S. are currently living through a period of high inflation (inflation being the rise in goods and services expenses)—with 6.04% as of early April 2023. This high rate can be attributed to several things, including climate change.
Products made from cotton rely on those crops to grow in the first place. But in a hostile environment with highly volatile weather, harvests are not large enough to keep up with demand. So, the products (including bandages, tampons, jeans, etc.) have marked-up prices to satisfy the law of supply and demand.
The effects of a warming globe are seen today and have become more significant. So, scientists have looked towards humanity's future to try and see what could happen then with current emission rates.
A significant hurdle that immediately comes when answering this question is that scientists don't live in the future. Any guesses as to what will happen will be just that—guesses. But scientists are highly confident and concerned about climate tipping points being real. A tipping point can be referred to as the point of no return, where any actions after a certain threshold will have little to no effect on the events that will be self-perpetuating. According to science.org, "analysis indicates that even global warming of 1 degree (Celcius), a threshold that [humanity] already passed, puts us at risk by triggering some tipping points." (sciORG).
Many scientists and researchers are looking into tipping points, as it is a significant concern for the planet's future. The volume of people in this field yields various findings and conclusions about what that is and when it could happen, so the exact future is still uncertain—giving us all the more reason to find a solution to climate change.
There are three ways of applying the word "solution" to climate change. The first is the agreements, meetings, and summits to address and publicize the problem. The second is the policies and laws that are put in place. The third is the palpable changes that need to be made. These are the additions/replacements made with renewable energy, supporting GHG sinks and reducing emissions.
Signed on December 12th, 2015, at the COP21 (Climate Change Conference), the Paris Agreement was and is seen as a landmark event in the climate change world. It is the first worldwide climate agreement. The Paris Agreement had one primary goal, "substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees" (UN.ORG, The Paris Agreement).
It accomplishes this in two ways. The first is to review the countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (total countrywide carbon emissions) every five years. The second is to provide financing to developing countries to mitigate climate change. Regarding the second point, the Paris Agreement "Calls on [all] developed nations to give $100 billion annually (starting in 2020) to developing countries" (CBC.ca).
Although this was a significant step in fighting climate change, "Experts say the Paris Agreement is insufficient to prevent the global average temperature from rising 1.5°C. When that happens, the world will suffer devastating consequences like heat waves and floods." (CFR.org). This statement assumes that all countries are on pace to reduce overall GHG emissions to what is expected, which isn't the case. In 2021, only one country (The Gambia) was on track to reach the 1.5 Celsius threshold.
Another issue with the agreement is that no penalties exist for a country not following the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The Paris Agreement doesn't hand out financial or trade penalties, solely imposing peer pressure on countries to keep up with their agreement. Although the threat of a climate crisis would seem enough, there is no motivation besides the sustainability factor. What if there was an incentive? What if not following climate goals was an issue with the law?
Regarding climate law, they can be sorted into industry-wide, single-country, or multi-country.
Industry-wide laws aren't always explicitly made for climate change, but the law can still affect GHG emissions. Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. established tailpipe emission standards (maximum volume of pollutants allowed in discharged car exhaust) with the Clean Care Act. And in 2017, the ICAO "adopted the first-ever international standards to regulate CO2 emissions from airplanes." (EPA). These are just two examples of laws that positively impact the climate and environment.
While plenty of single-country climate laws have been written in as acts (see Act 17 from Puerto Rico), these never hold any legal incentive—and are not as effective as the other forms of law.
The most effective and well-known multi-country climate law is European Climate Law—specifically the Green Deal signed in 2019. The Green Deal's law is 20 pages of legal and supporting documents, and Consilium Europa was able to sum up the writing in two sentences. "E.U. countries are committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, delivering on the commitments under the Paris Agreement. The European Green Deal is the E.U.'s strategy for reaching the 2050 goal." (consilium.europa.eu). This commitment is backed by legal punishment, including daily and lump-sum fines for countries not following agreement. In fact, Greece has had to pay over 5 million pounds in fines for environmental-related fines. When the country wasn't giving up the funds, the European Commission threatened to withdraw E.U. regional aid—and Greece then proceeded to pay the fine (clientearth.org).
The previous two solutions were more about reaching the goal rather than providing help getting there. This solution helps reach the goals set. The technology built can be broken down into two categories: new and innovative technology and improvement of previous technology. New technology is a device or process that can disrupt existing industries or create new ones. Catalytic converters, solar power, wind power, nuclear power, and hydroelectricity are examples of this technology. Improvement of previous technology refers to more of the efficiency of the current processes. Examples include car efficiency (mpg), battery life, heating/cooling refrigerants/material, etc.
Although all these solutions seem varied, they all have a common denominator—adults. Adults conduct research, create policies, and invent solutions. Adults are currently trying their hardest to think outside the box for solutions to this crisis. But kids naturally think in innovative and curious ways. According to Alison Gopnik's study in 2015, "Younger learners are better than older ones at learning unusual abstract causal principles from evidence." (cocosci.princeton.edu). Utilizing the natural creativity instilled in youth would greatly benefit the generation of solutions for climate change. Although the exact reasons for the cause are still unknown, there is a consensus that knowledge naturally makes a person less creative (Berger, 83).
There are only two downsides to having the youth become the brains of generating solutions: the ability to gather thoughts and real-world experience. Compared to adults, children usually are measurably "worse" at both. And even though innovative solutions are what humanity is looking for, the solutions need to be grounded in reality—the real-world aspect could be helpful. To make these issues as minor as possible, aiming for an age range where the reading/writing skill intersects with the creative talent would be ideal. Since real-world experience comes with age, they should preferably be older when it comes to being a kid.
On page 44 of Berger's book A More Beautiful Question, a graph notes two linear trends, increasing reading/writing skills and decreasing creativity. The two lines intersect at age 11, so the best target audience would be around that age.
With the target population for the solution settled, the adults are to provide the kids aged nine to eleven with two things, information about climate change (without too much on solutions) and a place to submit, discuss, and revise solutions with each other's ideas.
Although children have fewer opportunities to create real-world change than adults, since children have been proven to be better learners than adults, focusing efforts on informing them about climate change is one of the best ways to generate new and innovative solutions to climate change. Climate change is a complicated subject, and scientific knowledge is needed to fully understand how the climate is changing—and how people affect it through GHG emissions.
There are numerous ways in which GHG is released, but all methods of emissions can be simplified to the consumption of fossil fuels and general reliance on non-renewable resources and practices. Effects of a changing climate are currently present in numerous ways, and solutions (although currently available and in place) are not delivering enough measured progress. An optimistic solution that is currently underdeveloped is utilizing creativity in youth to help draw up innovative solutions, and further work in this area could be rewarding.
It is demoralizing when most people talk or hear new information on climate change. With a constant stream of negative media regarding the outcomes of climate change, staying positive and hopeful in this field is difficult. Although creating and implementing major solutions to help fight climate change is an arduous task, giving up hope is not an option.
If children come up with excellent solutions to help solve climate change, there will be a need to push that solution into the public eye—and that is where the reader should come in. Whether through grassroots lobbying, protest marches, fundraising, or volunteering, joining an organization against climate change is the best way to help.
Sources Used
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Shingleton, Keri. Interview. Conducted by Delio Andrew Silvestri. Dr Shingleton Climate Interview.
"Tulsa Clean Cities." US Department of Energy: Clean Cities Coalition Network, cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/tulsa. Accessed 10 Feb. 2023.
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