Talking about Climate Change

By Dominique Otiepka

Last week, our class had an informative discussion with a professor at Ramapo College regarding global climate change and people’s perspective on it. Professor Harriet Shugarman was passionate about this subject, and gave insights on climate facts to shed light on climate change’s validity. She discussed how there are 110,000,000 tons of greenhouse gases that are induced by human activities that are released into the atmosphere, and there are scientific studies that cannot be denied. It made me think of the way people have been talking about fake news, and are puzzled with the truth.

Earth Science is not double sided, heads or tails, it is a reality; the consequences of climate change have been experienced by people all over the world. People confuse climate change with being a future issue, when it is affecting people currently in numerous ways. Through hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires, people are exposed to the detriments of climate change now. She mentioned how 97% of climate scientists tell the public that climate change is indeed real, and that the quickness of its implications is worrisome.

Climate deniers are destroying the conversation that is so important. The urgency of climate change is pressing; it has been causing mass destruction for a variety of communities recently. An article on this issue in the Washington Post titled, “EPA’s Scott Pruitt asks whether global warming ‘necessarily is a bad thing’," made me deeply question how people are considering that climate change may actually be good for humanity. People are suffering from increased climate change because of such harsh weather occurrences. Does that not matter? People cannot adapt to continually losing their homes, relatives, access to clean water or loss to agriculture. This article states how climate deniers argue that sea level rise cannot be that much of a bad thing necessarily, and the sea level will be stable in time. This information is not supported by science, or the history of past sea levels, but many people are not venturing to do their own research on such subjects.

Too many people no longer desire wisdom, but rely on information given to them by others. It is really concerning that the science that has been taught in schools is being misworded and deemed as false. The discussion held with Professor Shugarman was extremely insightful and raised concern throughout the classroom. Climate change needs to be discussed, not necessarily debated because debating science as though it is ‘fake news’ is outrageous. Discussion is more helpful for the sake of spreading facts and awareness.

It is time to focus on mobilizing action, rather than debate if climate change is real in our time. Humanity as a whole is past questioning facts, I would think. Unfortunately, deniers are denying people the right to researched facts, and state that it is something people can live with, which clearly will not be the case in a few years.