Why don’t we go crazy about Climate Change?
Here are the reasons why so many people think that climate change is far too big of a problem to solve and why don’t they do a lot about it.
Climate Change is destroying not only the planet but also our Mental Health
There has been no shortage of reports in the media lately about the news that our planet is falling apart. We read that millions of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, glaciers are melting, temperatures are rising and extreme weather events are at their top, and we are already facing extreme drought. The world is changing and apocalyptic scenarios are already affecting people’s mental health. The Canadian Medical Association said in a report on climate change and human mental health that climate change is increasingly recognized as a major threat to society and has the potential to be one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century. Many people suffer from heat stress, extreme weather fluctuations and diseases due to climate change.
As many people already know, when scientists talk about global warming, they are referring to the process of increasing the average temperature of the planet due to human actions. For example in just half a century (from 1950 to 2010), humanity has added +1 °C, and by 2100 we risk warming our planet by another 3-4 °C. Unfortunately, after learning this fact, many people consider it a minor problem, because it is only 4 degrees. But there are facts and history; for example, 20,000 years ago, the earth’s temperature was 4 degrees lower, this time is called the Last Glacial Maximum. In this era, most of Europe was under a huge thickness of ice, and the tops of most skyscrapers in America would be invisible because of icebergs. Or here’s another era, the Cretaceous Period. About 100 million years ago, the temperature was 8 degrees higher, while palm trees were growing up in Antarctica and dinosaurs were running around; the sea level was so high that almost all of Europe was under water.
As we can see, the consequences of just a few degrees will be disastrous. It’s easy to tell, but to prove it in practice for billions of people, that’s the difficulty. Thus, we believe that most methods of information delivery do not work, because it simply does not cause the necessary emotions in people; the approach is more general, and therefore individuals do not feel guilty about this issue.; and this seems to us to be the main problem on the way to restoring the planet. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have studied this question and proved that “…that describing climate change consequences in a more abstract way elicits more self-conscious emotions than describing them more concretely. Self-conscious emotions further mediated influences of description abstractness on adaptive responses to climate change such as willingness to self-change and repair.” Simply put, scientists studied the emotions of subjects and their response to information related to global warming.
Extreme weather and natural disasters can be traumatic and stressful for those affected. People may be displaced, injured, lose their homes and property, or lose loved ones. Extreme fevers can also have a more pronounced effect on people with mental illness. Climate and environmental change can have a negative impact on depression and other mental health conditions. Concerns about the effects of climate change and local manifestations can also be a source of increased anxiety or despair for some people.
The ideal time for a change is now. Climate change has a major impact on our lives, its quality and therefore our health. We believe that this issue will continue to be studied and a more adaptive approach will be applied to different groups of people around the world in order to convince them to work on themselves in order to reduce the risk of irreversible processes on our planet.
Our Opinion
We are absolutely sure that climate change and global warming are the biggest problem of the 21st century. And unfortunately, this is its drawback. This problem is so big that many people simply do not want to solve it, because they think that their actions will not bring results on the scale of the entire planet. Others think that there is no problem at all or that they do not care about the lives of polar bears and the average level of the oceans and seas; and only a small part understands what awaits all of humanity if it does not act. It seems to us that governments and organizations whose goal is to prevent the onset of global warming should find a more flexible approach to “their audience”. Depending on the region, find problems that may happen or have already happened as a consequence of global warming and that concern people in this region. For example, to make people feel guilty for this or that incident, and most importantly that they understand what the problem is; then it will only be necessary to tell people about the problem in simple language, as they once told about the ozone hole in the atmosphere. People realized that the atmospheric “shield” was damaged and this is both frightening and causes a desire to help it recover. We think that the solution should be that stop worrying about your part in the solutin, because even if you think that you are nothing in this big fight, we can assure you that everybody is important in saving the planet. So start recovering the planet today, because the clock is counting and we haven’t got much time left. We need everybody in this fight.
Listen to our Discussion About the Topic
We can change and we need to!
Resources:
Hayes, Katie, et al. “Climate Change and Mental Health: Risks, Impacts and Priority Actions.” International Journal of Mental Health Systems, BioMed Central, 1 June 2018, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5984805/.
Cianconi, Paolo, et al. “The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health: A Systematic Descriptive Review.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 28 Jan. 2020, http://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00074/full.
“Global Warming.” NASA, NASA, earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page3.php.
Brannen, Peter. “Scientists Have Uncovered a Frightening Climate Change Precedent.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Aug. 2018, http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/earths-scorching-hot-history/566762/.
“The Cognitive Psychology of Climate Change.” Frontiers, http://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/7514/the-cognitive-psychology-of-climate-change.
Comments
- Why did it take us so long to be alarmed?
- Is it too late to reverse the effects of climate change?
- Did we go beyond the point of no return?
- Why didn’t rich countries did anything about it?
- Do we know what is going to happen after climate crises ends?
- Do we have enough hope to survive the climate crises?
- Should people be concerned about having children during the climate crises?
- What do you think poor countries should do?
- What do you think rich people should do?
- What do you think rich and big companies should do?
Answers
what a great video! The man in green, wow!
this vieo was great 🙂
1. Maybe because it started as a minor problem
1. I do not know 2. No it’s not we still have time 3. No we can still change our…
I think it is exactly the same as when a woman and man raise children, there is nothing a same-sex…
Global Issues and their Solutions 
1. I do not know
2. No it’s not we still have time
3. No we can still change our world
4. Because they thought that they were not a part of the problem
5. No we don’t but we can assume that the world will be a better place to live in
6. Some of us still do
7. Yes we should because our children are gonna be our next generation
8. They should participate in trying to save the world from the global warming
9. They should donate to some companies that are trying to solve this global warming crisis
10. They should try to help other small companies and group with them and try to save our world from the climate change crisis
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1. Maybe because it started as a minor problem
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