The Science Stuff with Jesse
By Jesse Armstrong
The impact of human life and our lifestyles on planet Earth is a murky, complicated and contentious issue. Whilst many in our society are arriving at the conclusion that certain activities, ideologies and attitudes are unsustainable and damaging to the natural environment we all depend upon, others claim this is scaremongering, anti-progress, or even anti-human. Whilst the former group are undoubtedly more aligned with reality, it is easy to understand how people find this complex issue confusing, and the task of understanding it daunting. Despite some aspects of the climate crisis being simple and straightforward, (i.e. our CO2 emissions causing increasing average global temperatures), the details of what the climate crisis truly is, what’s causing it, and what we need to do to avert disaster are unfortunately very complicated, multifaceted, and often subtle.
There are thousands of published literary examples of how human and wild environments, ecosystems, global processes, and individual species are being affected by unsustainable and polluting human activities. To pick through these and understand them requires scientific expertise and the means to get behind the hefty paywalls which many scientific journals use to monetize knowledge. As such, this simply isn’t accessible to most people. When you combine this with the quagmire of clickbait headlines and poorly researched media articles, which constantly contradict themselves and misinterpret the facts, it’s no surprise that we are often left confused, overwhelmed, and frightened. Unfortunately, we are also living in a time when the truth is all too often subverted and distracted from by factions in our society who do not want to see change. Be it due to vested political interests, ignorance, greed, fear, or pressures applied by others, there are many people who want to downplay and ignore the mounting pressure we are putting on the planet and its resources.
The ugly truth is we don’t have time to be debating over whether or not climate change and the associated subset of environmental crises are real. It is, they are, and an overwhelming majority of scientists and experts agree on this. These are not people who have any motivation to lie, they are human beings like you and I who see what is happening and recognise that we need to act now, and that we need to act together. For this to happen, we need to understand what it is we’re facing, what we need to change and why we need to change it. To that end, I am writing a series of blog posts covering the key components of the climate crisis and how we, everyday people, contribute to them. I will explain what the causes, effects and possible solutions to these issues are, and I will try to do it succinctly and in a way that doesn’t leave you scratching your head. The climate crisis is something that will affect every single one of us, and it will take all of us working together to avert it.