“Greenhouse gas emissions” is one of the few terms that even those largely oblivious to climate change are familiar with. Our planet’s current CO2 addiction has become so overblown that it is becoming increasingly harder for people to not take notice. Hurricanes are getting stronger, summers are getting hotter and weather over all is simply becoming much more extreme; and yet this is just the beginning. Forces such as the melting of the polar ice caps in the North Pole and Antarctica are both ones we are only beginning come to terms with, while their effects will likely become far more obvious in the next 50 or so years as sea levels rise. Nearly the entire world is just sitting back and relaxing as they cook themselves and destroy the earth for those after them. Although three quarters of Americans now believe climate change is affecting our weather, according to an article published in the Smithsonian October 9th, nothing is changing; people are accepting that damage is being done and yet do nothing to stop it.
Of course one can herald the fact that at least awareness is increasing but the truth is, largely no one cares enough to change their actions. Moreover than that most don’t even know how to go about making any real impact. Sure recycling plastics and metals or driving a hybrid car are steps in the right direction but that is undoubtedly not enough to start reversing or even stalling the intense damage that has been taking place and has already been done. Given the scale of the damage it seems that modern society as a whole would have to restructure and almost entirely change their lives to make any kind of change worth talking about, and that just seems utterly impossible. So far history shows we are not animals who like to deal with this kind of change.
Take for instance, the case of cigarettes. Since the beginning of the 20th century, scientists have figured out, to varying degrees, that smoking is not beneficial to ones health. These scientists were outright ignored by most and even in the 1950s when it became more common knowledge most of the population was still skeptical. Today it is absolutely unquestionable that smoking causes lung cancer and has other major risks associated. Commercials run making the public aware of the danger and students are taught in school the dangers of smoking. The hazards of smoking are now pretty universally accept – but has a great societal change come? Not so much. Although things are of course better than they were you cannot walk outside of Hunter College, even with CUNY’s new smoking ban enforced, without seeing crowds of young people smoking. They all are aware of what they are doing to themselves and although with New York City’s taxes cigarettes can cost even up to fifteen dollars a pack, people still smoke. My generation, a generation that grew up with ads and health classes teaching the dangers of cigarettes, is still a generation of smokers.
If a change so minor as giving up a drug with only a short lived buzz and health effects unquestionably noticeable to the individual cannot be achieved, perhaps the crusade to fight climate change isn’t even really worth it. The changes that would need to be made to make a serious difference seem far greater and far more expensive making the entire fight seem like something of a pipe dream. I will try to suspend my doubt until we move farther through the arc, but at this point my question really is – is it even worth it?
