Climate change - it's us
How and where do you see yourself in 2050? Whatever your future life looks like, life on planet earth is likely to be vastly different to the present day.
And that’s because, globally, we’re still failing to make adequate inroads into solving climate change. According to a 2020 report in the Lancet, if the climate crisis continues in the current ‘business as usual’ vein, a child born today will experience increased rates of food insecurity, disease, threats to safety and security due to increased extreme weather events – and more.
Climate change is already happening. The record-breaking global heat of the past three years; the increasingly wet autumns and winters we experience in the UK; the 'gobsmacking' sea temperature increases; the flooding; the increasingly frequent heavy storms; the wildfires that occur with almost clockwork regularity.
But is it human-caused or are there other factors at play?
A recent study asked almost 60,000 people across 63 different countries for their views on climate change. In Britain, 83 percent of people think climate change is a serious threat, and humans are the cause.
And there is plenty of scientific evidence to support this view. Published in 2023, the Independent Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th report stated that it 'is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land'.
The crucial link between human activities and temperature rises is greenhouse gases. Tree rings and polar ice both record changes in atmospheric chemistry, revealing the impacts of greenhouse gases over time. When examined, tree rings and polar ice show that carbon - specifically from fossil sources – has risen significantly since 1850.
Amazingly, this analysis also shows that for 800,000 years, the density of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere did not rise above 300 parts per million, but since the Industrial Revolution, the CO2 concentration has soared to its current level of nearly 420 ppm.
Climate models can show us what would have happened to temperatures without the massive amounts of greenhouse gases we’ve released since the Industrial Revolution. These models reveal there would have been little global warming - and possibly some cooling - over the 20th and 21st Centuries, without human-driven influences over the climate.
It is only when human factors are introduced that the rises in temperature can be explained by the models.
So while the current generation of young adults played no part in creating this difficult situation, we’ve all inherited a problem that just has to be dealt with.
Various commentators agree, from climate activist Clover Hogan, to the grandad of climate change, David Attenborough: ‘Today, those who’ve done the least to cause this problem, are being the hardest hit.’
Ultimately, though, as Attenborough adds, ‘all of us will feel the impacts, some of which are now unavoidable.’
Attenborough’s COP26 speech was a rallying call to ‘the last generation with a chance to save the planet’. He said: ‘In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery. That desperate hope is why the world is looking to you and why you are here.’
Yet with this desperate hope comes, literally, the weight of the world. Research from Friends of the Earth carried out in 2019 showed that in the UK, 70 percent of 18-24 year-olds were experiencing “eco-anxiety” - helplessness, anger, insomnia, panic and guilt.
And only 26 percent of participants in a study by Force of Nature agreed that they 'feel like I have a clear idea of how I can contribute to solving climate change.'
However, while digital and social media natives feel overwhelming anger that not enough is being done when encountering climate change content online, there is also a sense of motivation to learn more and growing confidence in the ability to reduce the effects of climate change.
Zero adviser Carrie Lear, Professor of Past Climates and Earth System Change, comments: 'The future is in our hands, and the biggest dial we can turn to control that future is our CO2 emissions.'
Indeed, while 61 percent of those aged 16-29 surveyed by the Office for National Statistics are worried about climate change, 66 percent have already made some lifestyle changes to help tackle climate change.
This is our opportunity.
Professor Lear concludes: 'As a climate scientist, of course I am worried about tipping points in the climate system. But we should also remember that there are tipping points in society too, and many of these can be positive, such as when individual climate action builds to produce collective climate action. Together, we have the power to change our pathway and choose our future.'
What comes next? READ the third blog in our climate change series.