Al Gore, American politician and environmentalist, once said, “The good news is, we have everything we need now to respond to the challenge of global warming. We have all the technologies we need, more are being developed... But we should not wait, we cannot wait, we must not wait.” (“Global”). College students should be concerned about the social and political issue of global warming affecting the world today since they are the future. When considering the political aspect, the social aspect and the reality of the changing world, students must be concerned with the issue at hand. The argument can be simplified into political, social and environmental effects of global warming that require our attention. Although there are people who believe climate change to be a ‘total myth’, there is too much evidence to prove that it requires our attention and is a pressing issue. To begin, the reality of this climate crisis is real and needs to be explored through factual information before any argument can be made. 

NASA recorded data shows, “Earth's 2016 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880” (Potter). When looking at the research collected, globally-averaged temperatures rose by 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit, making 2016 the third year in a row to set a new high record for global rise in temperatures. (Potter). With the new technology used by NASA, they can confirm that this climate change has been devastating. It has been proven global sea levels rose an average of seventeen centimeters over the last century, while the rate over the past decade alone has been an average of thirty-four centimeters, or doubled that of the last century. Ice sheets are also shrinking, says NASA, “Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate experiment show Greenland lost 36-60 cubic miles of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost 36 cubic miles of ice between 2002 and 2005” (“Climate change”). On a different note, our oceans are taking a huge hit for the CO2 emissions and the warming of the climate. From the time of the Industrial Revolution, when CO2 emissions spiked, to now, the acidity of our oceans have increased by a whopping thirty percent. The oceans also absorb a significant amount of heat, with the top 700 meters of ocean waters displaying an increase of warmth of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969. (“Climate change”). In fact, fifty percent of all coral has been lost in the past thirty years due to these changes (Before). Obviously, the scientific evidence doesn’t stop here, but the big numbers are presented to spark an idea of the impact on our world that the changing climate has already had. 

What does this have to do with our lives when thinking of the social aspects? The food and water supply, human health, systems of energy and infrastructure will all be changed forever due to this climate crisis. At the simplest, the thermal stress of the climate will lead to an increased number of floods, storms, droughts and fires directly leading to increased death and injury. Considering human health, per professor Anthony McMichael, "Studies have shown a positive association between heatwaves and mortality, with elderly people (who have diminished physiological capacity), especially women being the most affected.”. McMichael continues to observe mortality and rising temperatures, “Other research indicates that mentally ill people, children and others in thermally stressful occupations or with pre-existing illness are also extremely vulnerable”. Infectious diseases are also evolving and affecting our day to day lives. McMichael says, “Many infectious agents, vector organisms, non-human reservoir species and rate of pathogen replication are sensitive to climatic conditions” (McMichael). Salmonella and cholera have been proven to have higher rates of replication at higher temperatures. 

In regions where temperature and rainfall are low, climate change is said to ‘tip the ecological balance’ and trigger epidemics. Vector-borne disease is also reaching infection rates never seen before in areas with rapidly rising temperatures. This are diseases transmitted by a bite of an infected species, like mosquitoes or ticks. With the future in mind, these negative effects on human health are only expected to get worse. In one study, it is shown, “major cities in Europe and northern USA will have substantial rises in both frequency and duration of severe heatwaves by 2090” (McMichael). If the temperatures continue to rise at these alarming rates, the spread of infectious disease will also greatly increase. Along with disease impacting health, climate change also has a devastating effect on basic resources.

Humans require basic resources on a day-to-day basis, especially water and food to stay alive. If college students want to stay alive, they might want to educate themselves on the impact of climate change on these basic necessities. When considering food and water supplies, the climate plays a major role in the production of food. Increase in floods and droughts will devastate certain areas of farming. Many crops are unable to grow in extreme conditions, and will be wiped out entirely if these conditions persist. The warmer water temperatures will result in a shift of fish and shellfish species and prevalence, so the fisheries known now may be irrelevant in the coming years. The increasing acidity of the ocean water worldwide is also wiping out entire populations of fish and shellfish.  Due to recent research by the EPA, “In 2011, exposure to high temperature events caused over $1 billion in heat-related losses to agricultural products.” (“Climate Impacts”). 

Climate change is also said to increase the prevalence of parasites and disease present in livestock sold, which is commonly eaten worldwide. Especially in livestock, which accounts for over half of agricultural income, “heat stress can increase vulnerability to disease, reduce fertility and reduce milk production” (“Climate Impacts”). With these conditions, the world can be left without fish, many crops, and healthy livestock. Drinking water will also be impacted. Sewer systems have and will continue to overflow due to the rising water levels, and this overflow of infected water will reach drinking water supply and render it all useless. The rising sea levels will lead to salt water intruding into groundwater drinking supply, rendering these reservoirs also useless. Water purity also impacts the power supplies worldwide. The Union of Concerned Scientists say, “lower lake and river levels may threaten the capacity of hydroelectric plants, while higher temperatures may mean that water is too warm to cool coal and nuclear power plants, leading to power burnouts. Shrinking mountain glaciers threaten electricity generation as well.” (“Global Warming Effects”). Essentially, if nothing is done to save the climate, in time humans will be left with less food, less water, horrible health conditions, and a decrease in energy. College students also must be concerned about the political stakes in this issue and require education on it. 

Especially today, there has been an increasing partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of climate change. A lot of studies have pointed out that this may be because of conservative media and their efforts to disprove the factual evidence of climate change. However, per a political sociology professor at McGill University, J.T. Carmichael, “media coverage, extreme weather, issuance of major scientific reports and changes in economic activity and foreign conflict” are impacting the views on climate change (Carmichael). This partisan divide has not always existed, though. A poll completed by the Gallup Organization showed that these divides were almost non-existent, with sixty-seven percent of the Democratic party and sixty-six percent of the Republican party indicating that they were worried ‘a great deal or a fair amount about global warming’ (Carmichael). These newfound divides don’t just challenge the climate; they work their way to challenging the basic trust in scientists and research conducted today. Per researcher Cary Funk, the more liberal Americans focus on the work of climate scientists and fully comprehending the phenomena. A study shows that “55% of liberals say climate research reflects the best available evidence most of the time, while 9% of conservatives say this only reflects the best available evidence most of the time” (Funk). Fifty-seven percent of republican respondents agree that the party members also tend to take the side of climate change that says these climate researchers and their findings are only influenced by the ‘desire to advance their own careers’, to seem of higher rank and importance and that their findings are to advance their own political beliefs (Carmichael). In general, conservatives tend to believe that the climate crisis is a hoax, and liberals tend to say that it is relevant and action must be taken. 

This information and partisan divide has been especially relevant under the new Trump administration. His new budget intends to end all programs to heal the earth, including efforts to lower domestic greenhouse emissions, efforts to slow climate change and scientific efforts to study climate. Mick Mulvaney, head of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget says himself, “We’re not spending money on that anymore. We consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that” (Greenfieldboyce). The Clean Power Plan will also be cut from the budget, completely wiping any governmental concern on the reduction of greenhouse gasses from power plant emissions. The new budget “eliminates the Global Climate Change Initiative and fulfills the President’s pledge to cease payments to the United Nations’ climate change programs” (Greenfieldboyce). Although this massive budget rework will not wipe the American minds of climate change entirely, it makes it extremely difficult to find funding to further the evidence of the impacts of global warming. Ignorance of the President and his administration will only spread ignorance to the rest of America. Why is he so concerned about erasing this issue entirely from the budget? Greenfieldboyce says, “the Department of Defense has identified climate change as a destabilizing force” (Greenfieldboyce). Indicating Trump is not only placing priority in his outward appearance to the world, but that he will risk the health of the planet and its inhabitants just to build himself as a powerful leader.  

Of course, there is a counterargument to all of this, however it is extremely weak and easy to disprove. European journalist Christopher Booker explains “10 Reasons why we shouldn’t worry about man-made global warming”. He first argues that the rise in temperatures is nothing to be concerned about, he says, “The world has in fact been heating up for 200 years… the temperature rise of 0.5 degrees Celsius between 1975 and 1998, hailed as the ‘hottest year in history’ was no greater than recorded between 1910 and 1940, before ‘global warming’ was thought of” (Booker). Although he is partially correct in his statement that the world is always heating, he ignores the fact that majority of CO2 emissions in American history began to occur after the Industrial Revolution (around 1820-1870), and the world was just starting to react in the early 1900’s. So, his fact that recent warmings being compared with warmings in the early 1900’s holds no significance. The world was warming significantly back then, and just because no one said the words ‘global warming’ does not mean it wasn’t happening and wasn’t to be of concern. He also brings up the point that ‘melting polar ice is not threatening a disastrous rise in sea levels’ and says that the ice is recovering at an alarming rate (Booker). Actually, due to a recent scientific study, “shrinking land ice- glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets- contributed to about half of the total global sea level rise between 1972 and 2008, but its contribution has been increasing since the early 1990’s as pace of ice loss has accelerated” (“Infographic”). I can see where Booker may be getting his information on ‘ice recovery’, but this happens very rarely, in a very small portion, and when considering the long-term results, “even if global warming emissions were to drop to zero in 2016, sea level will continue to rise in the coming decades as oceans and land ice adjust to the changes we have already made to the atmosphere” (“Infographic”). 

So how educated are American students on this topic anyway? Do they need to be more educated? The simple answer is yes. Emma L. Kuster, a graduate research assistant at the University of Oklahoma, decided she needed an answer to one very important question: 

“Do graduates believe they are being well equipped to understand the implications of climate change as part of their research and professional careers? With climate change impacting our ecosystems, infrastructure and societies, do we see higher-education institutions preparing future generations to lead us through these challenges?” (Kuster).

Ultimately, she finds that although many students in the natural and social sciences believe climate change to be of utmost importance, most do not believe they are receiving enough education or even acknowledgement in their higher-level education on the issue. Surprisingly, she found that in most geographic regions, about seventy percent of students studying natural science reported that climate change education was offered in their studies, but only sixty-one percent of respondents in the Southeast said the same (Kuster). People living in more conservative states tend to respond that concern for climate change is low in their studies. Agricultural and engineering students responded that they received the lowest exposure to climate change education, coming to only about fifty percent nationwide feeling they were offered the opportunity to explore the topic (Kuster). Individuals planning to work with the environment as a career know the least about climate change. Yes, she found in many areas climate education is offered, but she also concluded it is not promoted as it should be. She emphasizes one main point as she concludes, “Today’s educators must equip our next generation with the tools and knowledge needed to develop tomorrow’s solutions. Education is vital to reducing societies’ vulnerability to climate change” (Kuster). 

Student Erica Cirino also explores this topic, saying “according to Mark McCaffrey, senior fellow at the National Council for Science and the Environment says that ‘climate change is being taught, but often skimmed over’” (Cirino). She says that high schoolers are coming into college knowing at least what climate change is, but don’t know much beyond that. McCaffrey found in a study that, “teachers spend only an hour or two on the topic over the course of an academic year, with many inadequately prepared to teach climate change science correctly” (Cirino). Clearly, the next generation has hardly any idea how serious global warming really is. Although I explored this throughout the entire paper, I will again answer the question directly, why should you care?

Considering the results from both Erica Cirino and Emma Kuster, students in higher level education typically don’t know nearly enough about the pressing issue of global warming. As a college student, myself, I knew basically nothing about global warming before I started this project. It is never a topic of conversation in any of my science courses; I have surveyed my friends and everyone who I spoke to seemed to know very little about this issue also. Both of my parents don’t believe climate change is a pressing issue, so I was never urged to learn about it, especially at home. Now that I am educated on the topic, I can convince my friends and family that we need to act now on global warming. With food and water supply, human health, energy supply and infrastructure all at risk, everyone should be concerned about the constant warming of the globe. Global warming, in one way or another, affects every single person every single day. Maybe the days are a little warmer in January when it should be snowing, or fish being more expensive at the grocery store because so many species are becoming extinct. Whether people realize it or not, sea levels are rising, the climate is changing and we should all be extremely concerned. However, we can still help turn it around.

Although a lot of damage has been done to the world already because of climate change, it is not too late to stop any further harm from being done. Keep in mind that CO2 in excess is the climate’s worst enemy. Through the burning of fuels like driving a car and the energy used on a day to day basis like powering a smartphone, CO2 is being pumped into the environment. Melissa Denchak offers 10 great ways to reduce your impact on climate change. She says first to speak to representatives and make sure that they are protecting the environment as best as they can. Power your home with renewable energy, using things like solar panels to reduce the carbon footprint. Stop wasting food to cut down on energy consumption, and try to eat less meat (Denchak). In the documentary, Before the Flood, cattle use and produce a lot of hazardous materials and require vast amounts of land. In fact, cattle alone is expected to increase greenhouse gas emissions by 15-35% by 2050. Just cutting out red meat would decrease this percentage greatly (Before). Choose to walk rather than drive, or drive a fuel-efficient car (Denchak). There are so many ways global warming is killing the earth, but there are also so many ways to stop this problem from getting any worse, and it’s on us to protect the globe for future generations. Educate yourself and act, before it’s too late. 

 