The raging climate emergency has become a matter of serious global concern. The topic has been in the limelight for quite a good number of years. Even the ongoing Davos Summit 2024 in Switzerland has placed climate change in the front seat of its meetings.
Most of us already know that it’s a critical time for us to make efforts to tackle the climate crisis. But a lot of us still have dozens of questions about the real threat it poses. This article is about busting some of the most common and often repeated climate change myths. Read on.
Let’s separate fact from fiction: Debunking climate change myths
‘The climate has always been changing’
It is true that Earth’s climate has changed a lot throughout its 4.5-billion-year history. But the one thing that makes the current climate change unprecedented and more dramatic is the scale. The rate of temperature rise is at least 10 times faster than that of the last mass extinction.
‘It’s freezing outside’
Remember, weather is your current mood and climate is your overall personality. The two terms do not refer to the same thing. Dropping temperatures during the colder months is not a relevant reason to dismiss the presence of global heating.
Researchers predict global heating is set to trigger more volatile weather, with more intense hurricanes, storms, flooding, and hot and cold temperature records broken. If you still think climate change isn’t a matter of concern, you are in an ever-diminishing minority.
‘There is no way humans are responsible’
The raging climate crisis is happening to an extent that cannot be explained by natural factors alone. Global temperatures have been on the rise since industrialisation began. The global scientific community believes the ongoing scale of global heating is anthropogenic.
‘It’s the sun, not us’
The sun is responsible for powering life on Earth, keeping the planet’s temperature ideal enough for us all to survive. The celestial body also influences Earth’s climate – subtle changes in the planet’s orbit around the sun had been responsible for past ice ages.
But the scale of global heating seen over the last few decades is too rapid and dramatic to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit, and too large to be triggered by changes in solar activity. In January, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed 2023 as Earth’s hottest year ever.
‘There is no point in doing anything now’
The current period is a critical time to take action on climate change – and it can be done. The latest reports have made it clear that the global community is running out of time, but there is still a limited window of opportunity to implement policies to tackle the worst effects.
Read More: Climate change must become an integral part of already exhaustive medical curriculum
The technology and systems needed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 are available. But governments, energy companies, industries and automobile manufacturers must realise the essential part they have to play. Individually, each one of us can make a difference.
