Climate change and what we can do as individuals facing an ever-increasing danger of our planet being destroyed is an area of personal interest and concern. For this reflective analysis, I have chosen David Wallace-Wells’ TED talk “How we could change the planet’s climate future” [Video] (TED, 2019). Wallace-Wells presents a lot of information in an engaging and comprehensible style. He gains legitimacy by supporting his statements of statistical and scientific information by sources cited in the footnotes attached to his talk.
In the first part of his talk, Wallace-Wells presents the terrifying consequences we almost certainly face if carbon emissions and other harmful human environmental practices continue at their present pace. Although his remarks generally echoed the beliefs I already held, what I found shocking was his predictions for the pace at which global warming is accelerating. Wallace-Wells reports that “according to the [United Nations], if we don’t change course by the end of the century, we’re likely to get about 4 degrees Celsius of warming” (TED, 2019, 1:01). Wallace-Wells believes that the impact will actually come about much sooner: “by just 2050, it’s estimated, many of the biggest cities in South Asia and the Middle East will be almost literally unlivably hot in summer” (TED, 2019, 1:32). If we cannot outpace climate change, what can be done to mitigate it?
Reflecting on this talk, I recall hearing examples of how the natural world seems able to respond to environmental disasters. Volcanoes are unarguably a massive source of carbon dioxide emissions, but the large amount of ash and other particles in the atmosphere reflect many harmful solar rays away from Earth, lessening their harmful effects. Various reputable website articles support this view, one of which is NASA (NASA Global Climate Change). Forest wildfires are another example—they are nature’s way of cleaning up the debris from the forest floor and preparing the earth for new healthy carbon absorbing growth. This renewal process is further explained in the National Geographic Society resource (National Geographic Society, 2020). Nature has its ways of healing or lessening the effects of harmful emissions.
Wallace-Wells makes clear it is our generation that is tasked with taking responsibility with doing our part in healing the planet. Others have also expressed early warnings that time is running out. Wallace-Wells mentions former United States Vice President Al Gore’s first book on climate change. Even singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell’s lyrics from decades ago express environmental warnings: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot...they took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum and they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them...don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone" (Mitchell, 1970). Obviously, we must not only continue, but drastically expand our present efforts to reduce our carbon footprints and make substantial progress in slowing down the destruction of our planet.
Shifting my thoughts back to the video, I was most interested to learn from Wallace-Wells what he felt could be done. As he repeatedly points out, any human response to global warming will cause widespread disruption and suffering no matter what we do. His comment “inaction is a form of action” rang especially true to me (TED, 2019, 4:56). He emphasizes a multifaceted and globally coordinated approach, including the widely accepted view that we must work globally on reducing our dependence on fossil fuels to generate energy. Alternate sustainable energy sources need to be further developed to reduce carbon emissions, along with finding ways to produce negative emissions which take carbon out of the atmosphere. At present, the massive changes he envisions globally in all areas of human life seem like an impossible dream, especially when he states “no matter what we do, climate change will transform modern life” (TED, 2019, 10:14). It would be nice to be able to embrace his ideal of a world with “a new politics, a new economics, a new relationship to nature—a whole new world” (TED, 2019, 10:14). Collective changes in personal lives as a feasible way of at least slowing down the process is not enough long-term. I am skeptical that the extreme changes requiring worldwide political, economic and technological cooperative efforts will ever be achieved unless we find ways to proceed globally towards common goals.
Works Cited:
Wallace-Wells, D. (2019, September). How we could change the planet’s climate future [Video]. TED Conferences. https://drr2.lib.athabascau.ca/index.php?c=node&m=detail&n=59438.
What do volcanoes have to do with climate change? Nasa. Retrieved 26 Jan 2022.
National Geographic Society (2020) The Ecological Benefits of Fire. Society. Retrieved 26 Jan 2022.
Mitchell, J. (1970) Big Yellow Taxi [Song]. On Ladies of the Canyon. Reprise R
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