Climate change is widely known as the greatest threat of the 21st century. But it seems that many do not take it as seriously as it is considered to be by experts. By the year 2050, just a mere 30 years from now, a variety of effects will be seen among the world, to which we can either adapt to then or mitigate today. This may sound extreme, but that is only because we really are in extreme times. As the young climate activist Greta Thunberg says, “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” a time in which everybody should understand the dangers that this imposes and collaborate to prevent the catastrophic events resulting in the continuous climatical change from ever taking place.
I do not think it is about what actions common people commit to through their daily lives, such as recycling or opting for plastic-free utensils necessarily, but rather the actions that the composite number of 100 corporations, including ExxonMobil, Shell and BP (also known as British Petroleum) continuously commit toward increasing global warming. These corporations are driving the effects of climate change in the world, making the effort-filled individual action of an average citizen almost non-existent compared to their amount of carbon emissions.
Moreover, I think that the only way to really stop climate change completely is to have committed international cooperation. This can put in place laws and measures that will compel a variety of companies such as the ones mentioned earlier to follow ethical practices and models of selling their products in relation to the known events that are approaching if we do not mitigate climate change today.
The Paris Climate Accord of 2015 was a great start in which world leaders each devised a plan to mainly keep the world’s temperature change under 2 degrees Celsius for the remainder of the century. The agreement went into effect in 2016, which, with given warnings by various scientists, provided many with hope that the international community was finally moving toward attempting to solve this issue. However, after U.S. President Donald J. Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2017—made effective in November 2020—it seemed that all the advancements that were made were regressing to what they were before. The withdrawal by the United States of this plan is especially dangerous due to the fact that it is the number one nation generator of carbon emissions per capita and only second to China in carbon emissions as a whole.
Furthermore, another great problem that challenges the fight toward mitigating the effect of climate change is that of these two specific nations’ attitudes toward it. China’s main goal is that of obtaining a stable level of economic growth in which its economy would come to resemble that of the world’s greatest economies. To do this, China is basing its economic growth on the manufacturing of products to promote consumerism. These manufactured goods are also being shipped abroad, specifically to the United States, where a capitalist and consumerist society is eager to buy them, giving an incentive to the previously mentioned 100 companies to continue to profit from their climatically unethical practices.
As warned by scientists and various bodies of the United Nations, we are able to understand just how much this contributes to the increasing threat that is climate change, which can lead one to understand that it is a matter of human rights as well, given that not only are these governments and corporations alike depriving the entire human species of a future, but it is also immediately affecting the financially unstable who tend to live in the peripheral countries, such as those in southeast Asia.
China does not historically have just stances on regards to human rights, to which an issue as this would not be of any bother at all. However, the United States is based on the values of equality and liberty, to which it holds a moral obligation to aid in the fight to mitigate climate change and help those who are affected by it, and from which we have yet to see such necessary actions going into effect.
We need this radical change because it is necessary for the survival of the human species, and I do not think that we will see this until the nations of the world, especially the G8 nations, take a committed, radical stance toward climate change over capitalistic profits. I remain hopeful that these governments will take the precautions that are so desperately needed, but for now, other than reaching out to elected officials and performing eco-friendly practices in your daily life, I encourage you to learn more about this and spread the word to your family and friends.
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