By Yash Bhandari
It is disheartening that even as the U.N.’s World Water Day approaches, billions of people worldwide face the very real risk of water scarcity. This risk is perhaps more real than most people realize: the state of the world’s consumable water supply is dismal, rife with substantial and ongoing contamination, and almost a third of the world’s groundwater systems is rapidly becoming depleted.
But environmental concerns don’t end there.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development reported that, in 2017, 80% of growing global energy demand is met by the consumption of greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels, like oil. Indeed, according the International Energy Agency, global oil demand increased by more than twice the annual rate of the last ten years, signaling an alarming and ever-growing dependency.
It came as a shock, then, when the Trump Administration pulled out of the Paris Agreement in 2017. This withdrawal caused an almost universal backlash, with players all over the right-left spectrum inveighing against the decision.
Things haven’t gotten any better since.
In October of 2018, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report that suggested that there was only 12 years left to contain global temperatures to about 1.5C—even a half a degree above that goal would, the report claims, increase incidents of floods, droughts, and extreme heat, all of which would devastate millions of people. The Paris Agreement was designed to keep this from happening.
However, Dr. Isaac Hankes—a Weather Research Analyst at Refinitiv—doubts that the agreement alone is sufficient. He states that “the Paris climate agreement is as political as it is scientific, and even if fully embraced will not offset much more than about 0.1°C of warming. This underscores the importance of personal action by anyone concerned about the effects of warming to make a difference by making energy-saving decisions. Such opportunity now exists in nearly all facets of a home, and actions as simple as installing LED light bulbs or smart power strips could easily supersede any slower-moving government action in offsetting emissions-based warming.”
What one can glean from this is the sense individual action is necessary if global warming is to be combatted; that even if there were not institutional opposition to such combat, there would be institutional inefficacy. Unfortunately, action is catalyzed by incentive, and for there to be incentive, there needs to be, at the very least, awareness. And according to a survey conducted by Rockay—an eco-friendly running apparel manufacturer—that is exactly was most Americans lack when it comes to climate change.
Their survey, conducted online via 3GEM RESEARCH & INSIGHTS, polled 1500 Americans from various regions, and ranging in age from 18 to 55+. You can view the full survey results here. The results were surprising.
For example, respondents were asked whether or not they thought that global warming would have harmful effects in their own lifetimes. 34% believed that it would; about the same number believed the opposite, with 7% holding the view that global warming was a hoax altogether.
As you can see above, 32% of respondents answered “Kind of” which signifies an ambivalence about the issue, which in turn is likely caused by a lack of awareness of the nuances within it.
Perhaps more alarmingly, and despite the worldwide controversy and political rifts it has caused, over half of respondents didn’t know what the Paris Agreement was. When asked if they were aware of the Paris Agreement, 56% of them responded “no.”
It is fair to assume, then, that climate change—or indeed political affairs—are just not on people’s minds. This assumption is given further credence by the fact that, when asked how often they spoke with their friends and family about climate change, only 14% of respondents answered that they “often” do. By contrast, 50% answered that they “rarely” or “never” do.
And so we are left with a harrowing thought. We cannot rely on governmental injunctions to save the planet or to curb the potential suffering of millions of people. Instead, we have to rely on ourselves and our fellow private citizens to work egoistically in to make the world a more habitable place for all. But how reassuring is this prospect, when most people don’t know what they should fear?
The obvious first step in rectifying this is to first look inward before attempting to increase awareness. In other words, make changes in your own daily lives first, before looking to others to do the same. Dr. Hankes suggested opting for LED light bulbs; Rockay suggests starting with something as simple laundry.
If we can’t have faith in government to solve this gargantuan crisis, or in those around us, we can at least take that first step and have faith in ourselves.
You can find the original study here.