Global Warming

This month, I interviewed my geography teacher, Mr Croker, on the topic of global warming. He said that the main cause of global warming is our dependancy on carbon rich fossil fuels. He mentioned that how importantly the concept of being eco-friendly would be judged by the country will depend on the type of country. For example, a country like the Netherlands which is developed and has moved away from large scale energy production can move away from fossil fuels and be more environmentally friendly. Developing countries will prioritise short term economic growth over being environmentally friendly which will be better in the long run. A rather surprising example of this was the US, who withdrew from the Paris agreement as Donald Trump prioritised America’s short term economic growth over the long term and he undid a lot of Barack Obama’s good work.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have said that they have a target of keeping warming well below two degrees and a target of one and a half degrees. I asked Mr Croker whether this was do-able in the near future, to which he replied by saying no. He explained that it won’t happen because too many countries are prioritising short term economic growth over what’s best for the environment and that it would be hard for a developed country to tell a developing country like India to keep carbon dioxide emissions low as they would be say that this is the way that the developed country has become rich and successful and they want to follow the same path to economic success.  

I asked Mr Croker how this problem could be fixed in developed countries at least and he replied by mentioning that consumers are becoming more aware of this problem and that consumers could do a lot more. However, for consumers to make these eco-friendly decisions, technology needs to improve and eco-friendly versions of things (e.g. cars) need to be cheaper to make citizens want to buy them.  If they were around a similar price they would be more attractive as eco-friendly ways are becoming more fashionable. Many governments don’t want to tax people for not being environmentally friendly, as they will be quite unpopular with citizens. However, governments can use more eco-friendly methods on a more consistent basis. People also need to be more aware of where their energy comes from and if they have the means to pay a little more for an eco-friendly energy supplier then they should do so. Even simple things like walking instead of using a car could help.