CLIMATE change is one of the most critical, but unfortunately most controversial, issues in the contemporary world. Regarding this, there are two schools of thought; one believing in its reality and the other not. However, there is ample evidence to support the former. Climate change is really happening. According to The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading body of the United Nations for the assessment of climate change, “scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.”
However, there are some skeptics who, having some misconceptions about the climate change, believe that it is nothing but ‘nonsense’. Calling it a myth, they even toil to undermine public trust in climate change. In this regard, some lobbies, e.g. fossil fuels lobby, in order to protect their vested interests, organize climate change-denial campaigns to disseminate disinformation. To top it all, they have been waging a climate war vigorously to block any progress on the issue of climate change. For instance, the world’s five largest public sector oil and gas companies reportedly spend around $200 million a year to lobby against actions on climate change.
Thus, due to such acts of the global army of climate deniers, the general populace that generally lacks understanding of climate science, receives mixed signals. They have, in their minds, some established myths regarding the climate change. In this regard, to dispel this uncertainty, some common myths about climate change, along with their rebuttal, are presented hereunder. To begin with, the climate change deniers argue that, being cold today, there is no global warming. Had the climate change been real, they argue, every day, or at least every year, would have been warmer than the previous one. However, it is, they say, not so and in fact, the days now are as cold as were in yesteryears, not noticing any change in weather outside the norm. However, short time period of a decade or so, admittedly, often gives the false impression that the Earth is not warming.
Indeed, it is pertinent to differentiate between weather and climate. They actually talk of weather, which one experiences on a daily basis, instead of climate, which is defined by long-term averages of climate metrics. Mind you, over the 20th century, global average surface temperature has clearly risen—according to IPCC report, global average surface temperature warmed by 0.85Ċ between 1880 and 2012. Moreover, climate change does not mean that every day will be warmer or cold days will not happen. It means warmer days are more likely to occur. Secondly, another myth is that, being a natural and dynamic process, climate is always changing, meaning nothing new in it. Protagonists of this myth argue that, like other natural processes such as continental drifts, mass extinction, passage of ice ages and volcanic eruptions, shifts in climate have been occurring throughout the history and it is a normal phenomenon.
However, they should heed to this: In recent decades, natural changes in climate have occurred little and, had it been the natural change alone, without the accumulation of man-made CO2, the Earth’s surface temperature, instead of warming, as is the case today, would have gone cold. Moreover, human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, have accelerated the rate of natural changes in climate. Resultantly, the kind of changes that would normally happen over hundreds of thousands of years are happening in decades now.
Proponents of climate change denial assert that by manipulating the climate change data, politicians exploit this issue for their political gains. However, this is not so, because had it only been a propaganda and had it been a “hoax”, as said by former US President, Donald J. Trump, the head of states of 147 nations and negotiators from 195 countries—at least not all of them propagandists—would not have participated in the 21st session of Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris (2015) to seek ways for limiting the global warming.
Moreover, hundreds of experts and scientists, who only believe in knowledge obtained through experiments and do not support any unfounded claims, regularly contribute to prepare the IPCC reports on climate change. For instance, the Special Report of IPCC on global warming in 2018 was prepared, according to Hoesung Lee, the chairman of IPCC, with the contribution of “thousands of experts” and scientists, consulting “more than 6,000 scientific references”.
Then there is another myth: Media uses the climate change issue exaggeratingly to have high Target Rating Points (TRPs). Climate change is hyped and sensationalized by the media houses, the skeptics claim, to attract more viewers and increase their TRP. However, by observing the journalistic ethics, most media outlets do not disseminate biased and unfounded news. Contrary to this, climate change deniers use media, especially social media, for disseminating disinformation. Data shows that about half the mainstream media visibility goes to climate change deniers, many of them not even climate change experts.
Last but by no means the least, another myth is that CO2 has little or no effect on global warming. The skeptics argue that, being in paltry amount of 0.04% in atmosphere, CO2 does not cause global warming and its role is needlessly exaggerated. However, to debunk this myth, the following example is adduced: “Fight or flight” response, an action that brings considerable changes in human body, is induced by a very meagre amount of 0.00000005% of Adrenaline hormone in the blood stream. It’s not about the amount; it’s about how much effect that amount creates. Thus, it can be inferred from the above discussion that climate change is really happening. This can be gauged from the fact that 99% of climate scientists agree that climate change is real. Thus, in lieu of 99%, how would one agree with only 1% people?
—The writer is gold medallist and serving as a Lecturer in KP government.
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