Cause and effect of global warming

Education plays a major role in society especially because it is used as a measure of intelligence that dictates what position one holds in the societal hierarchy. As such, schools are held in high regards as they are the institutions responsible for ensuring that every individual has access to good quality education. Through learning, people develop a better understanding of the environment around them, how to peacefully coexist as well as the impact that human activities have. On a topic like global warming for instance, understanding the cause, effect and prevention can greatly help to encourage people to develop lifestyles that cause the least harm to the environment. Although the topic on global warming has been a topic for public debate, there still exists a significant amount of people who fail to understand the importance of reducing human impact on global warming. This could be as a result of misinformation or misinterpretation of the information shared regarding global warming. although there exists a lot of information about global warming, the existence of elements and human activities that destroy the environment leading to global warming is as a result of the approach taken to share and interpret the information shared or taught to the public.

According to Suzanne Goldenberg (1) there exists a short shift that occurs when teaching the topic on global warming to students in public middle and high school and private middle and high school. The varying information has caused confusion when discussing the topic on climate change as students have varying opinions depending on what school they attend. In addition, students only spend about one or two hours of their academic year learning about global warming and how to prevent or control it. The information shared is however misleading or wrong and this has made it rather difficult to develop an actual image of what global warming is. Goldenberg (1) further revealed that 7% of teachers taught that global warming is as a result of natural causes; 4% of teachers opted not to teach about global warming; and 22% talked about the confusion that exist when trying to denote the cause and effects of global warming. although lessons focus on helping to create awareness on what global warming is, lack of consistency makes it difficult to understand the root of the problem.

Since students rely on schools to inform them of how to approach the actual world, varying arguments on a topic as important as global warming has greatly contributed to the confusion around how to control the amount of damage human beings cause to the environment. The lack of consistency has created an environment where efforts are focused on understanding global warming rather than seeking out ways to manage it (Meyer 1). On the one hand, there are those who believe that the changes that occur to the environment are naturally occurring and would take place even without human involvement. While human activities do contribute to the destruction of the environment, some of the changes are naturally occurring. Since the destruction of the environment is attributed to natural phenomenon, there are also those who believe that there is no need for human intervention because the natural occurrences will also repair the damages caused. in a case like the destruction of the ozone layer, the damage caused is as a result of impact from the sun as well as human activities (Meyer 1). The argument then holds that the earth is capable of repairing itself and while global warming is likely to have a big impact on our way of life, the harmful effects are likely to go away over time.

On the other hand, however, there are those who argue that the harmful effects of global warming are greatly as a result of human activities that destroy the environments sustainability. Human beings engage in activities that harm the environment such as the use of natural occurring materials and pollution in the form of emissions. The pollutants reach the atmosphere and cause destruction that attributes to global warming. although some occurrences occur naturally, human activities speed up the process and are therefore responsible for the destruction to the environment (Preston 1). The argument also holds that since human beings are responsible for a significant amount of destruction to the environment, reducing harmful human activities could help reduce global warming. the approach has led to the introduction of policies that seek to control the contribution that people make towards the climatic changes that are being experienced.

The lack of adequate information and also the occurrences where people are misinformed on the contribution that human activities play on the climatic changes being experienced is therefore the reason behind the confusion that revolves around global warming. since education is used to mirror society, varying information creates a scenario where people have varying opinions about society and how to go about enhancing sustainability (Baucom & Omelsky 1). Those that are of the opinion that the climatic changes being experienced is as a result of natural occurring phenomena are therefore less likely to engage in ways to reduce global warming resulting from human activities. This is especially because they also believe that the damage caused will repair itself over time through natural occurring processes (Goldenberg 1). Although some of the changes in the environment are attributed to human activities, those who have been taught to view climatic changes as a naturally occurring phenomena tend to consider human implications as insignificant to global warming. even if human activities that causes global warming were to be done away with, people would still experience changes from natural occurrences.

Other than the varying information that revolves around the topic of global warming, the content is also responsible for the attitude that people have towards global warming. despite the serious consequences that occur due to global warming, most of the research conducted only seeks to identify its cause and effect. A lot of research has been conducted to help identify how human activities and natural occurrences contribute to global warming. there is however little research on how to tackle the issues and come up with a way to reduce the damage that has already been caused. various recommendations have been made to try and come up with ways to reduce destruction of the environment (Meyer 1). Organizations have taken up initiatives to go green by reducing reliance on non-renewable sources of energy and raw materials. Governments have also implemented policies to regulate the amount of emissions released to the environment. Although such policies play a major role in reducing emission of pollutants, there is need for research that focuses on how people can help reduce destruction of the environment on an individual level (Meyer 1). Other than restricting factories and car emission, there lacks sufficient information on how to go about remedying the effect that has already been felt.

Information is an important factor in determining what measures to take in order to reduce global warming. the varying arguments on the topic is therefore as a result of the information that exists regarding global warming and also how people access the data. There is however a downside in that most of the information focuses on how human beings contribute to global warming. this is especially because the negative impacts are better understood by human beings. There is therefore the need for schools to focus on educating people on the changes that are attributed to natural occurring phenomena. Rather than having varying arguments, researchers should focus on creating information that is factual and reliable as this will ensure that people understand global warming. there is a cause and effect on access to information and how people approach the topic of climate change. If people have varying information, they are likely to disagree on how to go about resolving the problems faced. Exposing the relationship that exists between natural and man-made effects could therefore make it easier to understand global warming, its effects, and unite people together towards a common cause.

 

References

Baucom I and Omelsky M, “Knowledge in the age of climate change” 2017, South Atlantic          Quarterly

Goldenberg S, “Two thirds of US students are taught climate change badly, study finds” The             Guardian,2016, retrieved from,          https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/11/two-thirds-of-us-students-are-       taught-climate-change-badly-study-finds

Meyer, Warren “Understanding the global warming debate” Forbes, 2012, retrieved from,             https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenmeyer/2012/02/09/understanding-the-global-  warming-debate/#46f576cd3956

Preston C, “Teaching global warming in a charged political climate” 2019, retrieved from,             https://hechingerreport.org/teaching-global-warming-in-a-charged-political-climate/