Introduction to Climate Change
Introduction to Climate Change
Climate change is a paradoxical subject. Whilst the best clinical information points to a clear danger towards the future of humanity, the political and public responses to this challenge have been relatively weak.
Many businesses accept that climate change is real but are looking forward to signals from governments before you make long-term investments in measures to address the danger. Meanwhile powerful forces, notably the polluting industries and fossil fuel sector, have deep vested interests in maintaining business-as-usual.
In industrialized countries, many individuals would rather think that climate change was not real than accept that their everyday lives must change to meet the danger. In nonindustrialized countries many individuals think that the climate is under divine control and that humans can not alter it.
Faced with these divergent views, journalists which report on climate change have complex work to do. They must understand the clinical, political, economic and societal dimensions of a fast moving story, and make it relevant to diverse audiences which may see climate change as unimportant or nonexistent.
The basic science is simple. Climate researchers demonstrate that gases such as for example skin tightening and, methane among others can trap heat into the Earth’s atmosphere – a sensation known as the greenhouse effect.
Human activities such as for example industry, transport, energy generation and deforestation all produce these greenhouse gases. […]