Fr.
Damianus Abun, SVD, MBA, PhD
Divine Word College of Vigan, Philippine
Abstract:
Global warming is considered as an imminent danger to
humans’ life. It is an anthropogenic global warming, the product of human
attitude and behavior. Since it is anthropogenic global warming, solutions to
the problem cannot be just relied on pure science’s research recommendation but
all branches of sciences must conduct their own research and forward their
recommendations. This paper reflects the
understanding of human behavior from different sciences and the effect of human
behavior to the environment and their recommendations on how to reduce global
warming. Science alone can only explain the effect of global warming but it
cannot explain the root cause of global warming which are human’s attitude and
behaviors. Other sciences can explain the root causes of human behaviors.
Therefore, all branches of sciences must do their share in solving global
warming and this is what we are going to see in this paper.
Key
words: Global warming, comprehensive solution, carbon tax, philosophical solution,
theological solution, economic solution, science solution, political
solution.
Introduction
UN has been calling for
the global community to act against the increase of global warming and UN has
been calling for the pure scientists’ community to conduct researches and
propose solutions. We have been enjoying reading the result of their researches
such as researches conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, American
Scientist, Livescience and Planesave. Unfortunately
we seldom see or read how other social sciences reacted toward global warming
and how they proposed solutions to mitigate global warming. In this paper, the
writer would like to present how other social scientists reacted toward global
warming and their solutions on how to mitigate global warming.
As we all are aware
that global warming is a real threat to human life and if there is no human
intervention while it is still on the rise, then we can predict that in the
long run we will suffer extinction. Extinction will not be limited to human
beings but to all living creatures on earth. Because of its imminent danger to
human life, everyone should be looking for solution how to mitigate its impact.
This is the reason why the writer set aside his time to write this paper. However, doing it alone cannot help
mitigating the global warming. There must be comprehensive approach to solve
global warming. Thus recommendations should not be coming only from the economists
and pure scientists but all other branches of social sciences have to take part
in solving global warming. Therefore, this
paper will present solutions, not only from economic perspectives and pure
science’s recommendations but also from philosophical and theological point of
view.
Different discipline
has been trying to research the causes and how to solve the problem. From
discussions, all researchers agree that the cause of global warming is man-made
or it is anthropogenic global warming. Since it is anthropogenic global
warming, therefore things that affect human behaviors must be examined. It is
here we cannot ignore the role of other social sciences such as sociology,
anthropology, philosophy, theology and political science to analyze the causes
of human behavior and how they offer solution to mitigate destructive human
behavior. Therefore relying solely on
the recommendations of the economists and pure scientists may not be enough. Without
denying the usefulness of scientists’ and economists’ recommendations, the
writer believes that it will not be enough if climate change is viewed from economic
and pure science’s perspective only. Since problem is anthropogenic, then it
will be interesting to find out how other social sciences offer solutions to
mitigate global warming.
In my previous
arguments published in google scholar on how to solve environmental problem, I have
argued that solving environmental problem is to change our culture or our attitude
toward the environment. The way how we view the environment and how we relate
to the environment affects our behavior toward the environment. Negative
behavior toward the environment is originated from negative attitude toward
environment. If the person have negative attitude toward the environment, the behavior will follow. If the person perceives the environment as object to be exploited,
then the person will use the environment as object to satisfy his/her desires
but if he/she sees the environment as subject as human being, then the person
will respect the environment as he /she respects himself or herself. He/she
will take care of the environment because the person recognizes mutual
relationship between himself/herself and the environment. According to Martin
Buber as cited by Friedman, (1955) that human problems happen because of
manipulative relationship in which, there is no genuine or subject to subject
relationship but subject and object relationship. In this case, human beings are
the only ones considered to be subjects and the environment is object. Such
attitude destroys the relationships and harmony with the environment.
Understanding
Global warming
Years ago, many of us
thought of global warming as something that would happen “someday.” Now it is
no longer in the wild dream, “someday” but it is here. We’re already
experiencing the point when scientists said years ago that climate change could
tip toward catastrophe, with sea levels rising faster along our coasts, and
storms growing more powerful, and droughts and other forms of extreme weather
more disruptive. Those predictions are slowly happening. We have seen rising
sea levels in some parts of the globe, powerful storms, landslides, and long
droughts. Those are the effect of global warming that has been predicted by
scientists long ago.
Global warming is the
term used to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the
Earth's atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently
changing the Earth’s climate. Scientists have conducted
researches to determine the causes of global warming and how to control it.
They have looked at the natural cycles and events that are known to influence
climate. However, the amount and pattern of warming that's been measured can't
be explained by these factors alone. According to the pure scientists that the
only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases
emitted by humans (National Geographic, 2016). The U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Academy of Sciences,
and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have each
independently concluded that warming of the climate system in recent decades is
"unequivocal (EPA, 2013). There is real increase of earth's average
surface temperature because of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide
emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that
would otherwise escape from Earth. This is a type of greenhouse effect (New Mexico Solar Energy Association, 2013).
According to Gillis, (2015) as of October 2015, the Earth had warmed by about
1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, when records begin at a global scale. He
cautions us that the number may sound low but as an average over the surface of
an entire planet, it is actually high, which explains why much of the world’s
land ice is starting to melt and the oceans are rising at an accelerating pace.
He pointed out that the main cause is greenhouse gases. If emissions continue
unchecked, global warming could ultimately exceed 8 degrees Fahrenheit, which
would transform the planet and undermine its capacity to support a large human
population.
With the temperature
keeps on increasing, the world is getting hotter and hotter every year. We have
seen such changes. Some places where they were used to be cold but now it is no
longer the same. Scientists have tracked the average trend of global warming
around the globe. Though warming has not been in uniform across the planet, every
places have different level of temperature but the upward trend in globally
average temperature shows that more areas are warming than cooling and there an
increasing trend. The increasing temperature does not happen only on the land
but even on the sea. According to the study of Dahlman (2016), since 1976 every
year including 2015 has had average global temperature warmer than long term
average. Over this 38-year period, temperature warmed at an average of 0.50 °F (0.28 °C) per decade over land
and 0.22 °F (0.12 °C) per decade over the ocean. For the last 50 years, global temperature rose at
an average rate of about 0.13°C (around one-quarter degree Fahrenheit) per
decade—around twice as fast as the 0.06°C per decade increase observed over the
previous half-century. The same study predicted that in the next 20 years, scientists
forecast that global average temperature will rise by around 0.2°C (about
one-third of a degree Fahrenheit) per decade (Dahlman, 2016). Based on the
graph presented by Dahlman (2016), it shows that since 1976 the trend of global
warming has been growing up even up to 2020. The increasing trend is alarming
and it needs uncompromising intervention from different sectors, government and
individual persons. The role of individual persons would be to conduct
researches and present their output on how to mitigate global warming.
Cause
of Global Warming: Anthropogenic
Who is to be blamed?
Human beings are to be blamed. Human beings’ ignorance and greed is the main
culprit. Human activities are the source of global warming. The studies have
determined that the increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases are released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture,
and other human activities. These are believed to be the primary sources of the
global warming that has occurred over the past 50 years (Livescience, 2016). As
pointed out by the study of Livescience (2016), Planetsave has confirmed the
same causes of global warming. Planetsave conducted similar research and has
determined several global warming causes: 1,
Carbon dioxide emissions from
fossil fuel burning power plants. According to Planetsave (2016), our addiction
to electricity is one of the main causes of global warming. It contributes 40%
of the global warming (EPA, 2016). The burning power plants
release enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Not only are
power plants, even industrial operations around the globe powered by fossil
fuel. Businesses, offices, homes and manufacturing companies rely heavily on
the fossil fuels. In short, the economy is powered by fossil fuels. Thus if we
can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide by reducing the dependence on fossil
fuel and use the alternative fuel, then we can control the increase of global
warming. 2. Transportation. Human
beings want to enjoy comfortable life and one of the significant parameters of
comfortable life is driving our own car. Such mindset nevertheless has caused
troubles to our own life. Our addictions to buy new cars, motorcycles
that are fueled by fossil fuels are the second in line that causes global
warming. According to the data generated from EPA (2016), cars contribute 33%
to the global warming. The more we buy cars, the more we contribute to global
warming. In other words, we can reduce global warming if we use bicycle going
to our offices. 3. Methane. Methane
emissions from animals, agriculture such as rice paddies, and from Arctic sea
beds or the floor of the sea around Antarctica (American Scientists, 2016) is
the third place as the source of global warming (Planetsave, 2016), it is the
ranked behind the CO2. According to the study, when organic matter is
broken down by bacteria under oxygen-starved conditions as in rice paddies,
methane is produced. The process also takes place in the intestines of
herbivorous animals, and with the increase in the amount of concentrated
livestock production, the levels of methane released into the atmosphere is
increasing. The more we raise animals particularly cows, chickens, then the
more we produce methane. Another source of methane is methane clathrate, a
compound containing large amounts of methane trapped in the crystal structure
of ice. As methane escapes from the Arctic seabed, the rate of global warming
will increase significantly, (Planetsave, 2016, American Scientist, 2016,
IFLSCIENCE, 2016). According to the study, the Artic sea ice decline
accelerates methane emission and it is expected that with further sea ice
decline, temperature in the Arctic will continue to rise and so will methane
emissions. 4. Deforestation. It is
the removal of the forest or trees where the land is converted to a non-forest
use. According to a study, deforestation has been accelerated and the study
estimated that about half of the Earth's mature tropical forest has
been destroyed (Maycock, 2016). Firewood,
farmland, plantation, mining and paper products are contributing to the global
warming. Forests remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,
and this deforestation releases large amounts of carbon, as well as reducing
the amount of carbon capture on the planet (Planetsave, 2016)). 5. Fertilizer. The increase number of
population will also require the increase of supply of food or the increase of
production. To increase the production, it needs fertilization. Since the
fertilization of the original soil has been decrease due to deforestation and thus
to maintain or to increase the production, fertilizer is needed. This is
another source of the tragedy. The high rate of application of nitrogen-rich
fertilizers has effects on the heat storage of cropland (nitrogen oxides have
300 times more heat-trapping capacity per unit of volume than carbon dioxide)
and the run-off of excess fertilizers creates dead zones in our oceans. In
addition to these effects, high nitrate levels in groundwater due to
over-fertilization are cause for concern for human health (Planetsave, 2016).
As we look at the main
causes of global warming, it is really anthropogenic global warming or man-made
global warming. Thus the control is still within human attitude. We
have no doubts that undetermined human greediness, human desires and comfort is
the main cause of the global warming. If human beings are ruled and controlled
by their greediness, desires and comfort, then global warming will be
unstoppable. Thus relying on the
solution given by the scientists may not be enough to solve the problem. Since
it is anthropogenic, then the solution must be looked into the things that
affect human behavior such as social, cultural, political, and economic factors
and in this case, it is not just one solution given by scientists but how other
social sciences see the problems and their solutions. The solutions may not be
necessarily all external to human beings but it may also call for change in
human mind sets.
The bottom lines of the
reasons of using fossil fuels are for the increase of production in a short
period of time, greediness for more and more and comfortable life. The real
expression of human greediness is capitalism. According to Peet (2007) the root
cause of global warming is the capitalist mode of production and consumptions.
However, though people have seen capitalist as the root cause, but
unfortunately people have just taken it as a given, an inevitably that we
cannot get rid of it but only can reform.
As a result of such view, people and government proposes solutions which
is nothing more than to greenwash capitalism in the sense that the businesses
are required to cut greenhouses gas emission via strategy cab and trade. By
giving this solution, it is not to eliminate fossil fuels but to reduce to a
certain level. In other words, capitalism is a given mode of economy that we
cannot remove though it is dangerous to human survival.
The fundamental causes of undetermined human greediness, desires and comfort
is culture. Global warming is a product of human activities or human attitude
and behavior. Human behavior is a product of attitude. Attitude is a product of
culture or social upbringing. The behavior is a manifestation of culture. When I was a child, I was told by my parents
not to cut the big trees because it is the house of the ghost, much more when
there is a spring of water under the tree. It is already holy ground, not be
touched because one can get sick if he/she cuts the tree near the water spring.
It never came to my mind as a child about the science of tree and its
relationship with water, however, such kind of old education or upbringing
affects my behavior toward the tree. It is only later when I enter the school
that I realize about the science of tree and water. The point that I want to
raise here is that culture affects the way how see and treat the environment. In
functionalist thinking, culture is considered a component of an integrated
social system which promotes the effectiveness of the organization and the
well-being of all its stakeholders. Culture refers to the assumptions, beliefs,
goals, knowledge and values that are shared by members of the society. British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1874)
attempted to define culture as inclusively as possible. He argued that culture
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture
represents the high-information “ideal factors” in a system that exerts
significant and partly independent influence on human events or human
behaviors. When an individual is faced with an ethical dilemma, his or her
value system will color the perception of the ethical ramifications of the
situation (Racelis, 2009). The finding of Racelis indicates
the role values in influencing the views and action of people. Culture really
plays an important role in influencing human behavior. There are two good concepts of
culture presented by two well-known people whom we should know and they are
Geert Hofstede and Edgar Schein. Geert Hofstede as cited by Brown (1995)
defined a very common set of models for cultures. Edgar Schein (1994) is an
authority on a several topics and has written one of the best books on organizational
culture. Their concepts point out that human mind and behavior is formed by
culture.
“Culture is the collective programming of the human mind
that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another.
Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values.” -- Geert
Hofstede
“Culture is
the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of
an organization that operate unconsciously and define in a basic ‘taken for
granted’ fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment.” -- Edgar
Schein
Based on the definition given by the two
anthropologists, culture is about values and belief systems that are shared by
people and have influenced the mind of people and their behavior. As we have
argued that global warming is a product of culture which affects human
behavior, and therefore solving environmental problem and global
warming cannot be just relied on the solution given by the pure scientists but
other social sciences too such as anthropology, philosophy, theology, economy
and political science.
Another form of culture
is view or the way how people see the environment. In the Dialogue of Marthin
Buber as cited by Friedman (1955) Marthin Buber placed environment not as
object but a dialogue partner, that human being are not only in dialogue with
God and with another human being but also in dialogue with the world, the
environment. The dialogue with the environment is a silent dialogue. Though the
environment does not speak literally to human beings but he/she tells the human
to listen and give attention to him/her. By putting environment into a dialogue
partner of human being, Buber had elevated the status of environment, not
anymore as object but is at par with human beings. In this case, there should
be no hierarchy or dominion but it’s a creative interactions and communion
between humanity and non-human nature (Bookchin, 2005). The human being must
treat the environment, not as object but as subject just as a human person. In
other words human being must respect the environment as he/she respects
himself/herself. Both are equal as the creation of God and human beings are not
master but steward. According to Marthin Buber, problems happen when the
relationship is no longer as subject and subject but more on subject and object
relationship. In this case problems happen when the relationship between human being
and environment is more as subject and object relationship, in the sense that
human use the environment as a means to his/her satisfaction of the desires or treat
the environment as object that satisfies human’s greediness. Human desires or
greediness is undetermined, unlimited. Arthur Schopenhauer (1969) argued that
the behavior of human being is influenced by their will. The will is defined as
irrational urges or desires. The will or desire is perpetually striving to
achieve satiation. It continues to work to achieve its satiation but it can
never achieve its satiation. According to Schopenhauer, the product of the will
or desire is human suffering and he pointed out that the phenomenal world is
the product of a malignant metaphysical will that perpetually strives to
achieve satiation. In short, he is telling us that global warming is just the
product of unregulated desires. It is
here Kickpatrick Sale (2000) insisted that the earth must be recognized as
living creature and respected and revered as such. Human must be dwellers in
the land, fully aware of the intricacies of their native ecosystem and limits
of natural resources. Pope Benedict the XVI reminds the dwellers of this planet
that Christ’s incarnation and his teaching testify to the value of nature:
nothing that exists in this world is outside the Divine plan of creation and
redemption (Bricker, 2012). This reminder recalls what Marthin Buber (1955) had
said that human beings and environment are all God’s creation and at par and
should be treated respectfully as human beings and proper relationship must be
accorded. The relationship between human beings and environment must be between
I-Thou or subject to subject relationship and not I-It or subject to object
relationship.
The reminder of Pope
Benedict the XVI brings us to the role of religion. Religion is part of culture
and it has very crucial role in the formation of beliefs, values, attitudes and
behaviors of its followers. In The Ten Commandments for the Environment, Pope
Benedict the XVI brought us to the Genesis 1:27-31. After God created man in
his image, in the divine image, he created him, male and female He created them
(Gen. 1:28). After that, Genesis 1: 29 “God blessed them, saying: be fertile
and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the
sea, the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the
ground, I give all the green plants for food”. Genesis 1:27-31 has been taken
independently without referring to Genesis 2:15 which said, “The Lord God then
took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for
it”. People and particularly the capitalists have been using the bible text to
justify their behaviors toward the environment. Pope Benedict the XVI have
lamented that God’s original command to “have dominion over the earth has been sorely
corrupted and misunderstood. According to him that the task of “subduing” it
was never intended to as an order to enslave it but rather as a task of being
guardians of creation and developing its gifts, of actively collaborating in
God’s work ourselves, in the evolution that he ordered in the world so that the
gifts of creation might be appreciated rather than trampled upon and destroyed.
Pope Benedict emphasized that Christian and non-Christians alike are created to
be caregivers, stewards, champions of God’s creation, not despotic rulers.
Genesis 2:15 reminds us that we are not God but stewards and caregivers
(Bricker, 2012). Pope Francis (2015) in his “Laudato Si” argued that the earth
was there before us and it has been given to us to till and keep. Tilling
refers to cultivating, while keeping refers to caring, protecting and
preserving. He lamented that the wrong interpretation of the word, “subdue” and
“dominion” has let us to the unbridled exploitation of the nature.
Part of the culture is
political culture. Political culture refers to the process of making uniform
decisions applying to all members of a group. Often time to reach a uniform
decision, it needs negotiation with other political parties. Undeniably that politics
in many circumstances is influenced by certain interest. Laws are proposed to
protect one’s interest. It is here the difficulty of coming up with a common
agreement or decision. As a consequence of this kind of political practices,
laws that are supposed to be needed in curbing the increase of global warming
are reached but slowly. Political bickering among political parties undermines
the urgency of global warming. Take an example from America, that between 2006
and 2007, at the beginning, key Republicans and Democrats worked together to
advocate climate change legislation but starting in 2008, Republican
anti-environmental voting increased progressively, hitting its peak in 2010.As
a consequence, media coverage of Al Gore's documentary faded (Castro, 2012). The
same true with other countries, that laws to protect the environment become
slow because lawmakers are divided over the issue.
The
Effect of Global Warming
The effect of global
warming is what we experience now. The number one immediate effect of global
warming is the increase in average
temperatures and temperature extremes around the world. Though the
scientists have no common way of determining the average increase of global
temperature, but all of them agree that there have been tremendous increase in
global warming. According to Gillis (2015) since 1880 up to 2015, the
temperature has the average increase of 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit. However,
according to Bradford (2014) cited from NOAA (2014) that the average global
temperature has increased by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius)
over the past 100 years. Both findings, though they are different but it is
still pointing out the same trend of the increase of temperature. Second effect
of global warming is the rise of sea
level. As the temperature increases, then the ice is melted and as a result,
the sea level increases too. In 2014, the World Meteorological Organization
reported that sea level rise accelerated .12 inches (3 millimeters) per year on
average worldwide (Bradford, 2014). Other scientists predict an increase in sea
levels worldwide due to the melting of two massive ice sheets in Antarctica and
Greenland, especially on the East Coast of the U.S (Planetsave, 2016). Third
consequence of global warming is the extinction
of animal and plants. It is not
impossible to predict that rising temperature can cause the extinction of
animals and plants. When this happens, then human being can be affected because
we can’t exist without a diverse population of species on Earth, and this is
scary news for human beings. Human beings are part of earth’s community and
other living organisms on earth are part of the members of the community.
Humans’ life depends on other members of the community. According to
scientists, the effects of global warming, if left unchecked, will likely
contribute to the disappearance of up to one-half of Earth's plants and
one-third of animals from their current range by 2080, as reported in the
journal, Nature Climate Change (2013).
Fourth effect of global warming is agriculture. The impact of long period of drought is
agriculture. Long period of drought can cause the decrease of lower groundwater
tables and loss of arable land and finally lead to crop failure. Crop failure
threatens food security and therefore, it will lead to the fifth effect is social security. One of the main causes of
criminalities in different countries is poverty. Poverty causes people to eat
less and less because food available in the market is getting expensive because
of the short supply of food. This situation will be escalated by the continuous
global warming. The scientists, as reported by Bradford (2014) in Livescience,
predicted that the loss of food security may, in turn, create havoc in
international food markets and could spark famines, food riots, political
instability and civil unrest worldwide.
Taken as a whole from
the published researches done by scientists, it tells us that net damage cost
of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase every time if
there is no strong human intervention in preventing its rise. The effect that
we experience now such as the increase of temperature, loss of the sea ice,
heat waves, and increase sea level may become worst if human beings or the
government continues to ignore it. Scientists have high confidence that global
temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to
greenhouse gases produced by human activities. Preventing its
rise should not only be the job of pure scientists but all branches of science
must be able to do their researches and forward their recommendations on how to
mitigate the global warming.
Comprehensive
Solution to Global Warming
As we have presented in
the different causes of global warming, we are reminded that global warming is
not just caused by the lack of knowledge on science but it is also caused by
culture. Culture has formed human attitude and behavior. Different unit of
cultures has shaped the beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors of a human
person. Based on such premise, we are convinced that there is no single
solution to the problem because human behaviors are caused by different
factors, not only because of the ignorance of pure science. Scientists have
been forwarding their recommendations to the public, to the government to
implement their recommendations but those recommendations are not really
addressing the root causes of human behaviors which are cultures. Thus science’s
recommendation becomes incomplete when it is not accompanied by the
recommendation of other social sciences.
It seems that the recommendations given by pure science works slowly and
has not been able to mitigate the increase of the global warming significantly.
I believe that the reason why those recommendations are not really working, not
only because of limited financial resources but because those solutions are not
really touching the core of human problem which is the culture. That is why in
this paper I argue that the solution to the problem should not only be taken from
the pure science point of view alone but how other branches of sciences look at
the root cause of the problem. We all agree that human beings are causing
global warming, but the solutions often do not touch the main culprit which is
culture. Since there are a lot of different causes of global warming, thus the
solution to global warming should not only come from pure science but also from
other social sciences. Social sciences should be included because human
behaviors are influenced by the culture of society such as politics, economic,
religion, philosophy, and sociology. They are all important
factors influencing human behaviors and they should be part in planning for the
future.
a.
Scientists’ solution to the global warming
Union of Concerned
Scientists (2011), in their journal, Climate
Hot Map presented several recommendations on how to address the global
warming. They presented eight technological approaches on how to solve the
global warming. First is boosting energy efficiency.
It is time to design new technology that will allow us to use less or even no
fossil fuels to get the same or higher level of production, service and
comfort. One example of this technology is solar power energy, or water power
energy. Second is greening transportation.
Transportation has been the second in rank in contributing to the global
warming. Variety of solutions are at hand, including improving efficiency of public
transportation so that people are encouraged to use public transportation, cars
that can travel miles per gallon, switching to low-carbon fuels, solar power
car and reducing vehicle miles traveled through smart growth and using bicycle.
Third
is Reviving up renewables.
Multiple studies have shown that renewable energy has the technical
potential to meet the vast majority of our energy needs. Renewable technologies
can be deployed quickly, are increasingly cost-effective, and create jobs while
reducing pollution. Fourth is phasing
out fossil fuel electricity. Reducing the use of fossil
fuel can help reduce the global warming. Key action steps include: not
building any new coal-burning power plants, initiating a phased shutdown of
coal plants starting with the oldest and dirtiest, and capturing and storing
carbon emissions from power plants. Fifth
is managing forests and agriculture. We
can fight global warming by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation and by making our food production practices more sustainable. Sixth is exploring nuclear power.
According the scientists, nuclear power results in few global warming
emissions, an increased share of nuclear power in the energy mix could help
reduce global warming. But this solution poses threat. Fukushima Diaichi plant
in Japan illustrates to our health and the environment problems. Seventh is Developing
and deploying new low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies. Future studies on technology
that introduces low carbon and zero carbon technology is crucial to lower gas
emission. Eighth is ensuring sustainable development. Sustainable development
can only happen if all countries have the same capability in terms of financial
resources and technology. Thus the rich country must help the poor countries to
fight against global warming. Seventh is
eat less meat particularly beef. According to another study conducted by
Union of Concerned Scientist (2012) that our meat choices have direct
implications for the world forest and climate. The study pointed out that
producing meat particularly beef requires large amount of land. The forests are
often burned in order for the new grass to grow to feed the cows.
Another study conducted by Scientific American (2007)
proposed several solutions on how to mitigate global warming and its solutions
include: forgoing fossil fuel, staying more closely to workplace to avoid using
private transportation, consuming less, going vegetarian, unplugging, and family
planning. Additional to these
recommendations include avoiding using plastic bags, raising worms in your
backyards so that they can eat the left overs such as sandwich
crust and apple cores from the garbage and turning them into compost
(Livescience, 2009).
b.
The Economists solution to the Global Warming: Carbon Tax, Green Technology and
Financial subsidy
As I have emphasized in
early part of this paper that there is no one to be blamed for the global
warming except human beings themselves. That is why many scientists define the
current geological era as the “anthropocence- the age of human (Steiner, 2014).
Human activities have changed the face of the planet. The CO2 and
greenhouse gas emissions are the product of human activities. These human
activities are caused by human desires to be in power, in control and to have a
“good life” in a narrow sense. Nowadays, power and control is equivalent to
money and so the more money you have, the powerful you become (The Economists,
2014). As Trent Hamm (2009) argued that the real reason why people want to be
rich is not for them to be able to buy things they want in life but they just
want to have power over others. According to him, people want influence and
respect and they see that people with money have influence and respect and so
they seek money. To have more money is either to go into politics or into
lucrative business. One of the lucrative businesses is mining. Many have become
rich because of mining business (Robinson, 2015). Definitely the ultimate
source of all raw materials for all human luxurious life is coming from the
earth. And these human desires are crystallized in the linear economic system: we
extract, produce, consume, and discard. We extract more and more by
exploiting the environment through mining because human have unlimited desires
to have more and more at the expense of the environment. Steiner (2014)
proposed that in order to reverse the situation, it is necessary for us to
change, and we need to start by evolving our economic paradigm in terms of
transition to green economy. Green
economy is not to deprive human’s good life but to improve human well-being and
social equity while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological
scarcities. In other words, the green economy will depend on low-carbon,
resource-efficient and social inclusive. Steiner pointed out how green economy
looks like. It is the economy in which income, growth and employment is driven
by public and private investment that reduces carbon emission and pollution,
enhance energy and resource efficiency and prevent the loss of biodiversity and
the ecosystem services of clean air, clean water and healthy soils.
Another problem that causes
global warming is migration of population from rural areas to the cities. This
is due to concentrated economic activities in the cities. According to a study
conducted by The New Climate Economy (2015) that by
year 2050, there will be more 2 billion people are expected to stream into
urban areas. And by mid-century, two-thirds of the global population will live
in cities, and 90 percent of that urban growth will be in developing countries. As a
consequence of such movement is that there will be a lot of superhighways for a
lot of personal vehicles to drive to lots of distant energy-inefficient
suburbs, resulting in less productivity because of traffics, more time are on
the road than in the office, more air pollution and higher greenhouse gas
emissions (Steer, 2014). To reduce the impact of crowded cities where the
populations are depending on private transportation, the leaders should create
a compact and connected communities with public transport as an essential
component. This compact, connected approach to urbanization could cut
infrastructure capital requirements. Instead of building more roads connected
to different communities, the government just spend money building public
transportation road such as train. Thus, there is also a need to design
lower-carbon landscape to curb the global temperature. Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hong Kong and
Singapore have all shown that with more efficient design and sustained
investment in public transport, urban economies can grow while dramatically
cutting greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Another simple
solution to avoid crowded cities is to distribute the industries to the different
rural areas.
Reducing down gas emission takes
a lot of concerted effort. In other words, it takes a common stand and
determination to reduce global warming. However such effort demands a lot of
money for doing the research and develops a technology and many developing countries
have no enough money to conduct research and develop technology. It is here
concerted effort bogs down and it becomes a mere idea. In order to gain such
concerted effort, Larry Summers (2016), former Chief Economist of the World
Bank proposed three strategies, first,
as
the G20 vowed in 2009, there needs to be a concerted phase out of fossil fuel
subsidies. This would help government budgets, drive increases in economic
efficiency and substantially reduce global emissions. Second, there needs to be assurance of adequate funding for all
areas of basic energy research and developing new technology. The second
recommendation suggests that financial help is given to all countries that are
committed to bring down gas emission. Third,
there is a strong case for concerted carbon taxes to further discourage
greenhouse gas emissions. But this can be done after the elimination of fossil fuel
subsidies. This last recommendation suggests that private cars and other forms
of private transportation that use fossil fuel should be taxed and I believe
that people will be discouraged from buying and keeping more cars. Along that
recommendation, Canuto (2016), Senior Adviser and former Vice President of
the World Bank also suggested that fossil fuel must be taxed
proportionately to the amount of carbon they release. Zhang (2016)
also recommended that it is necessary in the future to create incentives for
clean energy, appropriate tax and pricing policy for energy use and emissions. Carbon
tax is to encourage polluters to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas they emit
into the atmosphere. According to those economists that we have just mentioned,
introducing carbon tax is the single most effective way for countries to reduce
their emissions (Bowen, 2016). By doing that and all together can contribute to
reducing gas emission and help curb the global warming. Bowen argued that carbon tax not only has the
effect of encouraging lower –carbon behavior but also raises money that can be
used in part to finance a clean-up of "dirty" activities. With
a carbon tax in place, the costs of stopping climate change are distributed
across generations rather than being borne overwhelmingly by future generations.
Along
those ideas, carbon tax has been practiced by the UK government
and as a result of their practice, their experience, the UK government
recommended that this practiced can be applied worldwide (Fankhauser, 2014). However, according to Tabarrok
(2016), such recommendation cannot just be applied in other countries because
carbon tax is a political will. Laws have to be passed along that line.
Further, a carbon tax will be more politically acceptable if technologies to
avoid the tax are in existence before the tax is put into place. Thus there is
a need for the government to provide financial support to conduct research and
develop new green technology is the priority before imposing carbon tax.
The problem
exist when the supply of the new energy is not enough which will push the price
up and people cannot afford to buy. That is why Lomborg (2016) doubts if the
effort to eliminate fossil fuel will be successful when the price of the green
energy is more expensive that fossil fuel. According to him, the only way to
move towards a long-term reduction in emissions is if green energy becomes much
cheaper. If it cost less than fossil fuels, everyone would switch, including
the Chinese. However, it is only a matter of supply. When the supply will be
enough, then the price will go down. This, of course, requires breakthroughs in
green technologies and much more innovations. In this case, it is necessary
that the government of each country should increase investment in in green
research and development. This is the problem that is faced by poor countries.
The call on
reducing gas emission by switching to green energy falls on deaf ear in the
poor countries because of financial constraints and technology. To ensure the
success of switching to green energy, the developed countries must help the
developing countries financially and technologically. Canuto (2016) suggested
that funding in favor of more climate-friendly technological innovations have
to be prioritized. Subsidies to these innovations, as well as to avoid
deforestation would also help, as potential benefits of these mitigating
factors would in turn become appropriately embedded in their reduced costs. Cowen
(2016) also pointed out that subsidies for technology could occur at a very
basic level and we could make a gamble that nuclear fusion will finally pay
off. There is a need for green
technology that will fit into existing energy infrastructures and into
countries which do not have the most reliable institutions. He added that the
most likely scenario is that we will find out just how bad the climate change
problem is slated to be.
c. Political
solution to Global warming: political will to Create and Implement
Environmental Laws.
The
government has the power and they have the solutions to the global warming. It
is only a matter of political will, in the sense that government has
determination to fight against the increase of global warming. They have the
power to create laws that regulate the gas emission and to regulate how to
conduct business operation that protects the environment. The government can
propose laws on tax incentive to businesses that is environmentally green, laws
that limit the carbon dioxide. There can be a lot of kinds of political
intervention on the part of government to protect the environment and reduce
the global warming. These can include actions that are not tolerating
individuals who are against environmental laws and activities that improve
awareness of members of the community.
As we have mentioned
above under the economists solution to the global warming, the government needs
to introduce laws that require the industries and individual persons to pay for
the carbon emission. The business community and individual persons who are
using fossil fuels that generate electricity, power their vehicles, and heat
their homes have to be taxed equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide
emissions they release to the atmosphere. That must be part of business permit.
When the government process the business permit, the government should take
into considerations the carbon emission produced by such business and determine
the relevant amount of emission and corresponding tax must be charged to the
business. Tax incentive should be given to the business and individual persons
who are able to find ways to reduce gas emission. Even when the individual
persons buy a car, the government should consider the amount of emission they
release and compute corresponding tax to private transportation. Union of The
Concerned Scientists (2016) argue that carbon pricing is considered a powerful,
efficient, and flexible tool for helping to address climate change, and this
recommendation has been supported by an
array of experts, businesses, investors, policymakers, civil society groups,
states, and countries. Based on the report of the World Bank (2015), the
following countries have been adopting solutions ranging from carbon tax, emission
trading system (ETS), and carbon pricing mechanism (CPM). The
growth of carbon pricing around the world has been substantial.
The following are the countries that have
made policies to reduce the gas emission. Based on the indicated years, it
shows that some countries have already implemented long time ago and some
countries have just started, while the others will start soon. Finland carbon
tax (1990 ), Poland carbon tax (1990 ), Sweden carbon tax (1991), Norway carbon
tax (1991),Denmark carbon tax (1992), Latvia carbon tax (1995), Slovenia carbon
tax (1996) Estonia carbon tax (2000), EU ETS (2005), Alberta SGER (2007)
Switzerland ETS (2008) New Zealand ETS (2008) BC carbon tax (2008), Switzerland
carbon tax (2008) RGGI (2009),Ireland carbon tax (2010) Iceland carbon tax
(2010) Tokyo CaT (2010) Saitama ETS (2011) Kyoto ETS (2011) California CaT
(2012) Australia CPM (2012 - 2014), Japan carbon tax (2012) Québec CaT (2013)
Kazakhstan ETS (2013), UK carbon price floor (2013), Shenzhen Pilot ETS
(2013), Shanghai Pilot ETS (2013), Beijing
Pilot ETS (2013), Tianjin Pilot ETS (2013), Guangdong Pilot ETS (2013), Hubei
Pilot ETS (2014), Chongqing Pilot ETS (2014), France carbon tax (2014), Mexico
carbon tax (2014) Korea ETS (2015) Portugal carbon tax (2015), South Africa
carbon tax (2016), Chile carbon tax
(2017). If all the countries will follow the same steps, then it is not
impossible that global warming can be solved.
Efforts to increase
awareness of the danger of climate change and efforts to reduce global warming have
been initiated in the international level. The United Nations Climate Change
Conference has established UNFCCC (The
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change) during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janairo in 1992. The
objective is to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the
climate system (UNFCCC, 1992). The parties of the convention recognized that change in
the Earth's climate and its adverse effects are a common concern of humankind,
and human
activities have been substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of
greenhouse gases, that these increases enhance the natural greenhouse effect, and
that this will result on average in an additional warming of the Earth's
surface and atmosphere and may adversely affect natural ecosystems and
humankind. They admitted that global emissions of greenhouse gases have
originated in developed countries. However, global nature of climate change
calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their
participation in an effective and appropriate international response, in
accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective
capabilities and their social and economic conditions.
The United Nations
Climate Change Conference has called for international conventions to monitor
the progress of The UNFCCC among the participated countries. Last year 2015, the UNCCC had conducted international
conference held in Paris which is the 21 first yearly session of the Conference
of the Parties (COP 21) to follow
up the progress on the implementation of the resolutions made in the UNFCCC
(1992). The Conference of the Parties (COP, 2015) in its 21st
session in Paris had decided to adopt the Paris Agreement under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change particularly the agenda on “Transforming
our world”. The Paris Agreement invites
the Secretary General to convene a high level signature ceremony for the
Agreement on 22 April 2016 and invites all Parties to the Convention to sign
the Agreement at the ceremony to be convened by the Secretary General, or at
their earliest opportunity, and to deposit their respective instruments of
ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, where appropriate, as soon as
possible. The Paris Agreement (2015)
recognized the need for an effective and progressive response
to the urgent threat of climate change on the basis of the best available
scientific knowledge, while at the same time recognizing the specific needs and
special circumstance of developing countries particularly those that are
vulnerable to the adverse effect of climate change. The
Parties of the Paris Agreement have agreed to ensure the highest possible
mitigation efforts in the pre-2020 period. The Paris Agreement had recognized
too that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible
threat to human societies and the planet and thus requires the widest possible
cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and
appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction
of global greenhouse gas emission. The climate change is a common concern of
humankind and therefore parties should take action to address the climate
change (UNFCCC, 2015).
Parties to the Conventions
include Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark Estonia, European Union, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland and United States of America (United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, 2015). Most of the country members are coming
from European countries and only few coming from Asia.
As we have pointed out that global climate
change is a common concern, it is not just the concern of the countries
participated in the UNFCCC and those joined in the Paris Conference but it is
the concern of all countries. The effect of global warming is not limited to
the member countries but it affects all countries on the planet. Thus, the
success of the implementation of the decisions made by the Conference will
still be dependent on each country and cooperation of other countries. There is
still need for the UNFCCC to expand its membership. Further, the implementation
of those programs will be dependent on the political will of each country to
propose bills or laws that pave the way for the implementation of the
convention agreement. Beyond that, the success of the agreement will also
depend on the financial aspects. Countries that are poor financially cannot
implement those programs and therefore subsidy coming from rich country must be
available.
d. Sociologist’s
solution to the Global warming: Cooperation from all countries
The sociologists
recognize wide array of consequences of global warming. Climate change affects
food production across the globe because of water shortage. Food production is
a crucial centerpiece of each culture and it is badly threatened due to
increasing levels of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. Social chaos can
happen if food supply is not enough. Social conflict and war can happen as
communities fight for food and clean water. Besides affecting food supply, it
will also threaten the health of people around the globe due to extreme
temperature, much more the third world countries that have no enough resources
to take care of themselves. Undeniably such situation causes migration of both
humans and animals. It is beyond doubt that climate change has become social
issue, not environmental issue anymore because the fact that the effects of
climate change are small farmers, rural and urban poor countries, women,
children and the elderly, and relocation of communities (Byrd,
2014).
The sociologists accepted that
the driver of climate change is anthropogenic in nature, in the sense it is
anthropogenic global warming, that the climate change is man-made. O’Connor,
et.al (2014, 1996) pointed out capitalism is the main source of global warming
or climate change. Global warming is caused by the over exploitation of
external nature and the disregard for the natural limit of natural resources. As a consequence of such human activity, Foster,
et.al (2010) argued that the continuation human existence will be in danger. Because
of neo-liberalism capitalism, the planet is now dominated by a technologically
potent but alienated humanity- alienated from the nature and from itself and
hence ultimately destructive of everything around it. According to Foster,
et.al (2014) neo-liberal capitalism is causing ecological crisis such as loss
of biodiversity, disruption to the nitrogen cycle, ocean acidification,
chemical pollution and global warming.
Sociologists argue that
business leaders often do not care about the consequence of their decisions
may do to our society but they concern about profit. For
example, a factory may pollute a river by pouring dirty water into it. It does
not care how much greenhouse gas it contributes to the global warming. What it
cares is how much money it earns from the business. This is a challenge for the
government to make sure that the businesses follow certain standard in
operating their business. It is the government duty to see to it that all
business must comply with environmental standards. Derek Wall (2010), an Eco-sociologist argues that formal political organizations or political parties
are necessary in averting disaster via government intervention. As Derek wall
(2010), Foster (2010), an Eco-sociologist, argue that for immediate response to
the planetary ecological crisis, the state, through the government regulation
and spending programs could intervene directly. This could take the form of
levying significant carbon taxes at wellhead or point of entry, halting
development projects that will cause more greenhouse emission and ecological destruction.
Climate change is a
planetary crisis. It is not limited to a certain continent but it affects the
planet. Thus solving global warming is not just individual initiative but the
world as a community. Therefore cooperation from all countries is needed. This
is the role of UN as a club of states to call the cooperation of all states to
discuss issues on climate change and propose solutions. Along
this line, it may be good to follow what Nagel, Dietz, and Brioadbent (2008) a
sociologist had proposed. They proposed multi-level and global governance. In
this scenario, UN and countries that are part of the club must study the
possibilities of different governance arrangement to maximize the effectiveness
of climate change countermeasures. The climate change is a global but can only
be solved through integrated governance systems at multi-levels such as local, regional,
national and global.
e. Philosophical
solution to the Global warming: Control our desires, changing our views,
attitudes and apply new ethics.
As I have presented in
the causes of global warming, I have pointed out that global warming is caused
by human beings. Undetermined will or desire causes human suffering as pointed
out by Schopenhauer (1969). Undetermined will/desires refer to uncontrolled
human greed. Undetermined human will/desire is influencing human behavior to do
whatever he/she pleases to satisfy the will or the desires; however it can
never be satisfied. It keeps on
searching for its satisfaction but it can never be satisfied. It boils down to the
craving of human beings to keep on working and searching to satisfy its
desires. One of the desires of human being is to accumulate wealth, however no
amount of wealth can satisfy his/her desires/ will. People do whatever it takes
to fulfill his/her desire but it can never be satisfied as Schopenhauer said. It
is certain that such unregulated desires/will can cause problem for human
being. According to Schopenhauer, human problems are caused by the human will/desires.
In relation to human will, Nietzsche even urged human beings to pursue such
will or desire to the fullest human can. He argued that the will to power is
the only thing that human beings have to aspire. God has to be eliminated
because God is the hindrance for human to be going higher and higher. Ideal man
is a superman who takes the place of God. He/she is God himself. In his book, “Thus Spake Zarathustra, he presented Superman
as the only man who can live in the world without the illusion of God since
there is no limit to what humankind might set itself to attain. For him, superman
is the meaning of the earth and the meaning of man (Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy). It cannot be denied that
the desires of all people are to become number one or the highest, to be on the
top in whatever it means. Consequently such desire can lead to disasters if
there is no control. Live as if there is no God is uncontrolled life. Definitely
it becomes a moral issue. Therefore the moral solution to
global warming is also solicited, in the sense that desires have to be defined
within what is called “good”, not just any desires.
Climate change and
the global efforts to address it raise a number of philosophical issues,
including: moral responsibilities to the environment, non-human species, future
generations, and the global poor; global governance and international
cooperation; the role of individuals and institutions; scientific and moral
uncertainty (Justine, 2015). Desires have to be tempered by ethics, in the
sense that how our desires affect the environment, affect the welfare of the
whole world. Living and doing like there is no other and there is no God will
lead one to do whatever he/she wants to pursue in life by all means. Therefore,
Dobel (2008) argued that the Judeo-Christian belief that nature exists for the
sole purpose of serving human beings must be put under closer scrutiny as it
implies an attitude of antagonism and the separation of both God and humans
from earth. Instead, he argued that the Judeo-Christian attitude must be an
ethics of stewardship. As Paul Taylor (2008) calls us to change our view toward
environment that any living things or living organism on earth have inherent
worth in themselves. They are good not because they are useful for human beings
but they are good for their own sake. He argued that any living things that
have inherent worth demand respects and humans have moral responsibility to
respect as he respects other human beings. Further he argues that humans are
just member of earth community. Supporting the same line of argument, Moncrief
(2008) accused the culture as one of the main causes of environmental crisis.
Thus, he recommended changing our ways how we perceive the environment. Thus,
it might be appropriate if we apply a correct relationship with the environment
as Martin Buber (1937) recommended that environment is no longer an object to
be manipulated but as a subject that is equal to human beings and she/he needs
respect from human beings. Relationship between human beings must be I-Thou or
subject to subject and it is not, I-It or subject to object relationship.
f. Theological
Solution to the Global warming: Changing Theological Concept through Education.
Many people have been
using the bible as justification of their behavior in exploiting the
environment. Simply they said that humans are tasked to exploit the earth to
serve their needs. The Judeo-Christian understanding which is based on the
Genesis 1:27-31 must not be understood as an absolute power. As John Paul II
(1988) argued that the dominion granted to man by the creator is not an
absolute power, or one can speak of a freedom to use and misuse or to dispose
things as one pleases. He argued further that when it comes to natural world,
we are subject not only to biological laws but also to moral laws which cannot
be violated with impunity. Toward the end of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II
(2002) issued a common declaration on environmental ethics. In such
declaration, the Pope stressed that respect for creation stems from respect for
human life and dignity. It is on the basis of our recognition that the world is
created by God that we can discern an objective moral order within which to
articulate a code of environmental ethics. Thus all Christians and other
believers have a role to play in proclaiming moral values and educating people
in ecological awareness. Bishop Crepaldi as cited by Bricker (2009) called all
believers to become responsible stewards of God’s creation. Humans are to use
the earth, not abuse it and to become co-creator with God in the process of the
formation of new heaven and new earth. As it is emphasized in Gen, 2: 15, “The
Lord God then took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate
and care for it”. Human beings are in charge of the earth, to have dominions
over animals and to cultivate and care for the land. The task of “subduing” it
was never intended as an order to enslave it but a task of being guardians of
creation and developing its gifts.
Conclusion
Global warming is a
real threat to human life. Global warming is anthropogenic global warming. It
is caused by human attitude and behaviors and therefore the solution is going
back to human beings as the main causes.
Therefore, it is not enough if we rely only on the recommendation of the
pure scientists. Pure science cannot explain all about the behavior of human
beings but other sciences can explain it. Solving global warming needs
cooperation from all countries and needs a comprehensive approach.
Comprehensive approach requires all branches of sciences to conduct their
researches and forward their recommendation on how to mitigate the global
warming.
It must be the job of
the UN to call for all scientists from all over the world to form an
association and to conduct researches and forward their research findings on
how to mitigate global warming. Global warming conference for all scientists
must be organized. It is also the job of the UN to provide financial support to
all researchers to conduct researches.
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