…but it’s not as bad as the media portrays
By: Adam Moran
Staff writer
The internet has been exploding with articles concerning climate news. The message is clear across the board: “outlook not so good”.
The big story consuming science websites is the rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere. According to Sciencealert.com, “Levels of atmospheric carbon have officially surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm), and there’s little hope of returning them to safe levels — the situation is now permanent.”
This is a big deal because, as long as mankind has existed, we have never lived in a world where the CO2 levels in our atmosphere were this high above normal, which is considered to be around 350 ppm.
Not like we haven’t heard anything like this before. Media is great at inflating this story into one of impending doom and imminent societal dissolution. Hell, it’s been a major talking point in our national political discussions. It seems there is no way of getting away from this narrative.
As annoying as it can be to be consistently talked down to by news anchors, politicians, activists, and professors, it seems to me that this negative message has had a positive impact on recent generations. Major entrepreneurs have taken great initiative to making our society more independent from primary forms of energy.
I imagine, if any of that brilliance and environmental awareness is to trickle down to our generation, then our children, and our children’s children will live in a world much cleaner than ours.
What makes me uneasy, however, is the political propaganda that has tainted this cause.
From both sides of the aisle, you hear two very unreasonable narratives.
One side claims that the rapid environmental changes our world is experiencing is a falsehood; nothing more than a myth, designed by their rival party to buy votes. The other is destroying the existing energy industry with impossible regulations without offering a suitable replacement, which, in turn, offers a very negative impact on the economy: job loss, higher energy costs, etc.
As we have seen, or at least I have noticed, both of these radical points of view can be destructive. There is a gray middle.
We, as a people, can make a gradual transition into a low emission society, without tearing down our current way of life in the process. All it takes is the brilliance and awareness that I know we have and can achieve, along with the willingness to be patient and rational.
