It's Time to Act on Climate Change

Hurricane Sandy should be a wakeup call for people to acknowledge the impact that humans have on the environment. In his first press conference after re-election, President Barack Obama emphasized that climate change and human impact on it are key issues and that something must be done in order to protect future generations. After hurricane Sandy's devastating impact on New Jersey and New York, the magazine "Bloomberg Business" ran a headline stating, "It's Global Warming, Stupid."
While Sandy itself cannot be said to be the result of climate change, it is evidence of an ongoing and fundamental environmental alteration. Like steroids in baseball, one can't say any one home run was the result of steroids, but the overall pattern of increased numbers does indicate its presence. As for Sandy, scientists know that the storm surge along the Atlantic coast resulted from decades of rising sea levels, which are linked to human emissions of greenhouse gases. The change is evident in that over the past three years, the number of hurricanes and tropical storms has been higher than average.
Despite the increasing numbers of severe weather events, global warming is more heatedly debated now than ever. Back in 2007, 71 percent of Americans believed that the continued burning of fossil fuels would cause the climate to change. By 2011, however, that number had dropped to 44 percent.
Today, about 70 percent of Democrats and liberals believe humans are changing the climate, whereas only 20 percent of Republicans accept the view of the climate scientists. The media has whipped up an emotional element to global warming so that people are more divided when it comes to discussion. According to Tea Party members, science is incorrect about global warming and is being used to impose a left-wing agenda. They simply disregard the fact that 97 percent of the world's climate scientists agree that human beings are in fact causing a change in the environment.
Although there is an ideological and political wall between the left and the right when it comes to the issue of climate change, policy changes are essential to preserve the life of future generations. We must accept what scientists are saying and work out a plan to reverse the trend that is increasing the harm that climate change will bring about.
Some suggestions include using local production, ending mass shopping and consumption, and controlling corporate power. Whether these ideas will be made into public policy looks questionable. But clearly action is needed.