A Response to Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Even scientists who think human activity is the main cause of climate change don't deny that natural changes will cause temperature fluctuations on Earth. However, their argument is that in the current cycle of climate change, the impact caused by man is far greater. But there’s no indication that the two sides of the climate change debate will reach any common ground in the near future on what scientific evidence is showing, or what policy decisions should be adopted.

In this book, Kolbert travels to many places to find out what is happening with global warming. Quite often she ran into the same fear at the places she went, the fear for loss before the next generation. When she went to Alaska, many people were fleeing from their homes because the sea ice surrounding them, creating a buffer zone for storms, was melting and that was causing houses to just be swept away.

According to The Framework Convention on Climate Change, “[climate change is] a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods” (Pielke 31). Many climate change deniers like to focus on the latter portion of this definition, claiming that the warming changes currently being experienced throughout earth’s climate are a naturally occurring phenomenon, and that the earth goes through periods of

Climate change is a serious issue, or is it? Since the late 1990’s the temperature rose dramatically, but surprisingly since 1998 the average temperature only raised a little. (why climate change is taking a break) This is because of increase of Greenhouse gasses, and carbon.These are natural gasses, in many ways science proves Global Warming is a natural problem that overtime will figure itself out. The famous El Nino’s are a good example of this, in 1998 there was a very strong El Nino, and the temperature went back down. I and many scientist think Global Warming is natural and here's why.

Lately scientists and politicians have stated, that the earth is not merely warming up, it is experiencing Climate Change or shifts in long-term climate patterns. These climate shifts could include air temperature, precipitation, and weather patterns (Baranski). Vice President Al Gore, is a leading advocate of climate change. His book and documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has been rewarded for, “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change” (“Al Gore”).

This book is helpful because it assists in spreading awareness about global warming. Scranton takes a scientific approach to global warming, presenting what will happen, and why, we as the human species, are unlikely to solve it. Scranton writes, “climatologists now predict [a rise] in global temperatures 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit

John Broome wrote Climate Matters with the intention of raising independent, yet well-informed ideas of how to ethically stand in a warming world. He questions what should be done both publically and privately and supports his statements through arguments that can be interpreted in whichever way makes the most sense to the reader. Broome logically organized his book so that before he asks moral questions, he reminds the reader in the opening paragraph about the sad truth of climate change. For example, he states the ice caps are melting and in just a few decades, only one polar ice cap will remain. As a result, the raising oceans will demolish many of humanities greatest cities. He adds that not only will millions of homes be destroyed along oceanic coastlines, but climate will change as droughts and floods make agriculture impossible in many? currently productive areas. The remaining ocean-adjacent? areas not directly affected by sea-level rise? will have to face difficult and unpredictable weather changes that will make food? production challenging. Broome also reminds the reader, who is most likely from a developed country, that the western lifestyle causes the greatest damage, yet the global indigenous societies, who contribute virtually nothing to greenhouse gas emissions, will be hit the hardest. I found this introductory chapter to be very powerful and the rest of the book was easy to absorb because I was constantly thinking back to these disasters which seem

It’s deceitful to characterize the basic facts of climate change as debatable or unsettled. Year after year, humans extract billions of tons of carbon from the bowels of the earth and blast it into the atmosphere. We need to stop indulging the questioning of humanity’s culpability.

Kolbert embarks on a journey traveling around the world to gain more knowledge of how extinction began, endangered species, causes for crises, and what people are doing to prevent too much

Fumento, Michael. “The Cooling Off on Global Warming.” The Washington Times 8 July 1999: 15. LexisNexis Academic . Academic Universe. W. I. Dykes Lib., University of Houston-Downtown. 20 Feb. 2010 http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/

“Increasingly, anthropologists are encountering the local effects and broader social, cultural, economic, and political issues of climate change with their field partners” (Crate and Nuttall 2009). Native Alaskans are already experiencing and seeing the effects of climate change. For Native Alaskans, climate change is not something to happen in the near future, but is an immediate, lived reality impacting daily lives and livelihoods. “Climate change is the result of global processes that were neither caused nor can be mitigated by the inhabitants of the majority of climate-sensitive world regions now experiencing the most unprecedented change” (Crate and Nuttall 2009).

Olson explains the groundwork for her essay will come from the documentaries concern of Global warming and how we can amend the effects across the globe through factual evidence. For example, research on carbon dioxide effecting melting glaciers and claiming homes of penguins and polar bears. People are also effected by flash floods, hurricanes and droughts.

When an epidemic or catastrophe affects a community or nation depending on the resilience of the-the community there can be different outputs that help limit the aftermaths of the disaster.How the group of people respond or deal with the situation at hand will have a big impact on how it will affect their lives moving on. As humans the direr the situation we find ourselves in, the more likely we are to make a rush or unsound decision.These decisions shape how our lives may be impacted moving on whether for the duration of the catastrophe or many years to come.When the black death hit Europe in the late 1340’s to early 1350’s the Europeans did not know how to react or respond to it the because its victims nor physicians did not know the cause

Over the years there has been a lot of controversy on if climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed and solved. There is a constant debate among scientist on if human actions are contributing the changing of earth’s climates. Climate change is defined as the change in average weather patterns for a specific region or Earth as a whole. This could include the change in an average temperature for a city or the amount a rainfall it receives (Dunbar, 2015). The main difference between weather and climate is the period of time specific patterns are recorded. Weather patterns are looked at over a much shorter period of time, meaning that these patterns are going to be more sporadic and change more frequently. Climate on the other had is recorded over a much longer period of time and usually show less drastic changes in patterns when compared to weather. Some people may argue that climate change is not an issue because Earth’s temperature is always changing do to natural effects. What people don’t realize is that human activity has effected the rate that earth’s temperature is changing, and just the smallest changes can lead to drastic consequences (Dunbar, 2015).

It is a fact that climate change is occurring and humans as the main contributing factor is at the heart of the Global Warming debate. Still, is the debate truly about protecting our planet from human-activity climate change, or is the natural cycle of the Earth being used as a ruse to “promote” climate change to determine global policy measures and defeat Capitalism? Whether human caused, natural, or both, the debate has become a political one instead of scientific, and the media has sensationalized it to the point where skeptics have become more rigid and believers more frightened. The problem with the consensus is that certain statistics have become associated with human-caused global warming, when in fact it could be attributed to the earth’s natural cycle.