Breaking Down the Climate Crisis About the survey Findings and report

Breaking Down the Climate Crisis

ABOUT THE SURVEY

Climate change is becoming a real deal, the world is getting warmer with each passing day and glaciers are melting. You all must have heard about this or in some way witnessed it at one point or the other. Yes, bells are ringing aloud.

Climate Change or more specifically Global warming happens when greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapor present in the atmosphere trap the sunlight and solar radiation that bounce off the earth’s surface. Normally, this radiation would escape into space, but these pollutants, which may persist in the atmosphere for years or centuries, trap the heat and gradually increase the earth’s temperature.

Climate change has always occurred on our planet. However it became more prominent during the Industrial Revolution, when people began using coal and other fossil fuels to run factories, smelters and steam engines, adding additional greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. It is undeniable that human activities are altering the climate which is making it unfit for their own survival. As a result, it's critical that we buckle up and take action now, before it's too late, to avoid or mitigate some of the worst consequences of climate change. The first step is to examine our understanding of climate change.

With this being said, we at NSS, SRCC conducted a climate change survey across India, covering some very fundamental topics. It's crucial to understand how youth interprets knowledge. We started by asking what climate change means to them, whether it threatens their personal health or what issues are of more concern other than climate change or if they are aware about the global initiatives taking place etc.

FINDINGS AND REPORT

Well from the responses, it is observed that people accept the fact that their own human activities are causing alteration in this climate which is making it unfit for their own survival.

Youth is acquainted with the effects of climate change but there is an argument that Climate change has always occurred and is nothing new.To this one is reminded of what Sir Obama said “there is one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent threat of changing climate.

Over the course of the Earth's 4.5 billion-year history, the climate has changed tremendously.Natural warming and cooling cycles, on the other hand, cannot explain the current rapid warming. Changes that would normally take hundreds of thousands of years are taking place in only a few decades.

Since 1880 i.e. the industrial revolution, average global temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius, with the most dramatic changes occurring in the late 20th century, which is why we have such extreme weather conditions, heat waves, acidifying oceans and Antarctic ice sheets losing significant amounts of land-based ice. According to the most recent forecasts, temperatures will rise by 2.5 °C to 4.5 °C by 2100.UN has insisted on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Returning to the survey, we also asked if people were aware of the various Global initiatives taken up to address the situation.It was observed that majority of people were unconfident.Thus, we would like to shed some light on the same.

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 1997. However, only 36 countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol met their greenhouse gas reduction targets. The Paris Agreement, which was intended to replace the Kyoto Protocol, came into force on November 4, 2016.

Apart from this, there have been other multi-country initiatives, with over 170 nations introducing national policies and regulations on climate change adaptation to address consequences such as growing risks of severe events like floods and droughts. Furthermore many independent initiatives have come under formation like The Climate Justice Alliance,The Environmental Working Group to name a few.

We also found from the study that individuals would be willing to walk or cycle to work, plant more trees and join in environmental campaigns if they could. They would consume less power to save money while also helping the environment.The majority of people chose public transportation to save money, which is understandable given our country's poverty levels.

A really welcome revelation was that the majority agreed on obligatory energy reductions if climate change is to be controlled.Well ,this is the need of the hour just like Covid made every nation to act desperately and judiciously ,it is essential to take some real steps.

Individuals also agreed that climate change is bound to happen in modern society. However it is the same modern society which will bring back the good again with the technical advancements like renewable sources as the alternate ways to generate electricity.

Last but not least, we asked them what initiatives they would take in the current situation. We received some very creative responses to this. One was to reduce consumption and waste, and prioritize trash separation, which is majorly overlooked by our society.One said as quoted “promote usage of recycled materials, follow a sustainable lifestyle, will involve in research projects aimed at developing environment friendly and renewable forms of energy”.

Something that caught our attention is quoted as follows-

“What I think is important is to let everyone know what is happening and to make them aware of what we can do to avoid these problems .There are more points that can be undertaken in respect with climate change” Yes we completely agree with this.The importance of awareness and recognition cannot be overstated.

We would like to say that our existence on the Earth forms merely a small fraction of the vast geological time, yet, our activities have resulted in an extensive impact on our climate. It is critical that all of us work towards making a conscious effort to change the current trajectory of the climate crisis.

REFERENCES-

https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-climate-change/ https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List _ of _ climate_change_initiatives