Why I Care About Climate Change

My interest in Climate Change!

Written on 8th September 2022

What sparked my interest in Climate Change?

Growing up as a child, like millions of others, I watched many documentaries presented by the iconic David Attenborough, who needs no further explanation. For anyone who has even a fraction of interest in the natural world, his publications are truly captivating, but particularly his countless documentary series’ in conjunction with the BBC, which more recently have been publicising international dilemmas such as global warming and plastic pollution, and exposing the true impacts these issues have on the biodiversity and ecosystems of our planet. Much of what is now shown on these documentaries are scenes of troubled areas of landscape or deeply affected species of animal from all over the world. (Like those below)

Branching off from these documentaries, I started to gain huge interest in the root causes of these issues and how they came about in the first place, rather than just becoming aware that they exist. I started to deliberately go out of my way to find documentaries which focus on different aspects of the problem, to try and gain a deeper understanding into the “why factor”, rather than just the “what factor”. I found that YouTube and Netflix were good sources to find short films which expose certain companies, countries and individuals who have supposedly contributed hugely to cumulative global damage. I’ve always found deep interest in learning about troubled parts of the world or the systems we live in, whether it’s learning about Narco states in South America, exploitation of labour in China or segregation in South Africa. I’m very open minded and it would seem silly for me to go through life without making myself aware of these sorts of things and embracing the different walks of life which people around the world experience. For me, this sort of awareness makes me even more grateful for what I have. I don’t come from a family of outstanding wealth but I am part of the 62.5% of the world population that has internet access, I have access to good education and healthcare, and I never have to worry where my next meal is coming from, take what you want of this, but among many other factors I believe it puts me in a position of sizeable privilege against the rest of the worlds population.

Undoubtedly my inherent interest of global troubles sparked my now strong enthusiasm for the awareness of global climate change issues, there root causes and what we might be able to do to reverse the affects. Consequently a fair portion of my time nowadays is dedicated to research and development of my knowledge about the history, current practices and future of the topic, which I’m almost certain is going to play a huge part in my future, and the future of generations to come. That being said, just having an interest in climate change certainly isn’t enough, yes it might be a good starting point, but the end goal is for everyone to play a proactive part in the changes we want, and agreeably NEED to see.

My Interest Now

I spend a portion of time reading up on how different countries are performing, relative to each other, and try to get to grips with the regions of the world which are specifically far ahead or behind on the path to “Net Zero”. So far Chile and France have stood out to me as good performers, although by no means are they perfect. Each country of the world has it’s own incredible landscape and biodiversity, things which I look forward to exploring in the future, providing I get the chance. As saddening as it is, a lot of these sites of natural beauty are slowly disappearing due to deforestation, plastic pollution and many other factors. Seeing images of beautiful places being taken over by our environmental wrong-doings is something that motivates me to start taking action, it motivates me to encourage others to do the same, and for me it sparks a much deeper interest in the natural world and the outdoors, knowing that one day I may not be so lucky to visit these places I so desperately want to experience uninterrupted.

Something I watched fairly recently exposed me to something I was partially aware of previously, the full scale operations of the Oil industry in the middle east during the 1940’s and 50’s, and how this triggered greed, exploitation and conflict which to some extent is still happening to this day, this sounds horrific even before mentioning the highly destructive effects that these actions have on the environment. It started a legacy by igniting a drive of industrialisation and economic growth across the globe, fuelled by non-renewables.

Without being said, it’s true that facts and figures can amplify the perceived scale of something. In this case it was unsurprising for me to find out that 36% of global oil supply comes from just a handful of countries in the middle east, which occupy just 3.4% of the earths land surface, and upon further research, finding out that 20 fossil fuel companies produce more than one third of global carbon emissions between them, and the largest of them, Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian Oil operator, is the most profitable company on the planet, ($111 Billion profit in 2018), and is estimated to be solely responsible for 4.38% of total global carbon emissions.

I personally feel that there’s a huge distinction between understanding the fact that we’re facing problems, and understanding what actually causes those problems. For me, this distinction is too big, and although the root causes of the issues do get made aware fairly often, I don’t feel they get the attention they deserve. Something that immediately comes to my mind is the detrimental carbon footprint of the current food system, with mass scale agricultural practices playing a huge role in our global carbon emissions. Without a doubt the effects of agriculture are scientifically proven and well known, but considering the fact that the food system contributes to around a quarter of our global carbon emissions, I don’t feel that it’s exposure to the media is sufficient in tackling the problems it poses to our planet.

Many things interest me, but climate change is one of the only things that I feel I have to be interested in. Not for religious reasons, not for traditional reasons, but because the following years of my life contain many make or break situations for the future of planet earth.

In this article I only mention a few of the factors and sub-topics regarding climate change, and only go into slight detail about some of my opinions, and my established interest for climate change. Other articles on my website will give you much more detail and express more of my underlying thoughts.