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"It's Not Urgent: Future Generations Can Deal With It."





Brief Responses to Climate Change Denialism Statements

CPSG 200 Science & Global Change Sophomore Colloquium

"It's not urgent: future generations can deal with it."

Addressing climate change is an urgent matter that is affecting millions of people around the world today. For instance, daily tidal flooding is accelerating in more than 25 Atlantic and Gulf Coast cities in the US. Rising sea levels are destroying property, infrastructure, agriculture, and affecting water quality and quantity. The frequency of large forest fires in the western United States and Alaska has increased since the 1980s and is projected to continue increasing. Wildfires are destroying the property and livelihoods of Americans now. Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Cities across the United States including St. Louis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cincinnati have seen large increases in death rates during heat waves. We can’t afford to put off action on climate change. The health and safety of the human race is currently being harmed by the effects of climate change. So while you and I might outlast this threat, it will not just go away by being left ignored. The atmosphere will continue to accumulate more and more carbon, it will trap more and more heat, the ice caps will melt, the seas will rise, and the problem will worsen if left unchecked. So: the threat of climate change is urgent and needs to be dealt with by us, today, as soon as is possible; otherwise we leave behind a destroyed planet for our descendants.


For More Information:
Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, and T.K. Maycock. 2017. Highlights of the Findings of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate Science Special Report. Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment 1:12-34. doi:10.7930/J0DJ5CTG.
dana1981. 24 September, 2010. "The Big Picture". Skeptical Science. Accessed 6 October 2018.
"Extreme Heat Can Impact Our Health in Many Ways". American Public Health Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Contributed by: Siena Fouse, Julia Slattery, and Jordan Willis

Last modified: 12 October 2018