NOTE: This is one of a series of essays on contemporary environmental controversies. These issues may well define how or whether we can continue to live and improve our well being on this cosmic speck called Earth.
Life can be risky. From the moment we get up to start the day, or possibly even before we wake up, we are exposed to myriad risks to our safety, well being and peace of mind.
A few people are overwhelmed by the challenges each day brings. At the other extreme are those that embrace risk and look forward to risky challenges as a way to add zest and color to their lives. Most of us are somewhere in between.
Everyone consciously or by default finds a balance with a level of risk that seems acceptable for his or her circumstances and outlook.
Some risks are better just ignored. We are at risk that an asteroid could strike the earth and wipe out all life. This is not a day-to-day concern, nor should it be. A few scientists are considering this possibility—they are able to worry for all of us and explore measures to mitigate the risks.
On the other hand there are risks with potentially serious consequence that impact all of us. Bad weather could damage our personal property or we could be involved in a traffic accident. Our normal response to this type of risk is to purchase insurance so the financial implications of such an event are held at a tolerable level.
Some risks can be managed by personal actions. Everyone faces a one hundred percent risk of dying. The only unknown is the timing. Most people want to live a long and meaningful life and are willing to make certain life style adjustments to achieve this outcome. The majority of the population knows that using tobacco products increases the risk of prematurely dying of cancer and therefore does not use the products. Exercise and healthy eating contribute to longevity and this is a major factor influencing our life style choices.
Climate change poses a risk to every single person on the planet. Over the long term we may alter the environment of the planet to the extent that it will no longer support the human species. Our civilization as we know it might be reduced to a thin lens of plastics and metals in the geological record. One hundred million years from now, the next evolutionary cycle of intelligent beings may try to sort out the rise and fall of this particular form of life.
Is the climate change risk in the same category as the potential for an asteroid strike? No, even though a large of a segment of the population calls climate change too remote a threat to be of concern today.
Climate change is happening now. We can see it everywhere. Temperatures are rising on land and in oceans, ice is melting, and weather patterns are changing. Consequences are accelerating.
Certainly there are populations in the world that are concerned daily with the risk of not having enough food, or who are in conflict zones where the risk of violent death is always present. Climate change is not even in their vocabulary. Fortunately, we in the United States are spared these concerns. Therefore we are in position to focus on the implications of climate change and to do something about it.
We can wish that we could buy an insurance policy to reduce the climate change risk to a financial issue. No one writes that insurance. We can only self-insure by initiating the obvious but sometimes unpopular mitigating actions, starting with burning less fossil fuel.
Climate change must be recognized for the real risk that it is. At some point many of the decisions we face daily will be driven by climate change. Only then will we begin addressing the risk that imperils us all.