The Only Way You Can Help Stop Climate Change

And Why Every Other Method Is Useless

Here are the facts: Climate change is slowly but surely increasing in intensity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are, at least, contributing to its effects and, at most, causing them. It is clear that the best method to combat climate change is to reduce humanity’s GHG emissions as even in the unlikely revelation that GHG is only a small part of the issue, it would be the only part that we are in control of.

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change details the predicted effects of 1.5°C and greater average global warming above pre-industrial levels (as warming has already increased 1°C since the industrial era, these effects are predicted after only a 0.5°C increase) which include “warming of extreme temperatures in many regions,” “increase[s] in intensity or frequency of droughts,” and a sea-level rise “range of 0.26 to 0.77 m.”

The United Nations Environment Programme also released a new report stating that “On current unconditional pledges, the world is heading for a 3.2°C temperature rise,” which would undoubtedly have far worse consequences. For that reason, the report details the bare minimum of GHG reduction needed to prevent an increase above the 1.5°C threshold; concluding that a 7.6% decrease in global emissions each year for the next decade is necessary to reach this goal.

Here’s the issue: It’s really hard to meet the 7.6% annual quota and no one country can do it alone.

Many proposals on how the US specifically could reduce emissions target energy and manufacturing corporations for how they contribute to global warming whilst making a profit. In a 2017 article, The Guardian claims that “Just 100 companies [are] responsible for 71% of global emissions,” citing a report by The Carbon Disclosure Project as evidence for the position that “A relatively small number of fossil fuel producers and their investors could hold the key to tackling climate change” (many other news sites make this claim too). What The Guardian and others fail to emphasize is that the CDP report also outlined the type of corporations constituting the 100 they studied; 43 of them are run by nation-states (China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Russia, etc.) and those 43 account for 59% of the aforementioned 71%.

Here’s another way to look at it: A Heritage Foundation paper calculated that even if the US cut all GHG emissions, the world would cool “less than 0.2 degrees C” and the sea level would experience “less than 2 centimeter reduction.” If America, the only high emission nation with enough resources to make a relatively easy transition to green energy, can barely make a dent in the warming problem in the most generous scenario, then what chance is there to stay below 1.5°C globally?

Demanding that corporations adhere to GHG restrictions or pay a carbon tax won’t do a thing. For one, the main problem is actually national governments and their energy sectors, and secondly, each nation is only in control of their own emissions and no individual nation, not even the US, can stop climate change.

Here’s the solution: There is only one way to stop temperatures from rising too high, a commitment from all industrialized nations to cut their own emissions and then work together to help developing countries expand their green energy sectors. No other approach will be enough, which is why the only real attack we individuals have against climate change is our vote. Choose politicians who believe the threat warming poses, who recognize the scale of the problem, and who will work internationally to fix it. In that way, we all already possess the greatest weapon against climate change. If we choose to use it we can win, but we can’t without it.