In the wake of one of the most grim international assessments of global climate change to date, the issue of global warming has become a very widely discussed topic across the nation. The University community is no exception.
Last week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth report evaluating climate change around the world, and its conclusions were startling to many. The panel concluded that the recent trends of global warming is “very likely” caused by humans, and those same trends are “virtually certain” to continue during the next century regardless of what action is taken, according to the report.
Though the findings have warranted considerable media attention this week, some in the science community are not as surprised.
“I’d say the latest report confirms what we already thought was likely,” said University biology professor William Bradshaw, whose recent work with his wife, fellow University professor Christina Holzapfel, found that some species, such as mosquitos, have already evolved their migration patterns to adapt to the warming climate in the northern hemisphere.
The latest report from the IPCC simply adds more support to an already visible issue, Holzapfel said.
“Even the skeptics have to agree now that the climate is warming,” she said.
Both Bradshaw and Holzapfel agreed that the resulting public fallout from the report should not focus on the cause of the change, but rather what to do about it. This approach, Holzapfel said, should consider both mitigation and preparation. That is, how to limit emissions and future damage, and more importantly, preparing for the damage that is already done to the climate.
“That is something that the science community, and certainly the political community, doesn’t talk about enough,” Holzapfel said.
Bradshaw agreed.
“No one is talking about preparation,” he said. “Life isn’t going to be like it is now, but we can make it better.”
During the next 100 years, average global temperatures could rise by as much as 6.4 degrees Celsius, and sea levels are expected to rise several inches or more during the same period, according to the IPCC report. In addition, more intense heat waves and extreme weather events are “very likely” to increase in the future. Bradshaw said this consequence is one that many people tend to overlook.
Though climate change is largely unavoidable in the immediate future, there are still steps people can take to prepare for that change, Holzapfel said, simply for their own benefit.
“It is in our own personal self-interest that if we see a flu epidemic coming, we prepare vaccines,” Holzapfel said. “What we need to do as people is figure out what we can do about that warming because it’s in our best self-interest.”
These actions, Bradshaw said, might include developing new strains of trees or crops that will better thrive under warmer conditions. He said farmers should also consider that the agricultural belt will continue to shift to the north as it has already, which their previous research with mosquitos concluded.
“What we’ll have is the north looking more like the south in terms of climate,” Holzapfel said.
Several large business have also begun adapting to the increasing environmental concerns solidified by last week’s report, said University business major Taylor Gordon.
Gordon, former president of the student-run Sustainable Business Group at the University, said many businesses are starting to shift to a more “green” mindset, both to reduce the negative consequences of their practices and turn a better profit.
“I think business is changing basically because it has to. To be successful, you have to find the resources to maintain yourself, and I don’t think a lot of people have really done that,” Gordon said. “I think business needs these environmental changes to survive.”
While businesses in the past may have thought being environmentally conscious meant being unprofitable, Gordon said, those ideas are no longer mutually exclusive.
“These things are not contradictory – they’re complimentary,” he said. “Businesses are really the only things that have the power to change these things.”
Some companies have adapted by embracing sustainable practices such as green roofs, solar panels or reducing waste, Gordon said.
On campus, the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) has led a number of campaigns to increase awareness of the climate issue. The group has offered people tips to reduce their own individual effects, rather than assuming the perception that the problem lies solely with large corporations.
“The fact of the matter is that people can live more sustainably and reduce their own global warming emissions,” said OSPIRG Campus Organizer Liz Karas. “It seems like the biggest issue is education.”
Karas added that the IPCC report could likely drive home the issue to the public.
Holzapfel said the negative tone of the report might drive some people away from action, thinking that preventing further climate damage is a lost cause. That shouldn’t be the case, she said.
“There are ways that we can move forward and do something positive,” Holzapfel said.
Until a course of action is taken, the human population stands at a pivotal time, Gordon said.
“We’ve never been at a point in society where we have as much risk as we do now, but we’ve also never had as much ability to change and make it better as we do now,” he said. “If we’re going to beat this game, we’re going to have to play it.”
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