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Why Not Then Reduce Production? lomente I. Introduction Climate change is the leading environmental problem that the human race is facing today. It is a great threat not only to the human race but also to all forms of habitants living inside earth. In order to prevent its destructive effects, this paper intended to evaluate its causes and also its best possible solution. The terms climate change, global warming and greenhouse effect are defined in the first section of this paper to give the reader a clear view because these terms are often misjudge when mentioned by most of the people. The second section consists of the different causes of global warming and some contradicting ideas regarding population’s growth and urbanization’s link to global warming. The last section then discusses the best possible solution to the causes of global warming laid down in the second section. Definitions Climate Change, global warming and greenhouse effect when mentioned, immediately imposes a negative impression. This is because most of the time, they are viewed and defined as a threat both to humanity and the planet, which is not always the case. Climate change and greenhouse effect are not problems that recently popped up on earth as what most of the people of today perceived them. On he contrary, they are natural phenomena happening on earth that already exist even before humans do. Their sole purpose is to maintain life in the planet. Unlike climate change and greenhouse effect, global warming is not natural but a result of the excess greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere. Climate change is depicted as the Earth’s gradual self-modification due to the time to time alteration of its features such as “temperature, precipitation and wind as well as the associated changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and natural water supplies, snow and ice, land surface, ecosystems and living organisms” (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2007b as cited in Swim et al., 2009, Executive Summary, p. 6). However, the climate change of today and of yesterday differ a lot in the amount of time these changes occur. While yesterday’s changes was gradual, today’s is on an immediate motion according to the World Nuclear Association (2013). On the other hand, greenhouse effect is defined by the World-Nuclear Association (2013) as the absorption of radiation by the earth’s surface and the trapping of some amount of heat in the atmosphere. The trapping of heat causes it to bounce back to the earth’s surface, warming the earth. This is the reason why earth’s temperature is always above moon’s temperature (para. 6). Thus, the habitable property of earth is the most beneficial result of this process. However, due to the high level of carbon dioxide and other radiative gases in the atmosphere, increases the level of heat that is trapped causing the temperature to rise (para. 3). In addition, according to United States Environmental Protection Agency (2014) global warming, which is just but one characteristic of climate change and the cause of the irregularity in both climate and weather, refers to the dramatic increase in the earth’s surface temperature due to the high concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. II. Causes Global warming is not just some random thing that popped up from nowhere. It is a result of actions done, being done and never done and things that happened and things that are still happening. Its causes are being discussed and argued every now and then in the hope of finding better solution for it. The most common cause of global warming is the dramatic increase in the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere (Waymouth, 2014, para.1; Atkin, 2014, para. 1; World-Nuclear Association para.5; and United States Environmental Protection Agency (2014), para. 1). In 2013-2014, a great increase in the CO2 level was recorded than any other year after industrial revolution. This leads humanity to the level of which Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as cited by Waymouth (2014) perceived as a very dire situation (para. 1). The increase in CO2 level is also due to the human deeds that secrete a lot of not just carbon dioxide but also greenhouse gases like methane (CH 4), nitrogen oxide (N2O) and ozone (O3) into the air. Some of these activities that are pointed out are the production of biofuels, population growth, and consumption urbanization. Production of biofuel like palm oil was first thought to be helpful in lessening the carbon emission due to energy use because it produce less carbon. However it was discovered that the process of its production produce a whole lot more greenhouse gases than it reduces. Though they produce less carbon, the burning of peat lands to grow them produce a lot more carbon than burning a forest, making it contribute more to the problem than being a solution. Aside from the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, population growth and urbanization are also one of the most talked about and debate prone causes of global warming. Swim and et al. (Psychology and Global Climate Change...) claim in their research that reduction of the population size will not significantly reduce the production of carbon dioxide. However it is still of great importance because the reduction of consumer means the reduction of the consumption level. A simple mathematics. Thus, they propose the assistance of the psychologists to understand the human psychological aspect that influences the growth of population such as the social environment, cultural diversity, and the mindset of every people towards the policies imposed in reducing the population (p. 33). Conclusively, the consideration of the growth in population in the future determines the probability of the increase in the number of consumers as well, which is according to Satterthwaite (2009) is the true main driver of climate change. Yet, Satterthwaite (2009) argued that population has nothing to do with climate change but “the growth in consumers and in their levels of consumption” (p. 545 para. 1). He has taken into account the great difference in greenhouse gases (GHG) production between low-income countries with high increase in population growth, and high-income and upper-middle income countries with low population increase from the timeline of 1980 to 2005 (p. 554). His findings shows that the latter has a lot greater GHG production that the first. This proves his claim that population has no string attached to climate change. The countries without significant increase or decrease in their population within this timeline like Germany and Denmark exhibit a great decrease in their GHG production level (p. 555), which further proves his claim. Through this findings he then pointed out that low-income countries will never be able to surpass the production level of GHG of high-income and upper-middle income countries because “for a household to contribute to global warming, they have to consume goods and services that generate GHG emissions”(Satterthwaite, 2009, Sec. II, para. 5). Despite of the contradicting views on population regarding climate change between Satterthwaite ss(2009) and Swim et al., (n. d) they somehow agreed in one thing. Both of them pointed out consumption as a great contributor to climate change. Consumption of products that cause creation of GHG is what makes it a great contributor. As mentioned above countries with great GHG production are the high-income countries and the upper-middle income countries. These are the countries that have great economic progress during the time mentioned above (Satterthwaite, 2009). It is due to economic development that the financial capability of every individual in high-income and upper-middle income countries also increase, resulting in the high probability of consuming. While in low income countries, consumption is fed up by the country’s culture, perception on consumerism and psychological state (Swim et al., n. d). Lastly, one other thing that is focused by the blame regarding global warming is urbanization. Satterthwaite (2009) corrected this by using his production perspective. Through the production perspective which evaluates how much of the GHG was produced in a specific area (p. 546), the high GHG production in lowincome and lower-middle income countries is linked to urbanization because the factories and the production industries were located and concentrated inside the cities. However, this is not the case of the high-income and upper-middle income countries. The citizen in these countries who have high GHG production per person tend to live in rural area for comfort and retirement. Not just the location of settlement is located in the rural, production industry also, for example power plants were located mostly in these areas for easy access of the raw materials, thus making the GHG production level of that rural place higher (p. 562-563) than the urban cities. To sum it all up, it is undisputable that “… human behavior are the primary drivers of climate change” (Swim et al., n. d., para 3) not humans themselves. Only that they contribute a lot to the worsening situation because of certain activities that produces high concentration of GHG into the atmosphere keeping nature’s balance off the track. III. Solution The products that release large amount of GHG during their manufacture, usage and disposal is the root cause of the great concentration of GHG in the atmosphere causing global warming. And to add insult to the injury, instead of banning and reducing the creation of these products due to the harm that they impose, creation and availability rocketed to the highest level because of the increasing demand of growing consumers. Here then comes the idea of reducing the consumption of the populace to reduce the GHG amount of these products. It is an inferred solution since Satterthwaite (2009), Swim et al. (Psychology and Global Climate Change…) and many more researchers and scientists consider consumption as the chief cause of global warming. However, large consumption of these products are inevitable for a lot of reasons. First, culture and social environment dictates the definition of the needs and wants of an individual (Swim et al., n. d.). That is why, products were already considered as a necessity though they are not really vital in supporting life itself. In the cultural aspect, necessity is defined as a vital element in supporting the lifestyles of the consumers using the products (Swim et al, n. d). For example, the use of internet is not considered as one of the basics needs of a being, however most of the people nowadays perceived it as a vital element of their everyday life and routines for the internet offers a lot of convenience in managing and updating huge size of information that was impossible before. While social environment pushes an individual to consume for him/her to fit in the society through social status and trend (Swim et al., n. d, p. 38). Second, economy also affect consumption (Swim et al., n. d). In a national scale, manufacturers of products are essential to support every country’s economy. Thus, it is difficult for the policy making body of a country to stop them producing and advertising their goods to the public. These advertisements encourage more people to be a consumer and also encourage more consumer to indulge more in consumption (Swim et al., n. d, p.37-38). Lastly, emotional needs makes it more unavoidable for the populace to consume. According to Swim et al in most instances self-identity and social status is defined by consumption. It is already a norm to judge an individual in the way he/she dress and the things that he/she owns. As a result, acquiring things that raises up one’s social status satisfies ones sense of belongingness, power and supremacy over others in the society, thus promoting ones self-worth (Swim et al., n. d., p. 38). Therefore, if the key solution for the reduction of GHG emission is the reduction of consumption, then it is right to infer that the control of production will reduce the amount of GHG emitted. Because of the short time left which is only from 2050 to 2100 (Swim et al., n. d) for action to be taken in order to prevent hazardous effects of global warming, control over production is more feasible than reducing the consumption level since its reduction carries a lot of baggage. Reducing consumption means changing the perspective and habitual actions of the majority of the people in the world (Swim et al., n. d) which is difficult to achieve in a short period of time according to the hindrances mention above, but proved to be possible in the long run. Instead of changing the perspectives of all the consumers on consumption, only the policy making body is needed to be convinced. This will prove to be more effective because all the efforts would only be directed to the few that is influential in their societies than dividing the efforts among all the citizen of the word. When these people are convinced the rest will have no choice but to follow. Therefore, upon knowing that the availability of resources is limited, they will lessen also their consumption in order to save for their future use. A great example of this is the reduction of GHG production of California because of the effort done by their former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger empowering California’s policies of limiting the production of GHG in every industrial and business companies that is operating inside their country (Waymouth, 2014). Because of the tight implementation of these policies to reduce the creation of products, therefore reducing consumption, they pretty succeed in their pursuit of reducing their emission down to 450 parts per million of CO2, the IPCC’s standard of mitigation. This shows the important role of the policy body (government) upon saving the humanity from the dire situation that the effects of global warming brings. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as cited by Atkin (2014) emphasizes the significance of a “cooperative international policymaking” (para. 11) to control the CO2 production worldwide. Since economy plays a great role in the level of consumption (Swim et al., Psychology and Climate Change), reduction of GHG emission will only be possible if every government each country would do the effort upon limiting the creation of products to reduce excessive consumption, putting into mind that money still comes from resources that is produce by the nature. Thus economic achievement which solely depends on the availability of these resources in the environment is not out of reach upon reduction of production. And since it was already proven effective in California then nations can no longer have an excuse not to reduce their own GHG production level through the decrease of their production. REFERENCES Atkin, Emily (2014). UN Scientists See Largest CO2 Increase in 30 Years. Development & Science: Climate Change, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Risk. Web. UNU Office of Communication. 12 June 2014. Corner, Adam (2009). Psychology is the Missing Link in the Climate Change Debate. Web. The Guardians News and Media. 26 Oct. 2009. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2014, March 19) Climate Change: Basic Information. epa.gov. Retrived Oct. 28, 2014, from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/ Satterwaite, David (2009). Implications of Population Growth and Urbanization for Climate Change. Environment and Urbanization Vol. 21, No. 2, Sep., p 5454566. Swim, J., Clayton, S., Doherty, T., Gifford R., Howard, G., Reser, J., Stern, P. and Weber, E. n.d. Psychology & Global Climate Change Addressing a Multifaceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges at http//www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change.aspx United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2014, July 2) Climate Change Indicators in the United States. epa.gov. Retrieved Oct. 28, 2014, from http://www.epa.gov/climate/climatechange/science/indicators/ghg/index.html Waymouth, Belinda (2014). Emissions without Borders: The Problematic Geography of Mitigation. Development & Science: Climate Change, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Risk. Web. UNU Office of Communication. 12 Sept. 2014. World Nuclear Association. (2013, October 28) Climate Change – The Science. World-nuclear.org. Retrieved Oct. 28, 2014 from http://www.world- nuclear.org/info/Energy-and-Environment/Climate-Change---The-Science/