Climate Change: How worried should we be?

Full details

Authors & editors
Publisher	New Scientist
Year of publication	2023 August 19
Languages
Medium	Offprint/Journal Supplement
Edition	1
Topics	Climate, environment and development > Global climate issues Climate, environment and development > Renewable energy policy and economics
Tags	Climate change
Scope & content	Editorial extract: The right amount of worry: We must remain active, not fearful, in the face of climate change LIKE many aspects of modem life, our response to climate change seems to be increasingly polarised. On one side, we have people saying that rising temperatures mean the world as we know it is just decades from ending and there is nothing we can do to prevent that. On the other, we have those who claim the very notion of human-made climate change is an international conspiracy. Neither of these extreme positions holds up to scrutiny. Climate change caused by humans isn't a conspiracy theory, but it is equally true that global catastrophe isn't a foregone conclusion. What is certain is that the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are raising temperatures worldwide, and this process will continue until we stop emitting more of them. In other words, climate change is happening, and we can stop it if we choose to. What is uncertain is what we are actually going to do to combat it.