Climate Change Policy Isn’t Worth Its High Cost
Numerous thought leaders agree that climate change is the defining issue of the twenty-first century. To garner widespread support for their cause, activists often present climate change as an existential risk. We are repeatedly told that there is incontrovertible evidence that humans are the main cause of climate change and that its effects are cataclysmic. Failing to uphold any of these positions can result in great reputational damage for pundits and scholars. Due to fear of backlash many choose to remain silent. Revisiting the history of climate change, however, would temper the hysteria of climate alarmism. Climate change is not a new phenomenon, and neither is it synonymous with disasters. By showing that the mainstream position on climate change is misguided, we will demonstrate that radical recommendations are unwarranted and hence more likely to inflict damage than prosperity.
The first egregious error asserted by mainstream pundits is that climate change is a twenty-first-century problem. In contrast to this outlook, climate change is a natural event than can occur irrespective of our existence. Because of its variability, the climate is always subject to changes. The Little Ice Age along with the Medieval Warm Period are examples of climate change. It is evident that climate activists are unable to ascertain the relationship between previous cyclical variations and climate change. Had this been the case they would have recognized that for centuries humans have been cognizant of climate change and therefore have judiciously embarked on ingenious strategies enabling adaptability to new circumstances. According to a 2020 study published in the National Science Review describing responses to climate change in China’s Nihewan Basin during the Pleistocene era: “The unstable environmental conditions at the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition provide a good example of the adaptive versatility of hominins in China during the Early Pleistocene, contrasting with the notion of long-lasting conservative behaviours and undifferentiated technologies across the Pleistocene.” Human ingenuity can avert possible disadvantages stemming from climate change. Besides, contemporary individuals, like their ancestors, have an immense capacity to innovate. For example, scientists from Purdue University in America to their counterparts at the Australian National University are constantly exploring new ways to reduce the implications of drought. Climate change is not a novel scenario that should scare us into defeatism. The only constant is change, and humans never fail to illustrate their dexterity when managing disruptive processes.
Furthermore, like humans other species have shown an impressive ability to adjust to climate change and its effects. Although the rantings of activists portend gloom, rigorous analyses indicate that biodiversity thrives in warm periods. In a 2009 study published in the Journal of Forest Ecology and Management the authors contradict the assumption that global warming is detrimental to the health of plant species by writing that “increases in future temperatures
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