Global Warming: Why Something Should Be Done About It

So there's this thing called global warming; a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere, which many believe is associated with human activities. It's a major political issue, and if humans are causing it, the United States is a leading contributor to the problem. There are many solutions; cutting back on carbon dioxide emissions, transition to alternative and renewable forms of energy, etc. But why should anything be done about global warming? It's happened in the past, why should it concern us now?

First of all, the 10,000 years of human history have all occurred in a relatively calm period, climatologically speaking. There have been some fluctuations, namely a minor cool down that lasted from about the 6th Century AD until the late 1800s. The Little Ice Age, as it is called, can largely be blamed for the famine and dreary climate that seemed to dominate the Dark Ages. It is perhaps by coincidence that the first years of the Little Ice Age were right near the fall of the Roman Empire, and that Western society didn't fully recover until it was over.

The climate, whether you like it or not, often times plays a significant role in shaping history. Humans, in their present form, have existed for 100,000 years, but why was it that it was only 10,000 years ago when the idea of a civilization caught on? Simple: for the 90,000 years before, humans were huddled in caves trying to keep warm, because they were in the middle of one of the longest, and strongest ice ages in Earth's history. My worry is that if an ice age can retard the growth and development of civilization, there is no reason to not believe that global warming could have similar effects.

Within the next century, if nothing is changed to combat global warming, the oceans could rise as much as 10 feet, putting nearly all the major cities in the world at risk, and extinguishing the ways of life for the thousands that live on islands. It is imperative that people recognize that the very existence of society is swinging in the balance when it comes to the connection between the climate and the political fallout that it can cause. My worry is this: it is a very real possibility that, within our lifetimes, society as we know it could collapse. I don't lose sleep thinking about this, but this is my point of view, and particularly since the release of some recent studies, we should use this knowledge to our benefit and look into the possibility of expediting the development of renewable and low emissions energy sources.