Of all the problems facing the environment in the modern day, none are as disastrous as climate change. Differing attitudes on the issue have caused it to become a highly politicized problem. These attitudes can be grouped into the following categories: alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive.

The only attitudes present are alarmed, concerned, and cautious.These polling results are to be expected from students from a Science for Environmental Management class. However, outside of this bubble of environmental specialists, public opinions on climate change are varied. Dismissive attitudes can be attributed to science denial. This is not a new problem, but one that has persisted throughout the lifetime of science as a field. Science denial is defined as unwillingness to believe in existing scientific evidence¹. This problem does not only apply to climate change and environmental phenomena, but to any aspect of science. Disengaged attitudes can be caused by lack of security in one’s life. It’s hard to worry about the climate’s stability if a person does not have stability in their own life.

Despite the variety of attitudes on the matter, climate change still affects the planet. We see the effects of it across the globe and in our own home state. In class discussion, we compiled negative impacts of climate change on different areas of the world. From Maryland coasts, Maryland mountains, New Jersey pine barrens, all the way to Lagos, Nigeria. The issues facing these regions converged in many ways.

Problems facing our case studies commonly included sea level rise and flooding, erratic weather patterns, drought and wildfires, and increased temperatures. Each of these issues poses their own dangers and opportunities for management. Coastal flooding and sea level rise are especially detrimental thanks to the ever-growing coastal zone population. It’s been shown that roughly a third of all coastal populations live within the 100-year flood plain, and this number is only projected to increase². Coastal flooding impacts developing coastal nations disproportionately than countries that have the funding to construct preventative infrastructure.

As if flooding were not enough, the frequency of wildfires has increased as well. Recent fires in northern Virginia, Canada, and Australia shine as red-hot warning signs. As climate change drives shifts in weather patterns, many of earth’s ecosystems experience droughts more frequently. Global fire potential has increased in the last few decades, which has been linked to anthropogenic climate change³. In places like the NJ pine barrens, wildfires are important to the life cycle of endemic plants. However, with rising frequencies, even these barrens are in danger of burning out completely.

Other erratic weather conditions threaten the biodiversity of the world. In places like Western Maryland, earlier warm temperatures can interfere with the biological timing of plants and animals. High temperatures in early spring can cause plants to bloom, only to be pruned by frost when the weather briefly returns to a typical temperature.

So how can we manage the changing climate? The immediate solution seems to be a reduction in emissions. A class poll based on a calculator for carbon footprints showed that most of us were at or below the national average for emissions. This comes with the same grain of salt as the attitudes poll—we are an Environmental Management class. Not everyone shares the same attitude; many people are “stuck in their ways”. Engaging others outside of this realm of academia must be done in a way that not only is informative but addresses the issues our planet faces.

Sources

1. Björnberg, K. E., Karlsson, M., Gilek, M., & Hansson, S. O. (2017). Climate and environmental science denial: A review of the scientific literature published in 1990–2015. Journal of Cleaner Production, 167, 229-241. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617317821

2. Neumann, B., Vafeidis, A. T., Zimmermann, J., & Nicholls, R. J. (2015). Future coastal population growth and exposure to sea-level rise and coastal flooding-a global assessment. PloS one, 10(3), e0118571. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118571&utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news

3. Ellis, T. M., Bowman, D. M., Jain, P., Flannigan, M. D., & Williamson, G. J. (2022). Global increase in wildfire risk due to climate‐driven declines in fuel moisture. Global change biology, 28(4), 1544-1559. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Todd-Ellis-4/publication/356415980_Global_increase_in_wildfire_risk_due_to_climate-driven_declines_in_fuel_moisture/links/653e27c30426ef6369e8aacd/Global-increase-in-wildfire-risk-due-to-climate-driven-declines-in-fuel-moisture.pdf