Student Series: The Urgency of Sustainability (Part I)
Isy Osubor is the MITOS Writing and Digital Engagement Fellow studying Mechanical Engineering with minors in Management and Literature. This post is the first in a series on the “Urgency of Sustainability,” where Isy will explore some of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, how one person’s sustainable changes can make an impact on the environment, and finally what MIT is doing to combat climate change and support a more sustainable campus, city, and globe. This first post is in two parts. Explore Part I below and follow up with Part II.
Sometimes the never-ending flow of information about issues such as climate change, politics, and COVID-19 make us want to turn off the TV. Worse yet, they can make us numb to the reality of what is going on around us. By bringing to the forefront the some of the most salient impacts of climate change, this post hopes to reinvigorate a desire to know more about and adopt sustainable solutions to climate change.
How did we get here?
We have long since passed the point where humanity is interacting with the environment in a sustainable manner. At the rate with which humans currently use nature’s resources, 1.5 Earths would be needed each year to produce the amount of food, water, and land required, as well as to absorb the emissions and trash we produce. If everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same rate Americans do, we would need 4.4 Earths each year to sustain us. US culture alone is one built on consumption: fast, easy, and accessible with only a slight consideration of the environmental impacts of our choices. In an article recently published by 17 of the world’s leading ecologists, they commented that “humanity is running an ecological Ponzi scheme in which society robs nature and future generations to pay for boosting incomes in the short term.”
As those leading ecologists mention, “this is instead a ‘cold shower’ on the state of the planet that is essential for planning to avoid a ghastly future.” Humans have irrevocably altered greater than 70% of Earth’s land surface and ocean. More than 600 plant species and 700 vertebrate species have been reported as extinct in the last 500 years—all of which are linked to the growth of human systems. The global population is currently growing, increasing the challenges that range from food insecurity at one end to over-farming at the other. These anthropogenic impacts on the planet have caused the deterioration of soil, air, water quality, and human health while increasing the number of natural disasters, floods, fires, infectious epidemics, and so much more.
How climate change impacts people and politics
As situations worsen, it isn’t only animals or those who have lost their homes to wildfires, floods, and earthquakes who are feeling the brunt of climate change. As a result of our actions, the growing number of natural disasters has left millions homeless. In 2019, Mozambique was hit by Tropical Cyclone Idai which alone internally displaced 146,000 people. This was one environmental disaster over the course of one day. In Asia and the Pacific, from 2010-2011 alone, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center reports that more than 42 million people have been displaced by climate events, more than twice the population of Sri Lanka.
Ideally, the plight of climate migrants would provide the impetus governments need to adequately address climate change. Unfortunately, according to a recent article by the Yale School of the Environment, “worsening trends should prompt positive responses from a rational being. The opposite is occurring. Worsening trends exacerbate social pathologies.” In the US, positions on climate change are an increasingly partisan endeavor. Additionally, crises around climate refugees and natural disasters can contribute to the rise of extreme ideologies, polarized countries, terrorism, and authoritarian leaders. Carl Safina from Yale360 cautions “all this makes less likely the cooperation necessary to ease root causes, creating a perverse cycle of ecological decline, rising risks, catastrophic damages, social inequality, and dysfunctional responses.” Humanity is nearing several irreversible tipping points.
What have governments done to address the challenges raised here and what else can be done? Read Part II.