Climate Change: A Threat to our Social Environment

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“I have had a terrible, horrible day converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, now I need a moment to just breathe” (Pinterest). People have been dealing with the argument on climate change for approximately 200 years. Scientists have studied the facts, recognized the evidence, and determined that global warming is the most important problem the world is facing today. American sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote, “In recent years the cumulative toll of the greenhouse gasses that they have emitted has profoundly destabilized the climate, and with it, the social environment” (Klinenberg, xx). The idea of climate change hurting the social environment connects James F. Klumpp’s idea of social argument, since both refer to the setting where people live. …show more content…

The high temperatures warm ocean waters, melt ice caps, and causes sea levels to rise. All of which sustain both human and nonhuman lives, therefore causing problems socially if what is needed to survive is being effected. This is why global warming is solely a social argument because it “shapes our lives; respect for critique defines quality in our life-world” (Klumpp, 120). People need to be aware of the climate change and its effect on their social context and community. People debate so they can create plans of action to fix situations that they are dealing with. Thus, when people use their social experiences to respond to the crisis of climate change they focus on their community and how it can develop ways to transform its community experience into the context of the problem. Since human behavior is causing this change in climate due to the reliance on carbon-based energy sources, it is only fitting matters must be taken in their own …show more content…

Fossil fuel emissions are the major cause in climate change and human beings are the ones using theses as their energy sources. The carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere cause changes in nature and the, “Violations of the natural conditions of life turn into global social, economic, and medical threats to people-with completely new sorts of challenges to the social and political institutions of highly industrialized global society” (Beck, 80). People need to throw away their anthropocentric views and realize that the issue is not only the environment being affected by global warming, but that their lives are being disturbed by this phenomenon also. Many people tend to try and not harm themselves, instead they aim to stay healthy so they can live long prosperous lives. German sociologist Urlich Beck’s idea that “nature is society and society is also ‘nature’” (Beck, 81) suggests that the argument on climate change is more personal than anything. It is something that should be discussed in the private sphere by individuals reflecting on their own lives and choices. Humans should not look at recycling, as an example, a way to reuse the resources the earth gives them to help it sustain, but instead as a way to ensure that there will always be resources for themselves and their descendants to survive. The carbon emissions

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