Frequently Asked Questions

Climate change is defined as “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns” (What Is Climate Change? | United Nations). The term “climate change” has been demonized, but there is a distinction between climate change and the climate crisis we are in now. 

What is that difference? Look at the next question for your answer!

Climate change itself is not the problem. As fixated as we are about the issues of increasing temperatures and carbon dioxide, the world has actually been hotter and more plentiful in CO2 in the past (A Graphical History of Atmospheric CO2 Levels Over Time). In regular circumstances, heat and CO2 are not dangerous. What, then, makes the climate crisis such a threat? In short, it is the fact that it is "anthropogenic," or, "human-caused."

Starting in the 18th century, essentially every innovation was powered by the miraculous discovery of fossil fuel deposits (see next question). After hundreds of years of using fossil fuels as our primary energy source, the GHGs released have causing the average global temperature to increase at a faster pace than any other point in earth’s recorded history. Currently (as of 2023), 82% of global energy still comes from fossil fuels, which means that GHGs continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and the climate crisis continues to accelerate (Fossil Fuels Accounted for 82% of Global Energy Mix in 2023 Amid Record Consumption: Report).

Humans have created this crisis too fast for other species (or our species, for that matter) to adapt. Knowing this, it shouldn't be surprising that we are facing ecological collapse left and right.

There are three primary types of fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), these are the distinctions between each:

• Carbon - "a solid, carbon-heavy rock that comes in four main varieties, differentiated largely by carbon content: lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, and anthracite... all coal causes toxic pollution of our air, land, and water—and its toxic legacy continues to plague communities that surround the industry’s dirty facilities. And in terms of emissions, it’s the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel we can burn."

• Oil (also known as crude oil or petroleum) - "a liquid fossil fuel made up mostly of hydrocarbons (hydrogen and carbon compounds). Oil can be found in underground reservoirs; in the cracks, crevices, and pores of sedimentary rock; or in tar sands near the earth’s surface."

• Natural gas - "[c]omposed mostly of methane (the second-most damaging climate pollutant), natural gas is generally considered either conventional or unconventional, depending on where it’s found underground. Conventional gas is located in porous and permeable rock beds or mixed into oil reservoirs and can be accessed via standard drilling. Unconventional gas is essentially any form of gas that is too difficult or expensive to extract via regular drilling, requiring a special stimulation technique, such as fracking."

Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts 

Oil and natural gas are often viewed as the "cleaner" alternatives to coal, but despite their slight differences in carbon emissions, the reality is that all three are fossil fuels and all three have extraction, refining, and burning processes that harm the planet.

Climate justice is a crucial aspect of the climate crisis. Click here to explore what it is and why it's so important.

The observant reader may notice that the term “global warming” is never used as a synonym for the climate crisis. This is because, although the targets and terrors associated with the climate crisis all include degrees of planetary warming, this is an average. That is what climate is. Weather, on the other hand, occurs at a particular place at a particular time. The climate crisis causes weather to be more extreme in many cases, but that weather is not always hotter. As environmental and labor economist R. Jisung Park states, “there may in some places paradoxically be more frequent days that feel unusually cold because, as the world warms, the jet stream can weaken, leading to periodic collapses that permit arctic air to travel farther south than usual… [this is] creating confusion, and opportunistic showmanship that feeds on it.” (Slow Burn, page 32).

A consequence of this law of averages means that in some places, anthropogenic warming is much slower - but in others, it's much faster. The Arctic is currently 20 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial mean, compared to global average of about 1.2 degrees. This has the potential to cause all sorts of disasters, which can be explored here.

The greenhouse effect is the process by which a sort of atmospheric insulation allows heat from the sun to be trapped instead of dissipating back into space. This insulation comes from greenhouse gases (GHGs), which are heat-absorbing compounds in the air. The primary GHGs are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), and chlorofluorocarbons, but many others exist (Causes - NASA Science). 

This relatively simple phenomena is of the major misunderstandings within climate science. The greenhouse effect is not to blame for the climate crisis – in fact, it is essential to life surviving and thriving. The greenhouse effect and GHGs are a crucial part of natural climate change, and have fluctuated over millions of years.

This accumulation of GHGs causes an unprecedented increase in global temperatures, which triggers innumerable catastrophes. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events has increased, including “[r]ecord-breaking heat waves on land and in the ocean, drenching rains, severe floods, years-long droughts, extreme wildfires, and widespread flooding during hurricanes” (Extreme Weather - NASA Science). These major changes threaten wildlife across the globe, by making their habitats inhabitable and depleting them of necessary resources. According to the World Wildlife Fund, “up to 14% of species face a very high risk of extinction at 1.5°C of warming. At 3°C of warming, that number could rise to as much as 29% of species” (The effects of climate change on Wildlife | WWF). 

Despite our refusal to consider ourselves part of the animal kingdom, we are not immune to the effects of the climate crisis. We are most often impacted in the same way as nature is, as natural disasters tear down infrastructure and directly take lives. Furthermore, the climate crisis is considered a “threat multiplier, undermining and potentially reversing decades of health progress” by “increasing the risk of deaths, noncommunicable diseases, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and health emergencies” (Climate change). The health impacts of anthropogenic climate change range from heat stroke to exacerbation of heart disease to unfamiliar illnesses. The climate crisis also harms society in more indirect ways, by interrupting manufacturing, agricultural and food supply, clean water and sanitation access, and the stability of the world economy.

The climate crisis, scientifically, is a matter of greenhouse gas emissions - which means that those who emit the most are also the most responsible. GHG emissions are able to be measured quantitatively, with the following qualitative results:

• The Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and companies that recklessly emit GHGs and encourage continuous unsustainable actions against the climate are responsible.

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions | Climate crisis | The Guardian

• The countries that have historically benefited from industrialization and in the present continue to emit without regard for its impacts are responsible.
  Which countries have contributed the most to historical CO₂ emissions? | Our World in Data

• The billionaires and leaders that, today, are bought out by fossil fuel companies and refuse to take meaningful climate action are responsible.
  Twelve billionaires’ climate emissions outpollute 2.1m homes, analysis finds

The Paris Agreement is an international treaty, signed in 2015, which sets targets to keep warming below 2C above pre-industrial temperatures, pursue efforts to keep warming below 1.5C, and “reach global net-zero emissions.” These are all generally agreed upon tipping points, after which most scientists expect we will see much greater impacts. The Agreement should be praised for setting noble goals, but, unfortunately, “[m]ost experts say that countries’ pledges are not ambitious enough and will not be enacted quickly enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.” (Paris to Kyoto: The History of UN Climate Agreements | Council on Foreign Relations). Especially with the withdrawal of the United States, one of the world’s largest GHG emitters, the Paris Agreement will have very little impact. This means that action must be taken immediately to update it or craft a new agreement that takes legal measures to strictly enforce climate actions that will actually keep warming under 1.5C.

No, it is not. Learn more about how much time we have, what't at stake, and what must be done here.

A price on carbon, international cooperation, sectoral transformations, and possibly a Green New Deal are all necessary to win the climate fight. Click here to explore them in more detail.