I had a great start to the New Year as I my first piece of work has been published for Societas! The feature went into Medium Magazine earlier this month! Check it out..
In 1666 the Great Fire of London hit the country’s capital, blazing fiercely for five days. It destroyed over 13,000 houses making more than100,000 people homeless. In previous years there had been no less than six major warnings that this could, and probably would, happen. Why then did Londoners not take the necessary steps to prevent the catastrophe?
London was weak in 17th Century. The Great Plague was stalking England which gave locals a more immediate problem to worry about. Much like today, there was a hierarchy of needs which left protecting ones environment a low priority. Along with the disease came the lack of resources to act in a preventative fashion. There was no such thing as a fire brigade or even fire insurance so defending yourself was no easy feat.
A logical reason behind the lack of protection towards fire is denial. If no one believed another disaster would strike, there was no reason to prepare. Denying London’s inevitable downfall served as a perfect defence mechanism for the locals at the time, but came at an irreversible cost.
Since the realisation and development of climate change, it has negatively affected our weather patterns, health, sea levels and wildlife. To help comprehend what kind of threat the earth is under, here are six serious warnings that global warming has offered us so far.
In 2005, hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans killing at least 1,836 people and making it the deadliest U.S hurricane since 1928. The flooding in India in 2008 served as second warning that left half a million people stranded and homeless.
Moving away from the UK to a farther destination, we find another warning in the North Pole. Some scientists predict it will be ice-free by the end the year, others suggest the whole of the North Pole will have collapsed by 2050.
Proving it’s not just a few random areas being disturbed and we are dealing with a global problem are the water shortages in Africa and Australia.
From dying humans to dying animals, global warming isn’t just upsetting the weather. From approximately 65 million years ago, there have been six, separate mass extinctions. ‘Contemporary’ is the name of the current extinction and for the first time this one is mostly down to human actions.
A final and more recent warning struck in the form of Hurricane Gustav, hitting Cuba in late August 2008. Gustav caused $15 billion of damage killing 138 people in the U.S and Caribbean.
Six serious warnings which have affected us world-wide yet we still reject the call to action. Why, over 300 years later are we continuing to display similar behavioural patterns when we know what’s around the corner? (Perhaps the reason for the public’s reluctance isn’t just a simple case of laziness.) The parallels between the two disasters go beyond destruction; the actions of those affected in the 17th Century are comparable to those of today. Ignoring the obvious has once again lead to denial. Hiding behind this excuse gives the public a perfect scapegoat (how were we supposed to do anything when we didn’t realise there was a problem? How are we supposed to help when we don’t even believe we’re in trouble?). Whether it’s denying the fact there is a problem or denying the fact itself, we still see a drastic problem in human behaviour.
When it comes to climate change there are a hundred wake-up calls a day around the world. So what will it take for the world’s public to pay attention? Does global warming need its very own Great Fire to trigger a response?
One major outlet that serves us with information, influences our opinionsand even changes our behaviour is the media. Over the last year it’s nosurprise that global warming took a back seat to the state of our economyin terms of coverage and debate. Could this be a reason behind our lack ofsupport towards environment?
According to Roman Krznaric, teacher and writer, the answer to global realisation of climate change lies within empathy. Krznaric believes that if we understand how our actions can negatively affect others across the world, our behaviour should change accordingly.
As individuals we can do a lot to help, but when a country’s government is playing ignorant, it becomes a lot harder to follow by example.
Recent acts of the American Government have demonstrated a ridiculous streak of irony. The US Congress passed a piece of legislation to give public money to banks to stop them from collapsing, yet this is the government that has still not signed the Kyoto Protocol against global warming (though. Under the Obama administration this is looking likely to change.) Sending out mixed messages such as this lead to a confused public; if the government doesn’t care why should we?
The truth is it’s much easier to ignore what’s going on or even choose not to believe, but inevitably this isn’t something that will just go away after a couple of years. The collapse of our environment won’t wait for anyone, and certainly can’t be paid off.
We are not only facing an environmental problem. We face a social re-structure and not enough people are taking responsibility for the damage they are causing planet Earth. It’s not just a problem of 17th century England, but part of human behaviour. Before we can tackle our environmental issues, we need to knock down our social barriers. Thepublic’s resistance towards global warming needs be addressed through such methods as the media, the Internet and our governments. The sooner we stop denying our future, the sooner we can look forward to a clearer conscience.
© Laura Daly
London was weak in 17th Century. The Great Plague was stalking England which gave locals a more immediate problem to worry about. Much like today, there was a hierarchy of needs which left protecting ones environment a low priority. Along with the disease came the lack of resources to act in a preventative fashion. There was no such thing as a fire brigade or even fire insurance so defending yourself was no easy feat.
A logical reason behind the lack of protection towards fire is denial. If no one believed another disaster would strike, there was no reason to prepare. Denying London’s inevitable downfall served as a perfect defence mechanism for the locals at the time, but came at an irreversible cost.
Since the realisation and development of climate change, it has negatively affected our weather patterns, health, sea levels and wildlife. To help comprehend what kind of threat the earth is under, here are six serious warnings that global warming has offered us so far.
In 2005, hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans killing at least 1,836 people and making it the deadliest U.S hurricane since 1928. The flooding in India in 2008 served as second warning that left half a million people stranded and homeless.
Moving away from the UK to a farther destination, we find another warning in the North Pole. Some scientists predict it will be ice-free by the end the year, others suggest the whole of the North Pole will have collapsed by 2050.
Proving it’s not just a few random areas being disturbed and we are dealing with a global problem are the water shortages in Africa and Australia.
From dying humans to dying animals, global warming isn’t just upsetting the weather. From approximately 65 million years ago, there have been six, separate mass extinctions. ‘Contemporary’ is the name of the current extinction and for the first time this one is mostly down to human actions.
A final and more recent warning struck in the form of Hurricane Gustav, hitting Cuba in late August 2008. Gustav caused $15 billion of damage killing 138 people in the U.S and Caribbean.
Six serious warnings which have affected us world-wide yet we still reject the call to action. Why, over 300 years later are we continuing to display similar behavioural patterns when we know what’s around the corner? (Perhaps the reason for the public’s reluctance isn’t just a simple case of laziness.) The parallels between the two disasters go beyond destruction; the actions of those affected in the 17th Century are comparable to those of today. Ignoring the obvious has once again lead to denial. Hiding behind this excuse gives the public a perfect scapegoat (how were we supposed to do anything when we didn’t realise there was a problem? How are we supposed to help when we don’t even believe we’re in trouble?). Whether it’s denying the fact there is a problem or denying the fact itself, we still see a drastic problem in human behaviour.
When it comes to climate change there are a hundred wake-up calls a day around the world. So what will it take for the world’s public to pay attention? Does global warming need its very own Great Fire to trigger a response?
One major outlet that serves us with information, influences our opinionsand even changes our behaviour is the media. Over the last year it’s nosurprise that global warming took a back seat to the state of our economyin terms of coverage and debate. Could this be a reason behind our lack ofsupport towards environment?
According to Roman Krznaric, teacher and writer, the answer to global realisation of climate change lies within empathy. Krznaric believes that if we understand how our actions can negatively affect others across the world, our behaviour should change accordingly.
As individuals we can do a lot to help, but when a country’s government is playing ignorant, it becomes a lot harder to follow by example.
Recent acts of the American Government have demonstrated a ridiculous streak of irony. The US Congress passed a piece of legislation to give public money to banks to stop them from collapsing, yet this is the government that has still not signed the Kyoto Protocol against global warming (though. Under the Obama administration this is looking likely to change.) Sending out mixed messages such as this lead to a confused public; if the government doesn’t care why should we?
The truth is it’s much easier to ignore what’s going on or even choose not to believe, but inevitably this isn’t something that will just go away after a couple of years. The collapse of our environment won’t wait for anyone, and certainly can’t be paid off.
We are not only facing an environmental problem. We face a social re-structure and not enough people are taking responsibility for the damage they are causing planet Earth. It’s not just a problem of 17th century England, but part of human behaviour. Before we can tackle our environmental issues, we need to knock down our social barriers. Thepublic’s resistance towards global warming needs be addressed through such methods as the media, the Internet and our governments. The sooner we stop denying our future, the sooner we can look forward to a clearer conscience.
© Laura Daly
