Climate change could seem insurmountable. But when you take a closer have a look at its causes, you realize that history is stuffed with similar health and environmental threats that humanity has overcome.
The major explanation for climate change is carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels – is just one other pollutant. And countries know tips on how to reduce harmful pollutants. They did so with the pesticide DDT, lead paint, and power plant emissions that caused acid rain, amongst many others.
In each case, growing public outcry eventually led to policy changes, despite industry resistance. Under pressure from laws and regulations, industry ramped up production of safer alternatives.
I’m earth and environmental scientistand my latest book “Reclaiming our planet,” explores the teachings of history in overcoming seemingly insurmountable threats. Here are some examples:
DDT ban despite industry opposition
DDT was the primary truly effective pesticide and considered miraculous. Killing mosquitoes and lice, eliminated malaria and other diseases in lots of countries, and in agriculture it saved tons of crops.
After World War II, DDT was utilized in farms, buildings and gardens throughout the United States. However, it also had its drawbacks. accumulated in mother’s milk to levels that might deliver a toxic dose to infants. Women were It was discouraged breastfed their children within the Sixties due to the risks.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
In addition, DDT bioaccumulated within the food chain to toxic levels in peak species akin to raptors. This weakened eggshells to the purpose that brood moms crushed their eggs. White-tailed eagles were reduced to 417 breeding pairs throughout North America by 1967 and were placed on the endangered species list.
Biologist Rachel Carson documented the damage DDT caused to her body 1962 book “Silent Spring”“and thus launched the general public environmental movement. Despite disinformation campaigns and attacks from the chemical industry, enormous social pressure on politicians led to congressional hearings, state and federal restrictions and finally the USA ban on the final use of DDT in 1972.
AP Photo/Charles Gorry
White-tailed Eagles recovered as much as 320,000 within the United States by 2017, concerning the same because the population before European settlement. The chemical industry, faced with the ban on DDT, quickly developed much safer pesticides.
Gathering evidence on the risks of lead
Application of lead increased dramatically within the twentieth centuryespecially in paints, plumbing and gasoline. It was so common that just about everyone was exposed to metal that, based on research, could also be harmful the kid’s kidneys, liver, cardiovascular system and brain development.
Clair “Pat” Patterson, a geochemist on the California Institute of Technology, has shown that Americans were always exposed to steer at near toxic levels. Human skeletons from the Sixties were found to have as much as 1200 times lead of ancient skeletons. Today health standards say that it is no secure level of lead within the blood.
Environmental Protection Agency
Despite threats each personal and skilled, and an industry disinformation campaign, Patterson and his supporters evidence has been collected from years warn the general public and ultimately pressure politicians to ban the usage of lead in lots of applications, including petrol AND residential paints.
After the regulations were introduced, the industry accelerated production of substitutesAs a result, the extent of lead within the blood of kids reduced by 97% over the subsequent few a long time. Although lead exposure is now less common, some individuals are still exposed to dangerous levels present in homes, pipes and soil, often in low-income neighborhoods.
Stopping Acid Rain: An International Concern
Acid rain is primarily attributable to the discharge of sulfur dioxide into the air in the course of the burning of coal, high-sulfur oil, and the smelting and refining of metals. interacts with rain or fogThe acid rain that falls can destroy forests, kill lake ecosystems, dissolve monuments and corrode infrastructure.
The damage attributable to acid rain in Europe and North America within the twentieth century showed the world that air pollution, which is not limited to national borders, can turn out to be a world crisis requiring international solutions.
The problem of acid rain began greater than a hundred years ago, but sulfur dioxide levels grew rapidly after World War IIIn 1952, a thermal inversion occurred in London, which resulted within the concentration of sulfur dioxide and other air pollutants being so high that killed hundreds of individualsAs damage to forests and lakes worsened across Europe, countries signed international agreements In the Nineteen Eighties, actions were taken to scale back sulfur dioxide emissions.
Photo by Seitz/ullstein via Getty Images
In the US, emissions from Midwestern power plants killed fish and trees within the pristine Adirondacks. The destruction, health problems and quite a few disasters outraged public opinion, to which politicians responded.
Sulfur dioxide listed as one in all six criteria for air pollution in groundbreaking study U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970which required the federal government to set limits on its release. Power plants scrubbers installed to capture pollution and over the subsequent 40 years, the concentration of sulfur dioxide within the U.S. reduced by about 95%.
Parallels with climate change
There are many similarities between these examples and climate change today.
Mountains scientific evidence show how carbon dioxide emissions are created by burning fossil fuels in vehicles, factories and power plants They are warming the planetThe fossil fuel industry has begun to use its political power AND disinformation campaigns a long time ago to block regulations the aim of which was to decelerate climate change.
People all around the world are scuffling with increasing heat and weather disasters attributable to global warming. calling for motion to stop climate change and put money into cleaner energy.
First Earth Dayin 1970, it attracted 20 million people. Recent years have seen a change in attitudes towards climate change and attracted tens of millions people all around the world.
Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
The challenge was to get politicians to act, but that is is slowly changing in lots of countries.
The United States has begun investing in scaling up several tools to tackle climate changeincluding electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Federal and state policies akin to requirements for renewable energy production and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are also key to pushing industries to change to less harmful alternatives.
Climate change is a global problem that may require worldwide motion. International agreements are also helping more countries take steps forward. One change that countries have been discussing for years could help bolster those efforts: ending billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded fossil fuel subsidies and allocating these funds to healthier solutions could help decelerate climate change.
