Marian M.

Alegado
Activity 11. Do You Agree in the Anthropogenic Climate Change
Based on what you learned from this presentation and your knowledge on climate change, do
you agree that the climate change of the last century up to the present is due to anthropogenic
activities? Why?
According to Cheryll Burgess Glotflety (1994), “we are facing a global crisis today, not because of
how ecosystems function but rather how our ethical systems function. Going through the crisis requires
understanding our impact on nature as precisely as possible, but even more, it requires understanding
those ethical systems and using that understanding to reform them.”

Glotfelty emphasizes the fact that environmental issues such as climate change is not because of
ecosystems function, rather it is because of ethical system functions caused by anthropogenic
activities. The ecosystem in itself in its reality, causes destruction to itself. Yet, not as worse as
how anthropogenic activities affect the environment. The extent on which human race has
destroyed the environment is undefendable from the last century up to the present. It is evident in
nuclear weapons, fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, creation of new materials such as
concrete, aluminum and plastic all over the world. As well as geological changes caused by dam
building, agriculture, mining, land filling, drilling, coastal reclamations and the such. These
anthropogenic activities are only an introduction to the causes of climate change and it has
already disturbed 50% of the entire world.
Now, why do we do this? Why do we need constant changes in our world? All of this is rooted
from one major event which is the industrial revolution. According to an article by Zeke
Hauzfather in 2017, he concludes that
“The global warming witnessed over the past 150 years matches nearly perfectly what is expected from
greenhouse gas emissions and other human activity, (both in the simple model examined here and in more
complex climate models.) The best estimate of the human contribution to modern warming is around
100%.
Some uncertainty remains due to the role of natural variability, but researchers suggest that ocean
fluctuations and similar factors are unlikely to be the cause of more than a small fraction of modern
global warming.”

Therefore, it is undeniable that human race has forced environmental destruction in itself, yet as
what Glotfelty has said, we can only resolve this issue is if we become aware of how we affect
the environment and take action where we must start from how our ethical systems function and
reform them may it be through policies, laws, and instilling ideologies regarding environmental
awareness. In addition to that, industrial revolution is inevitable. The only thing that we can do is
consider its impact on the environment and how we can continue to move forward to the next
industrial revolution without jeopardizing the world we live in.