The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses
Anthropogenic climate change (ACC) has evolved into a set of crises due to society’s deep economic dependency on fossil fuels. These multiple crises have been well documented and span diverse ecological, human health and economic settings. Given the scale and breadth of CC impacts, expert labeling o...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/7/1081 |
| _version_ | 1797590363966275584 |
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| author | Albert J. Gabric |
| author_facet | Albert J. Gabric |
| author_sort | Albert J. Gabric |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Anthropogenic climate change (ACC) has evolved into a set of crises due to society’s deep economic dependency on fossil fuels. These multiple crises have been well documented and span diverse ecological, human health and economic settings. Given the scale and breadth of CC impacts, expert labeling of the issues has gradually changed from the somewhat benign sounding “global warming” to the more frightening description of a “climate emergency”. Notwithstanding calls for transformative societal change, serious attempts to confront ACC have been hampered by decades of government policy inaction, various scientific debates, political conservatism and denial and public ignorance or apathy. Meanwhile, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations have increased inexorably and show no sign of plateauing. The impacts of ACC are becoming evident sooner than expected, and projections for the future of the planet’s ecosystems and the human population which depends on them are dire. Proposals to geoengineer the climate are currently being hotly debated within the scientific community but may prove to be a last resort if the impacts of unmitigated warming become even more severe. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:19:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-41d616b0125b4754980a94a39c2060cd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:19:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-41d616b0125b4754980a94a39c2060cd2023-11-18T18:15:13ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332023-06-01147108110.3390/atmos14071081The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible ResponsesAlbert J. Gabric0School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, AustraliaAnthropogenic climate change (ACC) has evolved into a set of crises due to society’s deep economic dependency on fossil fuels. These multiple crises have been well documented and span diverse ecological, human health and economic settings. Given the scale and breadth of CC impacts, expert labeling of the issues has gradually changed from the somewhat benign sounding “global warming” to the more frightening description of a “climate emergency”. Notwithstanding calls for transformative societal change, serious attempts to confront ACC have been hampered by decades of government policy inaction, various scientific debates, political conservatism and denial and public ignorance or apathy. Meanwhile, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations have increased inexorably and show no sign of plateauing. The impacts of ACC are becoming evident sooner than expected, and projections for the future of the planet’s ecosystems and the human population which depends on them are dire. Proposals to geoengineer the climate are currently being hotly debated within the scientific community but may prove to be a last resort if the impacts of unmitigated warming become even more severe.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/7/1081climate changefossil fuelsmitigationnonlinearitygeoengineeringaerosols |
| spellingShingle | Albert J. Gabric The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses Atmosphere climate change fossil fuels mitigation nonlinearity geoengineering aerosols |
| title | The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses |
| title_full | The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses |
| title_fullStr | The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses |
| title_short | The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses |
| title_sort | climate change crisis a review of its causes and possible responses |
| topic | climate change fossil fuels mitigation nonlinearity geoengineering aerosols |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/7/1081 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT albertjgabric theclimatechangecrisisareviewofitscausesandpossibleresponses AT albertjgabric climatechangecrisisareviewofitscausesandpossibleresponses |