Panelist Timothy Wirth offer solutions to stop climate change
With environmental concerns growing every year around the world, countless people have begun to take a proactive approach to such issues.
On Monday, Timothy Wirth spoke about this prominent topic at a panel for the Conference of World Affairs. The panel focused on the international issue of climate change and the pressing need for governments to seek a solution.
Wirth opened the speech by discussing climate change and how it has become an emerging issue over the decades, and one that the international system should focus on.
He stated in his speech that there are many reasons for global warming, some of which may be overlooked. In one instance, he contributed some of the growing environmental issues to the desire of the third world countries to become more industrialized which as a result releases more harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“The desire to escape poverty and join the developing world attributes to climate change,” Wirth said.
Therefore, one country’s plight to escape poverty becomes a relevant international environmental issue as the addition of factories worldwide is releasing more harmful emissions into the atmosphere than ever before. Through this, Wirth asserted that the changing climate can be attributed to many factors on an international front, not simply the waste of citizens in affluent countries.
He also included excerpts from Tom Hansen, a NASA climate scientist, for further support of the changing climate and the prominent need for immediate action to be taken. Hansen concluded in his work that the climate has been changing so rapidly that the atmosphere is warming by one degree per year.
“It will soon be impossible to avoid climate change with far reaching undesirable consequences,” Wirth said after recalling some of Hansen’s findings.
Wirth went on to offer up solutions and steps that need to be taken in order to slowly stop climate change. Of these steps, he first proposes that the emissions of carbon need to be reduced. He also said that there needs to be aggressive national and global economic efficiency standards. By this, every country must reduce their consumption of natural resources and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
Wirth said that if each country is able to conserve natural resources and energy then the threat of global warming will no longer be present and will not be a problem far into the future.
“Fifteen to 20 years from now carbon will be used only as a backup for days when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine,” Wirth said when proposing a future energy efficient world.
Wirth concluded his speech by stating that even though citizens can take proactive measures to reduce waste, it has now become a political issue that the government needs to get involved with in order for any serious steps to be taken.
He added that the United States needs to step up on an international front and take a proactive stance in order to serve as leaders for the rest of the international community. By urging government involvement, Wirth said he believes that citizens can become involved in the growing issue of climate change.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Rachael Fischer at
rachael.fischer@colorado.edu.