We are are more prepared to face climate change than you think
The last decade has seen a rapid increase in extreme weather events and long-term regional climate shifts that now disrupt economic activity, daily life, ecosystems and public health all around the world. Global emissions of greenhouse gasses have rapidly altered the climate of the planet creating a global crisis we now know as climate change. In our own country, brutal heatwaves in the Southwest, devastating fires in California and dramatic cold spells in Texas have emphasized the imminent threat of climate change to Americans.
With every year that goes by, it becomes easier to notice the reality of the climate crisis and the threat it poses to our prosperity and safety. It doesn’t help at all that our head of state denies the existence of anthropogenic climate change, withdrew our country from global emissions treaties and continues to eliminate policy supporting emissions regulation and clean energy development. Similarly, global inequalities across economic development and geopolitical power mean that many of the poorest countries in the world are the least equipped to face increasingly harsh and unpredictable climates.
Today, significant percentages of Americans — especially among Generation Z — report feeling anxious about climate change and its potential impact on their lives. In a 2024 survey of young American adults aged 16 to 25, 85% of respondents indicated at least a moderate worry about climate change, and 38.3% reported that their worry over climate change negatively affects their daily lives. Behind this is dissatisfaction with the amount of effort taken by leaders in both government and business to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet, the reality of the situation is not as bleak as many of us would think. As we adjust our policies and improve our technology to curb greenhouse gas emissions — the root cause of the climate crisis — warming forecasts have become far tamer than they were even a decade ago. Despite the severity of this issue, it is essential to stay rational and optimistic about our future, and recognize that while challenges remain, hardship will not equate hopelessness.
Much of this anxiety surrounding climate change is attributed to fears that it will threaten humanity’s survival. If global warming exceeds 6 degrees Celcius, agricultural collapse, ecological devastation, sea level-rise and extreme weather could threaten billions of lives around the world.
While the first climate forecasts in the 1980s indicated that warming above 4 degrees by 2050 was possible, contemporary modeling suggests a far more favorable outcome. In just the past ten years, these projections have dropped down to under 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. On our current course, we will suffer high economic, ecological and health costs, but at a level most of global society can withstand and adapt to.
Regularly improving climate projections are no coincidence. The work of researchers, activists and policymakers worldwide to bring attention to this crisis has had an extremely tangible impact. Hundreds of countries made domestic policy reforms and have signed on to a number of climate mitigation treaties. In fact, global per capita emissions peaked over a decade ago in 2012. Even failed efforts have contributed to overall progress: For example, 1997’s unsuccessful Kyoto Protocol laid the groundwork for the 2016 Paris Climate Accords, which, despite the world’s failure to meet its ambitious goals, have pushed significant emissions reforms around the world.
Beyond government reforms, technological development creates more opportunities to reduce carbon emissions. Currently, renewable energy is not only cleaner than fossil fuels, but it is also less expensive in terms of building new energy capacity from scratch. Furthermore, the rapidly growing market for electric vehicles also exemplifies the massive potential of sustainable technologies.
However, it’s easy to feel like the climate crisis is only worsening when there is a seemingly endless stream of worrying headlines and letters of warning in the media. Convincing the world of the gravity of the climate crisis is an undeniably critical part of encouraging action and solving it. Yet, it is often difficult to recognize positive developments through the veil of a media system that profits off of worry and distress. The media disproportionately centers negative narratives about the climate because they naturally tend to garner more of our attention.
All this pessimistic news and content only serve to foster hopelessness and inaction instead of empowering us and showing a way forward. Climate anxiety should not dominate our feelings, especially when progress shows that a sustainable future is within reach. The real situation of the climate is far more nuanced than how we think or feel about it. For every instance of bad news, there is a new technology, policy or development worthy of recognition and enthusiasm.
The global climate crisis deserves the complete attention and devotion of human society. That being said, awareness shouldn’t lead to panic. Current projections still predict significant hardship, but we are not helpless in the face of this crisis. Establishing even a marginally more positive perspective won’t just help alleviate our anxiety, it is how we can emerge from paralyzing hopelessness into motivated, energetic action. No matter how far away we are from ideal climate goals, every tenth of a degree of warming we can prevent counts. As we stand, we cannot let climate anxiety take away from the movement toward sustainability.
Willem DeGood is an Opinion Analyst from Traverse City, MI who writes about culture, economics and the environment. He can be reached at whdegood@umich.edu.