Meteorological autumn it started in Poland with summer weatherwith forecasted heat above 30 degrees, deepening drought and extreme fire risk. The increase in average temperature and its consequences – heat waves, stronger weather extremes – are the result of accelerating climate change caused by our greenhouse gas emissions. That is why we asked our readers whether they are afraid of climate change.
Over 36,000 people voted in the poll under our article. The vast majority (67 percent, or over 24,000) of them answered that yes, they are afraid of climate change. 28 percent did not express such concerns, and one in 20 people had no opinion.
Despite the large number of votes, the results of such a poll are not representative of the entire society, because we do not know who voted in it and who did not. However, polls conducted “according to art” on representative samples of Polish women and men show very similar results.
Most fear climate change
In last year's survey for the non-governmental organization More in Common, as many as 71 percent of those surveyed declared that they were concerned about climate change – we read on the website Focus on Climate. Interestingly, this is more than the percentage of people who agree that humans are causing climate change. “This means that even people who do not believe that human activity has caused the climate crisis are afraid of its consequences,” we read on the website. (It should be added here that regardless of opinions, human impact on climate is a scientific fact and hard evidence confirms that our greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for all of the warming in the last 150 years).
– There is a great fear of what will happen next. Global warming, forests are burning everywhere, Greece and in other countries. In Poland there was a strange heatwave, […] and the highest temperatures on record, says 27-year-old Monika, one of the participants in the More in Common study.
Fears of climate change are not exaggerated. We can already see its effects in Poland – summers are getting warmer and winters are almost snowless, which fuels drought. Climate change also means less frequent but heavier rainfall. Examples are provided even in the last weeks of August – within a few days first in Warsaw,Publishlater in Zamość As much rain fell in one day as on average over two months.
So far, the Earth has warmed by an average of about 1.3 degrees Celsius since the second half of the 19th century (this period is the reference point, because that is when we started burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale and changing the climate). This means that the current effects are happening without exceeding the moderately safe limit of 1.5 degrees of warming. According to current forecasts, we will exceed this limit in the next decade. What happens next depends on us. We still have time to cut emissions and stop warming below 2 degrees Celsius. But the current plans of the world's states and governments – if they are implemented at all – are not enough, because they would mean enough emissions to heat the Earth by 2.5-3 degrees by 2100.
A clear recipe for a safe climate
What can we do to avoid the climate change scenarios that should cause the greatest concern? Specific answers are provided by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, a team of scientists from around the world who work at the UN.
In your the newest publications emphasize that in order to stop warming at around 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about half by 2030 and reach zero (net, i.e. we emit no more than we absorb) by mid-century. Rich countries have a greater responsibility, which is why they should reach zero emissions faster.
The proposed solutions to stop climate change assume broad, systemic changes, such as moving away from fossil fuels to clean energy from wind, sun or nuclear power. But it also talks about what individuals can do – changing their diet to a more sustainable one, switching from cars for bicycles or public transport, or limiting the consumption of products with a large carbon footprint. Scientists emphasized that the time has passed when climate change can be considered “not my business”, because it is “everyone's” business and everyone must act, from governments to individuals.