Economic Climate Change
Prompt 1
In his 2015 Papal Encyclical, Laudato Si’, in which he addresses climate change and our collective responsibility to care for our “common home,” Pope Francis , S.J., observes that, “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political, and for the distribution of goods.”
Prompt 1 question:
Much has been written about the environmental implications of climate change, but less about the distribution of goods or the social, economic, and political implications. Which one of these less studied aspects of climate change seems to you most worrisome for our “common home,” and why?
I would like the prompt to use the economic implications.
– There will be a file uploaded as a sample, but no examples or ideas shall be taken from it!
The main point is to show critical thinking, therefore it doesn’t require sources.
Climate Change – Economic
Pope Francis S.J. discussed an ongoing global disaster, and our responsibility, as residents of this planet, to protect our “common home”. Climate change, a drastic change in Earth’s global temperature due to the increase of greenhouse gases, has been a worldwide problem ever since industrialization occurred. Industrialization has severely harmed the environment; the increase in Earth’s sea level, hurricanes, typhoons, and deforestation. All these natural disasters have contributed to the deterioration of the social, economic and political aspects. However, the most groundbreaking and consequential aspect is the economic damage. Climate change has a staggering effect since it does not only demolish the rural, agricultural businesses, but also financially drains the urban ones.
After the increase in average global temperature, the ice glaciers gradually break off and fall into the ocean. Displacing water, the ice causes the sea levels to rise, and this leads to extensive damage. Even if the ocean’s water level rises no more than a single meter, flooding will occur. It can also result from the rise in global average precipitation, where it is known that higher temperatures have a direct proportion to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. Therefore, the increase in temperature leads to the increase in precipitation causing floods. The floods have obliterated the agricultural businesses in rural areas, especially. They have caused lethal damage to the soil, where debris, like litter, is being deposited on top of the soil. Floods also cause the soil to erode or wash away, depleting the plants and stopping them from further growth. Additionally, floods abundantly impact the nutrients in the soil, ruining and depleting them as well. Lacking these nutrients will result in the soil becoming infertile. Due to the floods’ aftermath, the farmers suffer a great loss of soil, nutrients, and arable land. This leads to the decrease in production of crops and agriculture, thus strongly deteriorating the farmers’ economic, and financial state. Flooding drastically squanders the economy when repairing its damages, where it cost the state of Nebraska 188.8 million dollars for resupplying the agricultural loss only, excluding business operations and infrastructure.
An increase in average global temperature contributes to hurricanes’ intensity as well. Therefore, hurricanes are more likely to occur in areas of the world where temperatures are higher. After warm air with water vapor from the water surface rise, cooler air replaces it. Then, the process accumulates forming thunderstorms, with winds coming from every direction. This is when hurricanes start forming. Over time, these winds will accumulate, becoming more powerful. When the winds are at its strongest, hurricanes are apparent and this is when they are lethal to the environment. Hurricanes dreadfully affect big conglomerates, local businesses, and familial homes by weakening their economic statuses. The sheer force of hurricanes’ winds destroy homes, buildings, knock down power lines, and even demolish cars off roads. This natural disaster could distort or destroy building essentials when the extreme winds pressure different sides of a place. For instance, doors could be blown off into the wind when they are hit by the hurricane, and the same goes for windows or roof tiles. This outbreak could affect big industries and their machinery where everything gets torn apart, causing a huge deal of economic loss. Industries need to repair the damage done by the hurricane, like extracting debris, repairing constructional harm, and restoring the electricity for the company to operate. These setbacks would create a ripple effect, where they not only affect the damaged areas, but they slow down the production and efficiency of the whole process as well, like distribution or manufacturing. Since the companies’ economy will be hurt, the employees’ wages are likely to decrease, decelerating their financial stability.
Not only does it hurt the environment, climate change also vigorously harms the economy. People end up losing their jobs, companies’ businesses will reduce the income and knock down their financial states.
