Climate change is a naturally occurring process that happens through history
This isn't the first time earth has experienced a global climate change and it won't be the last time. Climate change is a process that people seem to forget doesn't have to take millions of years but can happen much faster, sometimes instantaneously. Humans are just along for the ride.
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The Argument
Climate change is a process that occurs naturally throughout history. To blame it all on humans ignores the fact that nature cannot be controlled. While people have been trying to manipulate nature to their benefit, it doesn’t always work out. Whether through prayer or science, there's a reason it's referred to as a force of nature.
As time goes on and peoples' knowledge of science continues to grow, so too does their understanding of how things happen. We understand why climate change is happening and how it happens. We don’t completely understand how to undo it though.[1]
People continuously promote green energy and eco-friendly materials, but they’re all looking for instant fixes. They want the answers and solutions immediately. Fixes for climate change are not immediate.
The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) took almost 200,000 years to return to normal temperatures. The last ice age the planet had also took place 2.6 million years ago and even lasted till about only 11,700 years ago. It took more than 2.5 million years to return to normal temperatures.[2]
This current climate change, while faster, is just another change the planet is going through, much like the PETM and the ice age. Humans are trying to counteract it, but you cannot stop nature, only work alongside it.
Counter arguments
Climate change isn't a recent occurrence; people have seen cases throughout the history of the planet. The problem is with how fast it's progressing.
Tens of thousands of years of natural changes are only taking hundreds of years for the same results, due to human influence. People are becoming afraid because while climate change is natural, what's happening is an irregularity. An irregularity that's happening because of outside intervention.
The PETM might've happened a long time ago but looking at the time period shows the future humans are heading towards. The temperature change, while only a few degrees to some, is in truth deadly. Humans can survive about 108 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures, but schools close down when temperatures reach above 100 degrees.[3]. Just this year, California, Death Valley reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit.[4]
A few degrees might not seem like much, but when these temperatures are the consequence, it doesn’t matter if historically the planet has come out of it naturally. It doesn’t matter if it’s natural or man-made changes. The real question is, will everyone survive it.
Proponents
Premises
[P1] While this is the first time humans are properly recording climate change there are records of it happening to the earth before humans populated it
Rejecting the premises
[RP1] If the temperature climbs to high it can start to become a deadly threat
References
- https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-climate-change-happening-and-what-are-causes-1?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products
- https://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html
- https://fortune.com/2018/08/27/extreme-heat-closing-northeast-back-to-school/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/12/climate-change-why-heatwaves-are-more-deadly-as-nights-warm-faster.html