Living With the ‘Collective Tinnitus’: Who Cares About Climate Change? -- an OpEd by Smith College student Sophia Zhu, class of 2018

On November 19, 2015 The Sophian -- an independent campus newspaper at Smith College in western Massachusetts -- published a very good oped by Sophia Zhu, from the Smith College class of 2018:                                                                                    

Living With the ‘Collective Tinnitus’: Who Cares About Climate Change?

 

[*** BLOG EDITOR NOTES: I had to look up the word tinnitus to find out the meaning. I did not know exactly what it meant. Now I do! And I love the way Ms. Zhu uses it to sound the alarm about tackling global warming issues!]

 

In her oped, Ms. Zhu -- a native of Shanghai in China who is an international student at Smith now -- brought up a very interesting idea, and after reading the essay, I contacted her by email and told her how much I liked the "tinnitus" approach to dealing with climate change issues and asked if I could list a link to her piece here. Do read the entire essay at the link below.

http://www.thesmithsophian.com/living-with-the-collective-tinnitus-who-cares-about-climate-change/

 “Climate change is a collective tinnitus – always ringing in the background, but so constant and seemingly incurable that we try to ignore it.”

-- John D. Sutter, CNN climate newsletter editor and columnist
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/21/opinion/sutter-peoples-climate-march/

KEY POINTS by Sophia Zhu:

[Excerpts from her oped]

 

The Met office, United Kingdom’s national weather service, announced on Nov. 9 that, based on data from January to September, the 2015 global mean temperature is 1.02 °C (±0.11 °C) above pre-industrial levels. For the first time, we are set to pass the milestone of 1 °C of warming and are halfway to the 2 °C target – the most lenient possible danger limit for disastrous climate change. Stephen Belcher, director of the Met Office confirmed that “it is human influence driving our modern climate into uncharted territory,” expressing his deep worries about consequences as the world continues to warm.

 

Climate change has long been a hot topic of debate and has attracted the attention of the public, scientists and policymakers all over the world. However, it is clear that solving environmental problems is far from top of the agenda. After having numerous global conferences and drafting agreements, threats of global warming, extreme climate change and mass extinction are hardly alleviated. Rather, the alarm sounds with more urgency.

 

As CNN columnist John D. Sutter put it [in 2014], “Climate change is a collective tinnitus – always ringing in the background, but so constant and seemingly incurable that we try to ignore it.”

[— John D. Sutter (@jdsutter) September 21, 2014

]]Climate change is a collective tinnitus -- always ringing in the background, but so constant and seemingly incurable that we try to ignore it.]]]

SUTTER CNN QUOTE: ''Climate change is a tinnitus ringing in everyone's ears [in the Marshall Islands]-- a day-to-day reality.''
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/18/opinions/sutter-pope-climate/

 

 

...The government cannot act on its own to protect the environment without strong public support. Policymaking is often a pragmatic assessment of costs and benefits, which may or may not take long-term social costs into consideration. As the Met office’s data shows, there is still hope to control global warming and keep it under the 2 °C threshold. This tinnitus has to be cured one day; what sets us back, however, is not lack of economic resources or technology  but a long overdue supportive and cooperative political climate