The Lack of urgency to Address Climate Change around the World

Transmittal Letter
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The Lack of urgency to Address Climate Change around the World
Abstract
Climate change is an issue that requires urgent intervention if we are to guarantee a future for the coming generations. Climate change continues to affect our world with an increase in natural disasters like flooding, drought, forest fires among others. All these are related to climate change in one way or another. However, the world seems not to be concerned about this issue and so not much is being done to address it. Lack of commitment by political and business leaders has been seen as one of the major reasons for this lack of commitment. The media has also failed to properly address this issue and this has been a problem because not everyone is informed about the importance of addressing climate change.
Introduction
Climate change is currently one of the most significant challenges the world is facing that continues to affect our human social, political, and economic systems. It is a challenge that has already reached unparalleled proportions as it comes with huge risks, uncertainties about the future and lack of universal stand among the world leaders to address this issue. Recent scientific research has already warned us about the dire consequences that await us and our future generations if nothing is done and done fast. However, despite the apparent danger, we find ourselves in, there seems to be a lack of commitment not just among the political class but also among the people around the world. Remarkably few people seem to be bothered about climate change, and that is an issue that requires more research to find out why most people are not concerned or worried about the danger we all face. Greta Thunberg's speech at Davos on January 23rd the year 2019. In her lecture titled "Our House is on Fire," she challenged world business and political leaders about the need to act fast to avert the crisis we are facing global warming. She is not the first to warn us to change our ways. Unfortunately, we never listen, and we continue to do the same things expecting different results. Ms Greta called on all of us including the media, ordinary people and the world leaders to start looking at climate change as if our lives and futures depended on it and do something before causing irreversible damage to our universe.
Greta Thunberg as a climate change activist
Background Information
Greta Thunberg is a 17-year-old Swedish girl who has been all over the world within the past year trying to warn as well as inform us of the dangers of climate change. Her mission has gained a lot of support from the world over due to the message she is trying to put across that touches on almost all humans and any other living thing. She first gained prominence for her role in leader her fellow students in Sweden on several strikes aimed at forcing the government to act on climate change by reducing emissions by up to 15% per year (Woodward). Soon her determination to bring change reached the whole world when she addressed more than 200 world leaders during a UN Climate Change summit in December 2018.
Campaign to address climate change
Greta Thunberg has emerged as a passionate climate change activist who is determined to take on all world leaders head-on. Every chance she gets, she has been able to hammer home some strong points aimed at evoking a reaction from them. During her speech at Davos, she said, "I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire—because it is" (The Guardian News). In her speech, she was challenging these economic leaders about the need to get out of their comfort zones and do something about climate change.
Greta Thunberg opposition
Greta Thunberg’s speeches have not always gone down well with most people across the world. Many have dismissed her as someone that does not understand what she is saying. Some world leaders have chosen to ignore her calls out rightly despite the overwhelming evidence that what she is talking about is real. News agencies have been the major culprits who have mainly dismissed her as a juvenile (Karen). Others have labeled her as a propagandist aiming to disrupt world order by sensational about something that is a hoax. All these opposition especially from the media is aimed at diverting attention from her message that she intends to pass (Zraick). Greta Thunberg has been able to rise above all that criticism focusing only on her mission with the hope that people at higher places will hear her cry and do the necessary. She has been able to gain massive following especially among fellow youths with whom she plans to exert more pressure on world leaders and force them to act.
Lack of media support
Lack of commitment by the media
One of the things that has remained a mystery to most people worldwide is the lack of concern for climate change especially among the media. The media plays a very critical role in the world as they have the power to set the agenda for people especially politicians to follow. The media has immense power based on the fact that it can decide which issues are of national importance and which ones are not (Harvey). Despite the massive power the media holds, there has been a lack of proper commitment from the media worldwide about the issue of climate change. None of the media outlets worldwide seems to care about the issue about climate change. Very rarely do we see any issue addressing climate change making it to the headlines in most of the media outlets (Moira and Huang). In most cases, issues about climate change are always addressed haphazardly and in some cases not addressed at all. There is no proper commitment by the media to inform the world about the danger that we all face. They seem to have lost their way of being the guardian of the people’s rights.
Media not taking their role seriously
One of the reasons the media is accused of letting people down on the issue of climate change is their inability to act when needed. The media has all the power to set the agenda for most politicians to discuss. However, in most case, they always let the politicians set the agenda for them. For example, in the 2016 American presidential election campaigns, the issue of climate change was not a major factor for most of the major candidates (Moira and Huang). Instead of pushing these candidates to know their position about this critical issue, the media failed on their part choosing to focus mainly on political issues instead of the environment. It is not only about that, recent research has revealed that most major world media outlets spend more time discussing political issues instead of any meaningful issues like climate ch...