Do Global Warming and Climate Change Represent a Serious Threat to Our Welfare and Environment?

The subjects of “global warming” and “climate change” have become parts of both the popular lexicon and the public discourse. Discussions of global warming often evoke passionate responses and fierce debate between adherents to different views of the threat posed. Yet there are many nuances regarding global warming, climate change, and the threats they represent that are not well understood by the public. The public’s conceptual understanding hinges largely on images and paradigms within the popular culture that are often little more than caricatures of the actual, underlying scientific concepts. To appreciate the potential threat that climate change and global warming represent to human society, living things, and our environment, it is necessary that we first understand the true science underlying these phenomena. The purpose of this essay is to assess the implications of climate change for the welfare of human society and our environment. I will first discuss the science underlying global warming, climate change, and the connections between these two phenomena (Section II). I will then explore what climate changes are projected for the future under various plausible scenarios of future human behavior (Section III), and what impacts these changes are likely to have on society, ecosystems, and our environment (Section IV). Finally, I will consider the economic, security, and ethical considerations relevant to evaluating the threat of climate change (Section V) and the steps that should arguably be taken to mitigate climate change and its impacts (Section VI). I will summarize my conclusions Section VII.