While I did not chose global warming as the subject of my final essay, I did want to discuss a few points about it here.
1. As someone who tries to think long-term when it comes to finances, the impacts of global warming became very real for me when a US government report found that: "By 2050, the scientists forecast, changes in rainfall and hotter temperatures will reduce the agricultural productivity of the Midwest to levels last seen in the 1980s." In the year 2050, I will most likely not even be retired. If I were to ever plan financially for my retirement, I should be considering the likelihood of economic shocks resulting from climate change during my working life. This is a notable difference from the reality facing my parents, for whom global warming will never be an imminent economic question as much as a moral one. 2. I am hopeful, as many others are, that technological advancement will ameliorate these problems before they become catastrophic, but I do not see in the world today the kind of concerted effort to pursue needed technological advancement that underlay the Manhattan Project, the race to the moon, or the digital revolution. Perhaps this will change before the impacts of climate change are felt, if the consequences for people of my generation are made clear, and we eventually assume the levers of power. Then, the self-interest that underlay those other technological achievements might be fostered in a way that could help us protect the planet and our future on it.
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AuthorAmerican University Class of 2021. Interested in state-building and economic governance. Archives
December 2018
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