Climate Change: An Existential Crisis or a Hoax Research Paper

Siranush Mkhitatryan
ESL 151- Dr. Liddiard
January 21, 2021
Research Paper Outline  
Climate Change: An Existential Crisis or a Hoax
Where environmentalists and scientists continue with their never-ending tug war, the theory of environmental changes being an existential crisis keeps gaining strength. The world is standing on the verge of destruction due to global warming according to various social scientists. The rapid climate change is airing a serious threat the nature, human race and civilization. A great deal of BBC news updates is supporting the notion that the existential threat of climate change, which is different from weather changes, is getting stronger with more and more pieces of evidence from the world (Briggs 1). It can impact human health in two main ways as it changes the intensity or frequency of health issues and creates unprecedented health problems like heart disease and mental anxiety (Kessel). Climate change and global warming pose a significant health risk, according to various social science analysts like Butler and Logan. They consider it a risk to the human race and civilization. Also, terror management theories are a sign of the severity of its potential impacts on human mentality. On the contrary, there is a school of thought regarding social scientists with an identical notion that climate change poses no existential dread. Although some people are sure that climate change is not catastrophic, I strongly argue that it is an existential crisis.
           Anthropogenic global warming and climate change in collaboration with other social and ecological factors pose a significant health risk. Collin D Butler reviews the anthropogenic global warming and climate change as an existential threat in his report of an inclusive literature analysis covering 14 initial years when the topic emerged as a burning question in scientific journals (Butler 2212). Rising sea levels and episodic drought give rise to financial and relationship stress. Adepoju states that climate change challenges health. Rising sea levels, tsunamis, and volcanoes followed by the scary pandemic demand an environmental health approach to come to an end (Adepoju 1). Other critics opine that sea-level rise combined with other climate changes like episodic droughts will lead to civilization collapse (Butler). While talking about severe weather-related morbidity, a systematic study explores the connection between climate change and morbidity, which refers to mortality or diseases caused by this existential threat (Butler 2215). Ozymandias also highlights the danger of morbidity or mortality during extreme weather. Specifically, he refers to people in industrial areas or working outdoor for several hours as more prone to extreme heat strokes leading to morbidity (Ozymandias). Ozymandias further discusses climate change as an existential threat fearing that the Earth might become like ‘Venus’ as a result. He highlights five significant concerns, including ‘threatened systems,’ ‘extreme weather’ like heavy rain, heatwaves, and natural disasters, ‘distribution of impacts’ emphasizing the poor as more vulnerable to the damage, harm to the global economy, ...