Reality versus Fiction

An appropriate maxim for global warming is "It is better to be safe than sorry." While it is obvious the Earth is warming, it is uncertain whether or not the Earth is warming because of humans or because of natural causes. Studies have shown that as carbon emissions increase, so does the temperature of the Earth. When the Earth was in its ice age, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was 180 ppm. To be comfortable on Earth only required a concentration of 280 ppm but it has now exploded to a number of 381, far exceeding the requirements. The Earth may be warming of its own accord but we are definitely contributing through our machinery, our livestock, and our desire for instant gratification. Global warming may not be wholly our dilemma but we must take responsibility for our part; if, by chance, global warming turns out to be a fluke, we will have a sufficient base of knowledge for a solution when the time comes. Faced with uncertainty, humans tend to try to prepare for the worst so that they may be able to ride it out if need be. What makes the uncertainty of global warming any different?

It is important to put aside notions of whether or not global warming by humans is factual because whether or not it was caused by humans, it is happening, even as we have these debates. Decreasing apathy about the environment is the first step towards a solution. In America, according to polls, global warming ranked 20th as an important election issue. In comparison to such tangible things as economy, global warming funding loses support.  According to The Ecologist, the psychology of climate change informs us that people do not act to diminish the problem because of uncertainty over the size of the problem, distrust for government officials, social comparison to what other people are doing to alleviate the situation, the belief that there is time to solve the problem at hand, perceived lack of control to make an impact, and habits that people fail to change because they can't follow through on not receiving their text messages first thing in the morning or printing their documents as soon as they wake up.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/301036/the_psychology_of_climate_change_why_we_do_nothing.html

Therefore, we must impress upon people that the problem is real and preventable (as it genuinely is), improve relationships between politicians and their citizens, and impress upon people that the problem is important enough to take a stand on now. There are many other things we could do - decrease the birth rate, provide more resources to developing countries so that they may focus on environmentalism, and acting as a global leader in environmentalism so that others may be encouraged to do the same - but none of this matters if too few people are willing to act and sacrifice a quick-paced but selfish lifestyle. The window for change is slowly closing and we are helpless against time but we are not helpless against ourselves. We may be able to adapt our crops, our fields, our livelihoods and entire lifestyles but we would not be able to physically adapt to the hurricanes, tsunamis, and flooding that occur because of global warming.

Our focus on profit is a particular barrier; the kids of America aren't learning anything because they're just trained to memorize facts? That's okay because we will have better statistical scores than the rest of the nations surveyed. The United States won't be destroyed by global warming until we're dead? Good, let's hand over the problem to our successors because we need to making the big bucks with our world-class, world-ending gasoline.