Andri Budiman/ 201532020

Language in Public Policy and Management Essay

The Global Impacts of Climate Change

Climate change has a great impact in human life. Extreme weather events, desertification, deforestation and
even the change of sea levels affect our daily life literally. This will result in the increase of famine, increase of
poverty gap, disease outbreak in certain area and also the lost of place to live with.
According to study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Southeast Asia will have the biggest impacts
of climate change because of their dependence on agricultural sector, limited access to other sources of resources
because of the scarcity problem, and their governmental issue. This will encourage the people to move from the
rural area to the city in order to find a better place to live with. Approximately 2.2 billion Asians are threatened by
the falling crop yields caused by floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts (Asian
Development Bank, 2009).
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that an increase in global temperature for 1 or
2C above preindustrial levels can increase damage to or irreversible loss of unique and threatened ecological
system and also causing extreme weather events (Global Humanitarian Forum, 2009). This climate impacts include
more severe floods that caused by tropical glaciers melt, droughts and famine as well as the breakdown of
ecosystem, the extinction of biodiversity and indigenous communities (Smith, 2008).
It is very clear that we have to stop the increase of global temperature by reducing the use of fossil fuels
such as oil, coal, gas and stop deforestation to avoid the global impacts of climate change. Leading scientist warn
that right now we are already having the climate change impacts.
First, there is an increasing of sea level about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) which are caused by the added
water from melting land ice and the expansion of sea water as it warms, the rate is nearly double that of the last
century (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2015).
Second, climate scientist agree that climate change is caused by the expansion of greenhouse effect that
traps heat radiating from earth toward space. This resulted in the increase of temperature about 0.68C in the year
2014 that ranks as the warmest years in the last 134 years (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2014).
Third, the ocean temperature is raised 17.61C from 1969 especially in the top 700 meters or 2.300 feet,
because of this increase the Antarctic ice shelves lost 2.921 trillion pounds (1.325 kilograms) of ice per year in

2003 to 2008 through basal melt, while iceberg formation accounted for 2,400 trillion pounds (1,089 trillion
kilograms) of mass loss each year (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2013).
Fourth, data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show that since 2002 Antarctica has
been losing 134 billion metric tons of ice per year and Greenland has been losing 287 billion metric tons of ice per
year (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, n.d.a). Same thing also happen in Arctic, where it is expected
that the sea ice extent is declining at a rate of 13.3% per decade, this makes the ice extent in September 2012 is the
lowest in a decade (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, n.d.b).
Fifth, there are 7 glaciers spot that have 400 billion tons approximate total glacier loss per year and also 6
spot in Greenland and Iceland that have 100-250 billion tons - approximate ice loss of per year (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, n.d.c).
Sixth, there are extreme weather events due to our climate changes where wet areas become wetter, dry
areas become drier, and numerous storms and hurricane are taking form. IPCC stated that an increase in global
temperature will changes the precipitation rate and atmosphere composition, as the atmosphere becomes warmer,
evaporation rates of an area will increase and more intense precipitation will triggering flood over land. On the
contrary, warmer temperatures in dry land can lead to a long-drawn drought (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, n.d.d).
Seventh, approximately there is 30% increase in acidity in surface ocean water since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution. This is the result of increasing greenhouse emission that is being absorbed into the oceans,
this is known as climate cools and warms cycles (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, n.d.e).
It is very clear that rapid growth in population and industrialization are the main reason why we are having
the climate change problem from the first place, this growth has put pressure on our land and our forests and because
of this pressure we increase the greenhouse gas emission that accelerate the climate change. There are 2 possible
solutions to solve this problem that is to change the structure of the economic and society or to do climate
transformation (Stern, 2014a), these solutions are differentiated by the time frame how it is should be done.
In short term, changing the structure of the economic and society are easier and reasonable to do than the
climate transformation. This solution solves the climate problem by encouraging the government to build cities in
different ways, by design the cities in a compact way so that the people can move around the cities more efficiently
through mass rapid transportation system like Bus Rapid Transport System in Bogota, Colombia and also by
implementing some regulations or policy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions such as applying congestion

charge that successfully rapidly reduce the problem of smog which are caused by coal industry in London back in
the year of 1950s. Besides providing a quick and effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this solution
also does not need a large of fund and much cheaper that the climate transformation (Stern, 2014b). According to the
Transportation Study Institute of Indonesia the construction cost of Mass Rapid Transportation (MRT) are more
expensive than the construction cost of Bus Rapid Transportation System (BRT), MRT cost in Singapore is USD
54.5 million per km, Seoul USD 65.8 million per km, Calcutta USD 59.9 million per km, Mexico USD 43.8 million
per km, and Jakarta USD 98 million per km (Transportation Study Institute of Indonesia, 2012). While the
construction cost of Bogota Bus Rapid Transportation is only USD 5.9 million per km (United Nations Development
Program, 2012).
In long term, climate transformation can be the answer to solve the climate change. These solutions suggest
the countries to use renewable energy than the fossil fuel by using natural forces and turn it into energy such as
project Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California, The Alta Wind Energy Center in California and London Array
Wind Farm in the UK, Three Gorges Dam in China or even The Geysers Geothermal Complex in California.
Another step of climate transformation is to move to a low-carbon economy by campaign the 3R slogan like Reduce,
Reuse and Recycle and by doing rehabilitation degraded land like reforestation in Brazil and Ethiopia (Stern,
2014b). The problem of this solution is its need a large of fund or money to be implemented because the country
must invest in building a renewable energy power plant or to fund the reforestation or rehabilitation land project.
Because many of developing countries doesnt have the fund to undergo this solution, according to Copenhagen
Climate Change Conference 2009, developed countries must help the developing countries by committing 30
billion per year to roll the plan of end global deforestation before 2020 (United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, 2009). This movement is also known as Reduce Emissions from forest Destruction and
Degradation (REDD) that are lead by the United Nations.
By comparing the 2 solutions above and considering the current situation we are having now, the different
type of groups we have in the society and also because we dont have much times to do the long-term plan. It is best
to choose the first solution to address the climate change problems because its offer a quick and significant result
because it is easily implemented and doesnt cost much of money compare to the second solution. However, if the
situation is already under control and the society have got the same awareness in how to fight climate change, then
in that time we can do the climate transformation as a part of climate change solution. It is because the first solutions

and the second solutions are correlated and supporting each other. If the first solution success than the second one
will be easier to do and to implement.

References
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Population Balance. Retrieved September 6, 2015 from http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2009/13016-asianclimates-changes/
Global Humanitarian Forum. (2009). Human Impact Report, Climate Change. Retrieved September 5, 2015 from
http://www.ghf-ge.org/human-impact-report.pdf
Smith, J. (2008). PCC 3 key (of 5) Reason for Concern from 2001-2014 [Online Image]. Retrieved September 6,
2015 from http://www.climateemergencyinstitute.com/2c.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2015). Sea Level. Retrieved September 6, 2015 from
http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2014). Global Temperature. Retrieved September 6, 2015 from
http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2013). Warming Ocean Causing Most Antarctic Ice Shelf Mass
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Problem. Retrieved September 7, 2015 from
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F

Stern, Lord Nicholas. (2014a). The state of the climate and what we might do about it [video file]. Retrieved
September 9, 2015 from
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Stern, Lord Nicholas. (2014b). The state of the climate and what we might do about it [video file]. Retrieved
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