6 Misconceptions That Make Climate Change More Urgent!

Amidst Indonesia’s efforts to address climate change, there are still misconceptions about climate change. This is potentially detrimental and dangerous to efforts to address the global phenomenon of climate change. According to a YouGov survey in 2020, Indonesia ranked first as a country with many citizens who do not believe in climate change. In this survey of 26,000 respondents from 25 countries, 21 percent of Indonesian respondents claimed “climate change is not happening” or “climate change is happening but humans are not responsible”.

Avoiding misconceptions about climate change and relying on accurate scientific information are important weapons in the fight against climate change. Recognizing the importance of collective and individual action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change is key to meeting this challenge. So, what are some of the common misconceptions about climate change?

1. Temperature Change Has No Impact on Human Health

The impact of climate change risks not only results in warmer temperatures, but also risks the emergence of disease-causing conditions. One of the impacts is extreme weather; increased rainfall increases the quantity of water, but decreases its quality. This can trigger health problems such as malaria, cholera, dengue fever, and so on.

2. There’s Nothing We Can Do

Thinking that each person or country can’t contribute to tackling climate change can be a barrier to collective efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Every small action that we, companies or governments take can contribute to reducing the impacts of climate change. In fact, this collective effort is necessary to overcome the increasingly destructive impacts of climate change.

3. Climate Change is Only a Long-Term Problem

If we look deeper, we have already felt the impacts of climate change, such as rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising sea levels, floods and landslides. The problems that occur due to climate change can become more frequent and more severe if we do not act and move together in an effort to overcome the climate crisis.

4. Climate Change is a Natural Phenomenon and Humans Are Not the Cause of It

Some people may think that climate crisis is a natural process and not a result of human activity. In fact, a wide range of scientific evidence shows that the increase in greenhouse gases due to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, is the main cause of current climate change.

5. Climate Crisis is Only an Environmental Problem

Climate change has broad and complex impacts, including on social, economic, health and education aspects. Treating it only as an environmental problem ignores its impact on other sectors. For example, due to flooding, people cannot work and farmers fail to harvest because their rice fields are flooded.

6. Waiting for Each Other in Resolving Environmental Problems

Delays due to waiting for each other in efforts to solve environmental problems can potentially further damage the environment and cause increasingly severe climate change impacts. The impact on ecosystems and biodiversity can result in irreversible damage to plant and animal species and natural ecosystems. This can upset the balance of nature and disrupt essential ecosystem services for humans.

Countering misinformation about climate change is an important endeavor as its impacts can be detrimental to society and complicate efforts to address climate change. Public education and awareness is important so that people can identify and avoid misinformation. It is also important for people to be able to make decisions based on accurate facts and evidence.

To avoid misconceptions, Plan Indonesia when conducting activities with young people for climate change, it is necessary to ensure that young people have good climate change knowledge and skills. Young people are given classes related to climate change, protection, gender equality and also leadership. After passing the class, young people are given the opportunity to take action. With this process in place, it can be ensured that the young people involved really understand climate change well, and do not encourage actions that are wrong or have a negative impact on the environment.