Society and Climate Change

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

The panorama of Jakarta after heavy rains wash the capital city in February (11/2/2019).

It is interesting to look into the findings of British research company YouGov, which places Indonesia among countries that do not believe global warming is triggered by human activity.

This leads to the conclusion that Indonesian people\'s understanding or awareness is still low and it brings implications of a lack of responsibility when it comes to environmental damage (Kompas, 05/13/2019).

This conclusion can be interpreted broadly. First, the public is less interested in issues such as climate change. Second, the public is aware of climate change to a certain extent but is skeptical.

In terms of literacy or information dissemination, we are of the view that mass media in Indonesia has given enough space for reporting on climate change and global warming. Even if the news about negotiations and international agreements related to this issue and its efforts to overcome it through reducing carbon emissions is still too technical, there are popular scientific books and films, such as An Inconvenient Truth by former United States vice president Al Gore, whose work is designed to educate people about climate change.

However, instead of changing the worldview, doubts about the truth of the thesis of climate change remain in developed countries, including the US. Governments in this superpower are still reluctant to reduce carbon emissions drastically, especially because doing so will reduce the competitiveness of industries and the country\'s economy.

AFP PHOTO/DIBYANGSHU SARKAR

Indian laborers work on a vegetable field in Kolkata in January 2018. Global warming is expected to make vegetables significantly scarcer around the world, unless new growing practices and resilient crop varieties are adopted, researchers warned on June 11, 2018. By the end of this century, less water and hotter air would combine to cut average yields of vegetables – which are crucial to a healthy diet – by nearly one-third, said the report of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Southern Europe, large parts of Africa and South Asia may be particularly affected.

Some governments in the developing countries are also reluctant to cut carbon emissions because they have not mastered enough technology to replace fossil fuels. In principle, they are of the view that advanced countries must first move to reduce the effects of global warming.

Apart from differences in views about the validity of the phenomenon of climate change, there has been a lot of progress. Research and development for new and renewable energy continues to be carried out, as well as its application. For example, we see more and more windmills built in countries like Denmark to replace fossil energy.

In Indonesia, climate change/global warming rarely comes up in daily conversations. This implies that this issue is not a mainstream issue or in other words, it is not urgent.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Dark clouds blanket the sky in Jakarta on a Thursday in February (21/2/2019). The trend of extreme rain in Jakarta continues to increase from year to year. Rising temperatures in Indonesia are known to have caused changes in the patterns of water evaporation, which have also changed rain patterns. This warming rate is influenced not only by global phenomena caused by the addition of greenhouse gases but also by local dynamics, mainly the loss of vegetation cover and the growth of urban areas.

If it is said that global warming is triggered by human activity, In fact, it has become widely accepted that the temperature of the earth’s surface has increased, especially after the Industrial Revolution, which was accompanied by the massive use of fossil fuels. Deforestation and land clearing by burning are also human contributions to global warming.

The government and the media, as well as educational institutions, still have to improve public understanding of climate change and global warming.