Why is it difficult to deal with climate change?

Answer 1

There are two levels of difficulty in dealing with climate change caused by human activity. The fiirst is political, the second involves practical and technology issues.

Politicians usually prefer to take the safe option. If the majority of the public is not clearly aware of the consequences of climate changes, politicians can regard it as in their short term interests to avoid action to minimise climate change. And you can be sure that there are those in business who wish to spread misinformation and keep the public as uninformed as possible, to avoid regulatory changes that could require action on their parts. The difficulty is that there is simply not the political will to address the problem, and in some areas this may not exist until disaster is upon us.

A practical issue is that there is nothing we can do to stop immediately our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Our lifestyle simply requires the use of electricity, which is largely produced by burning coal and oil. Our lifestyle also requires quick and convenient transportation, which mainly requires us to use oil. So we need to to be more frugal, getting more consumer benefit out each unit of electricity. We also need to introduce better ways to produce electricity and to move around without heavy reliance on fossil fuels. And even then, we can not replace billions of dollars worth of infrastructure overnight. But the sooner we begin to plan and address these issues, the sooner we can move down that road.

Answer 2

Climate change is difficult to deal with because it requires collective action on a global scale, involving multiple stakeholders with diverse interests. Additionally, there is often a lack of political will and funding for necessary initiatives. The long-term nature of climate change also makes it challenging to generate immediate action and behavioral change.