Video Transcript
Which of the following is not
likely to help fight climate change? (A) Remembering to turn off the
lights in your home. (B) Learning more about climate
change. (C) Voting for politicians who
advocate for environmental policy change. (D) Reducing car use. Or (E) investing in fossil fuel
companies.
This question involves climate
change. Climate change is the change in the
Earth’s climate that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and the natural
climate variability. Climate change is caused by human
activity and our role in global warming. We must identify the suggestion
that is not likely to help fight climate change. Let’s have a look at our answer
choices.
(A) suggests turning off the lights
in your home. When lights are left on, they are
powered by electric current provided to our homes. The electric current is most likely
provided by a power plant, which oftentimes generates energy by burning fossil
fuels. Some of the gases produced by these
power plants to generate energy can be classified as greenhouse gases. Some greenhouse gases include
carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and nitrogen oxides. Greenhouse gases contribute to
global warming and the changes of composition of the atmosphere and thus contribute
to climate change. When we remember to turn off lights
when we do not need to use them, we use less energy and can do a small part in
helping fight climate change. Since we are looking for the answer
choice that does not likely help against climate change, we can eliminate answer
choice (A).
(B) and (C) suggest learning about
climate change and voting for officials who advocate for policies that will help
fight climate change. Understanding the effects of
climate change and voting for political leaders who will support environmental
policy change is a powerful tool to fight climate change. Policy changes can help us
establish new practices, such as using renewable energy sources, and enforce better
regulations to improve our global atmosphere and climate variability. These actions would likely help
fight climate change, so we can eliminate (B) and (C).
(D) suggests we reduce car use. Most cars have combustion engines,
which burn fossil fuels to make the car function. Like we saw with power plants, this
process can produce greenhouse gases. These gases can contribute to
global warming, which in turn contributes to climate change. Reducing the use of cars with
combustion engines would help fight climate change. So we can eliminate answer choice
(D).
(E) suggests investing in fossil
fuel companies. This means we would provide
financial investment and support to keep companies that burn fossil fuels in
business. These companies would then continue
to burn fossil fuels and alter the global atmosphere. Supporting these companies would
likely not help fight climate change. So, answer choice (E) is
correct.
Therefore, the suggestion that is
not likely to help fight climate change is answer choice (E): investing in fossil
fuel companies.
