Climate change takes time while natural disasters are immediate threats
Previous climate change takes millions of years to effect the planet. However, natural disasters can cause these changes almost instantaneously. Humans aren't responsible for the things Mother Nature has done to effect the planet.
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The Argument
The earth has gone through plenty of climate changes over the billions of years it's existed. It doesn't take a mass extinction meteor to fabricate an instantaneous change.
Natural disasters, not just tornadoes and tsunami's can also cause climate change. The disaster that could throw the planet into another ice age is a volcanic eruption. More specifically, the super volcano in Yellowstone national park.
Now people could argue that volcanoes eruptions aren't a big deal. Hawaii deals with them almost every two or three years with only some minor property damage and changes to the topography of the islands.[1] If Yellowstone’s volcano erupted though, the effects would be doomsday worthy.
Ash would be spewed into the air, blocking the sun and freezing the planet. The air would become polluted and almost impossible to breathe, and the ash that fell on the planet would go into the sea and smother the plants and animals on land.
The problem is that a volcano eruption, an earthquake, and even tsunamis are all things that occur naturally on the planet. They aren’t things that humans are able to control, they can only prepare and react to it.
While humans might've sped up the change it's still a process that happens and will continue to happen.
Counter arguments
Natural disasters are short term things that can have long term effects. People plan out contingency plans, reactions, and responses to help the people who go through them. Climate change however is both a long term thing with a long term effect. Historically lasting millions of years.[2]
It's hard to put such a number into perspective, especially when most humans can barely live till 100. Many people today will have passed on before they can see the effects of climate change or the efforts to prevent it. It's a problem where people can believe that out of sight is out of mind so people focus on the present, the things that happen more often, like volcanoes erupting or hurricanes hitting coast lines.
It's not like Yellowstone's volcano will go off in an instant nor is it so easy to prevent.[3] Climate change though is something people can prevent. While it might not seem like it due to changes needing time it is possible.
We can't just focus on the things happening in the present, we have to look towards the future. Some might not care since it's a future they won't be in, but that's the very reason people should care. To give the future generations something better than what they had.
Proponents
Premises
[P1] Natural disasters take only a short amount of time to happen and leave destruction in its wake
[P2] Climate change, in comparison is a slow change