Think Piece: Action Competence through Ethno-Geography

Abstract

Climate change is due to the accelerated greenhouse effect caused by modern Western ways of living, in which factors like the burning of fossil fuels for energy and the high consumption of beef are perceived to be an essential part of living, but which emit increasing levels of greenhouse gases (e.g. carbon dioxide [CO2] and methane) into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases prevent long-wave radiation from escaping the Earth’s atmosphere, thus causing a rise in the global temperature. People living in different places around the world may or may not experience the various consequences of this temperature rise in their daily lives. Depending on where one lives, these consequences might range from extended droughts to an increased number and intensity of storms, precipitation and flooding. This two-sided problem, people’s modern way of living influencing the global climate and their living conditions in turn being highly influenced by climate changes, is exemplary for the subject of Geography, which is about humans’ interaction with nature (Physical Geography).