Climate change isn’t a problem to worry about 10 years, or five years or even two days from now. It’s a problem for right now.
With Earth Day looming, we need more awareness of the dangers of climate change. We have seen it and heard about it, time and time again. Climate change — or more accurately, climate crisis — is ravaging our world. With rapidly increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, immense depletion of polar ice caps and natural resources, our earth has never been in this horrible of a state. Homes are being destroyed and people are being displaced by rising water levels. Storms are worsening. Fires are devouring entire ecosystems and our air is barely breathable.
Each year, studies show several different species becoming or at the brink of extinction because of climate change destroying ecosystems. Some of the world’s most wondrous sights are already disappearing, like the Great Barrier Reef. Once an astonishing beauty with vibrancy and life, it has lost more than half of its coral since 1995.
These are only a few of the consequences our world has endured since the beginning of climate change. For almost two centuries, close to nothing has been done to prevent it. You see it and feel it when you walk outside your door. Yet, there are hundreds of naysayers who doubt its existence.
As climate change becomes less of a nightmare and more of a crushing reality, people are banding together to get major legislators and policy makers to — to put it blatantly — be afraid.
A group of NASA scientists recently chained themselves to JP Morgan Chase National Bank, the largest financier of fossil fuels. Many videos surfaced on social media with one of the main scientists at the protest, Peter Kalmus, choking back tears as he spoke about the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and the incredible threat it poses to our entire survival.
IPCC creates reports on human induced climate change. The recent report is a statement requiring more action to be taken to dramatically reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses.
The scientists who participated in the protest are part of an activism group known as Scientist Rebellion. The group was initially created because nothing has been done about climate change and the reports being written aren’t taken seriously enough. Climate Revolution is the goal of their ‘rebellion.’ As scary and radical as it may seem, it’s what we need.
A few days ago, I recall a couple of videos I came across discussing the fear we should all be experiencing right now. One of the videos explained it quite plainly, the destruction we are causing to our planet is not going to destroy the world. The world will still exist for centuries after we are gone. The world will just deteriorate to make it a completely inhospitable environment for us to live in. The destruction is not to the planet, it’s to ourselves.
With every new shared piece of information about climate change, I fear the lackadaisical nature of everyone around.
A few years ago, when I began studying for my bachelors, I was full of optimism and ambition. I hoped for a life-long career filled with travel, new experiences, and growth. After a fulfilling career I envisioned, one day, settling down and having a family.
I now realize this fantasy I had imagined, was nothing more than that, a fantasy. It is not tangible or will ever be tangible if we continue on this path. At this rate, it does not seem like it ever will be possible. To have children and allow for them to endure the harshest consequences of the damage we have caused is unspeakable. The world is suffering and our children of future generations will suffer too. It is cruel and inhumane.
I have never written to this extent before, but the truth is not so easily digestible and it’s time it was said. If it is not scaring you, in the same way it is scaring me, there is something very wrong.
It should be known that something needs to be done. If something is not done, the world we know and love will no longer exist. There will be no food to survive, no water to drink, and no oxygen to breathe. We will cease to exist.
I urge everyone to reach out to policymakers and major politicians and make noise about the vital changes that need to be made. Scream about it, inform yourselves, teach your children and grandchildren, talk about it with your taxi driver or grocery store clerk. Make everyone aware of the situation. It has never been more important. We are the last hope at a chance of survival.