Changing the climate around global warming

Most people know about climate change; at a young age, we’re taught to recycle, save gas by carpooling and not waste paper. We’ve had science teachers drill the process of greenhouse gasses escaping into the atmosphere into our heads until we could recite these facts in our sleep. Despite extensive education on the subject, climate change always seems to take a backseat to other, more “pressing” concerns in our day to day life.

The effects of climate change are not as apparent as other international issues. The statistics about keeping lowering carbon emissions to prevent the global temperature from rising 2°C seem negligible at first glance, and the vagaries of what could happen 30 years into the future as a consequence feels too far away to worry about seriously.

Even as the four-year California drought drags on, currently leaving 70.55 percent of the state in extreme or exceptional drought as of Dec. 1 according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, after one week of being at the forefront of the news, the drought slipped away from most minds, becoming an afterthought or something that we’re now “used to.”

Until I reached high school, climate change probably never made the top ten most pressing issues on my mind each day. There were other things to worry about like a chemistry test I had next period or a track meet after school. With age, however, came a greater awareness of the world, and with a greater awareness of the world came a greater knowledge of the global issues we face. As I began to pay more attention to the news, I started to notice more and more about climate change, specifically statistics on rising sea levels and articles about changes in the global climate connecting to the increasing frequency of natural disasters such as forest fires and droughts.

Even though I sat at home, visibly unharmed by these disasters, I began to experience a feeling of guilt and concern. After all, climate change doesn’t discriminate, and it could easily be me facing these consequences whether it be now or in a few decades as an adult. I wasn’t planning to start a revolution, but if I could do the small everyday things such as being more aware and wasting less water, why shouldn’t I?

While I began to make small changes in my lifestyle such as joining the Green Team, reducing my shower times and paying more attention to my food waste, it became even more apparent to me how apathetic people seemed to be towards the issue of climate change. Although the problem existed, it took a backseat to more current, in-the-moment issues.

We can’t afford to have this attitude. By avoiding the issue or pushing it off as someone else’s problem, we lose any chance of fixing the problem before we even start. We should be doing everything that we can do as individuals in the hope that if everyone does their part, it’ll pay off as a whole. We can continue to advocate for decisions to be made at conferences such as COP21 so that we have definitive plans for the future. At least by accepting global warming as a legitimate issue by advocating change, we can ensure that we at least have the possibility of hampering its devastating effects.

For some people, a feeling of hopelessness makes climate change irrelevant: the fact that we cannot guarantee that our efforts will pay off, that we cannot say for sure whether we can actually have any effect on a problem that’s been festering for years. This attitude of questioning whether there is any point to our efforts is what got us here in the first place and will continue to exacerbate the problem in the future.
Although the odds are intimidating with no certainty of success, the fact remains that climate change is our generation’s problem to deal with now, and while 30 years into the future feels miles away, in the grand scheme of things, it’s right around the corner. Let’s not wait 30 years to see what happens; at this point, we can’t afford to wait any longer.