Why we should actively care about climate change

By Jak Kinsella

Rightnow, nothing is more import to me than the fact that we have been destroying our planet’s ability to support living things, including us. This phenomenon is not called global warming but climate change since saying our globe is experiencing just an increase in average temperature would be a huge understatement. The official definition of climate change states that it is “a change in global or regional climate patterns... attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.”

As complex as that sounds, climate change isn't rocket science. All climate change boils down to is the excess carbon that we, as an industrialized society, have been spewing into the atmosphere. However, carbon, a simple organic compound we learned about in science class, is having and will have disastrous consequences in the years to come. Global average temperatures and carbon output will continue to rise to unheard of levels.

Glaciers and the polar caps are melting at an unprecedented speed. Weather incidents such as super hurricanes, which are fueled by warmer oceans, once thought of as a one in a 100 year natural disaster, will become more a part of the world’s existence as we have seen this year.

Sea levels will rise approximately four feet, which means that if you are planning a trip for your future family to Cancun or Cozumel, look elsewhere because by 2100 they—along with a significant piece of lower Florida and parts of New York City— will be completely under water. Rising sea levels will also lead to massive economic strain as many of the products we take for granted today (such as coffee) are outsourced and produced in places which face severe risks for flooding.

It sickens me that small island nations like The Solomon Islands in the Pacific, whose cultures have lived in peace and harmony for hundreds of years worshipping nature, and who have done little to nothing to cause climate change will be the first to pay for our glutinous actions. Their island nations will disappear. They won’t be alone – worldwide, approximately 100 million people live within three feet of sea level. And the plant and animals that we are supposed to be the caretaker for will fare even worse—experts predict that one-fourth of Earth’s species will be headed for extinction by 2050 if the warming trend continues at its current rate.

However, addressing climate change is much more complex than just buying a Toyota Prius.

So, just what has our government – one of the world’s leaders and one of the leading contributors to climate change – done to address this crisis? Pretty much nothing. First, there is the complete and intentional ignorance on the issue. Our leaders leaders have ignored the findings of credible scientists. Thanks to campaign contributions by the Koch Brothers and others in the energy energy sectors we have politicians like Senator James Inhofe (R) – the chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, who brought a snowball onto the Senate floor in 2015 citing that because it had snowed in Washington D.C. he had proof that global warming is a myth. Really? Is that the best our leaders can do?

Even the EPA, which was established to enforce environmental laws and help protect Americans from environmental threats, has been under attack from the inside. Earlier this year Donald Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA. Pruitt has spent most of his life lobbying for the defunding and dissolving of the EPA, even going as far as suing the EPA. He has been quoted as saying that climate change is a joke and that he does not have time to deal with jokes.

Pruitt and Trump have also declared the “war on coal” as over and are continuing to invest in a resource that is not only one of the leading causes of excessive CO2 output and is horribly inefficient as an energy source... and will run out in a matter of years. Pruitt has removed any mention of climate change from the EPA’s website and barred scientists working at the EPA from working and reporting on climate change.

Trump decided to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, which was signed by 169 countries across the globe, and is aimed at tackling the threat of climate change by cutting back on carbon output. Trump’s reasoning? That it would “undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty … and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world,” which is ironic because the only country that has not signed onto the accord is the United States. One has to ask, what advantage is there to living on a planet that will struggle to support life as we know it today?”

What Trump fails to mention is that by taking the easy route and transferring the load of climate change to our generation, we will have to spend $700 billion dollars per year on the costs associated with climate change by the time we approach our thirties.

According to Business Insider once a reservoir of methane previously sealed by ice in the arctic bursts, it will cost the word economy $60 trillion dollars while at the same time speeding up the effect of climate change by 30 years.

When it comes to climate change, our leaders have failed each and every one of us in this room, as well as the animals and plants we share the globe with.

But I have presented these facts to you not as a scare tactic, but as evidence of why we need to act, starting today. We must never give up, even when the challenge of climate change seems insurmountable. SPA has given us the keys to shaping the world and we must use those keys to work for ourselves and for future generations of humans and the plants and animals.

Look at this challenge as not something to fear but as an opportunity to step up where our current leaders have failed. We can save the planet’s ability to sustain life as we know it. Whether it is in our daily lives – by shutting off lights, not idling your car, biking or walking instead of driving – or in the jobs we will hold in business, industry and the arts, or in the candidates and leaders we vote for.

This is not about Republicans, Democrats, or Conservatives; this is not about Libertarians or Independents – it’s about us and our future and our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

The world is dramatically going to change in our lifetime –and is already changing. There is no turning away from that, but we can still save our planet’s ability to save us and other species. We must not shrink back and act like cowards, or expect someone else to take care of the problem for us because they won’t.

We need to deal with this starting today.

Riley Tietel Ducks and Ducks

The trees in the wind are an ocean wave. Each leaf rides its own giraffe,

Nature

The light is blinding me As is my shirt is baggy

Hitting my body in the battering wind It howls its rough song in my ears

I can taste the dew of the morning light And smell the sweet flowers that sweeten my mood

I see Bill with his buffalo Herding them all the way in Texas

The light isn’t blinding me Have you seen my donut anywhere?

All them dinguses

If you sacrifice one-hundred hot dogs to an American Flag then a bald eagle will come to you

Screeching to come sit on your shoulder for a moment before flying into the sunset

Oh that’s who that kid was That was coming up to you I ate an apple.

We were enthused as a rock I jumped out of an airplane without a parachute then landed on my feet, quickly sprinting away Brennan likes sandwiches We will soon all have sandwiches! The air was exuberant

But I’ll have to lack it to know that I’ve got it.

Schwein haben!

I can taste the hotdogs that water my mouth as I look into the the trees that are excited to play

The hotdogs spinning on the grill I’m in nature’s range.