Opinion: There’s No Plan B or Planet B

In the past decade, the topic of climate change has been mentioned countless times, but it has never been seriously addressed. This issue is already expected to have severe consequences. If the Earth continues to rise in temperature over the next century, we will reach a state of no return and there will be no hope for Earth; it will slowly deteriorate, greenhouse gases will cause dangerously high temperatures, and this will not only affect humans, but all living organisms.  

People act worried about the problems surrounding saving the earth and stopping global warming, but refuse to take action. Society is so quick to tell a pregnant 16 year old to fend for themselves but when Greta Thunberg organizes a climate strike, she is suddenly just a child and cannot possibly know anything. In fact, they would rather make fun of someone like Thunberg because she’s “too young” to lead a movement.

In present day, drivers throw cigarette butts out of their window, people everywhere use plastic containers, silverware and straws, and the seas are overflowing with trash. Around us there are millions of cars, factories, and industries, creating pollution all over the world, and yet people act oblivious to the damage that is occurring around them. 

Senior, Mahayla Griggs, pointed out, “we’re polluting our oceans, cutting down our forests, killing our animals and only a handful of people care.”

While the current President, Donald Trump, tweeted back in 2012 that,  “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” I can assure you that scientists have time and again made it clear that the Earth is in fact rising in temperature and global warming is not a hoax. 

The Greenhouse effect is the idea that when sunlight reaches the Earth, some of it is reflected back into space and some of it is reabsorbed and radiated as heat. But the many gases contained in the atmosphere, reflect the heat that is supposed to go into space in all directions, causing the Earth to be warmer. 

Recently, the United Nations, concluded: “there’s a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.”Although this conclusion has been very debatable, it is clear that there has been an increase in greenhouse gases which is affecting the climate. The rising gases include, methane evidently coming from the decomposure of trash in landfills, nitrous oxide fertilizers from fossil fuel combustion, chlorofluorocarbons from industries, among others. The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades depends primarily on the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted globally, and how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to those emissions.

The Earth is getting warmer by the decade and we as humans are contributing to climate change: 

The time to take action is far overdue. On September 23rd, 2019, Greta Thunberg gave her speech at the Climate Action Summit 2019 in which she stated, “entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction […] . How dare you!”

Griggs, spoke about Greta and her thoughts on her movement saying, “she inspired me to want to do more than I already am.”

On September 20th, Greta organized a climate strike in downtown Denver, in which dozens of youth united to protest about climate change.

Junior ,Angel Rodriguez, took part in the strike and said, “it made me realize that something can actually change because ,for awhile, I believed that nothing in this world could change.” 

As a teen, it is difficult to believe that we can initiate change but we are the ones who bring hope for the next generations;and, on this issue specifically, we have so much power and need to choose wisely what to do next. 

It’s been noted that corporations and industries noticed the strikes and how passionate many people are about the future of our planet; however after September, the issue has slowly been shrugged off. This isn’t an issue that can be ignored, our voices and actions to save the Earth must not die. 

There are many people worried about climate change;  unfortunately, this isn’t a one man problem. It’s a worldwide problem. The common goal is established, now the world needs to work hand in hand; there is no more time to be ineffective.

We need to cut down on our car use in order to decrease pollution, we need to expand the use of renewable energy, and we need to have as little trash pile up as possible. 

“I think that we, as a people, allow things to happen but  it’s only going to change if we change it,”said Rodriguez.