Imagine if you were given 12 years to change something. What would you do? Most likely, you’d push it off until the last minute and get it done before the deadline. Or you would hope to forget it and simply not do it. The world is in this very same situation, and we have been given 12 years to make changes. However, this is not something we can push off or hope goes away on its own. Scientists have given the world 12 years to limit climate change or the world could face catastrophic repercussions. Since this is such a huge warning, it leads me to this simple question: why are we not doing anything to fix it now, and why is this not the main story in all of the media?
The intense flooding, destructive hurricanes, forest fires, and droughts are all caused by climate change. It also can have an impact on our everyday lives with food and drinks. Climate scientists say if the climate heats by even half of a degree, it will cause major problems worldwide.
In an article posted by The Guardian, Debra Roberts said “it’s a line in the sand and what it says to our species is that this is the moment and we must act now.”
With the world continuing to heat up and the population continuing to grow, this is an issue we must begin to solve now. Not tomorrow, not next week, and not next month. If we do not start to take better care of our world, then we and our children will have to suffer through it. However, politicians would rather ignore the issue.
Donald Trump himself has acknowledged that climate change is very real, but will not do anything about it. President Trump says that the climate “will change back” and that the climate scientists are politically motivated.
It seems these politicians are more interested in making their money than saving the world.
With the facts laid down in front of all of us, why do we rarely hear about this in the news? This is news, isn’t it? The very sake of our world should trump any other story, right? Unfortunately, the answer is no. This is something rarely played on the news. If you flip on the news, you’ll see something about a murder or something that the president said when you really should be hearing the government taking this issue seriously and coming up with solutions to the problem.
While they are wrong, it’s our fault as much as it is theirs. Us being the younger generation, this is also our future that we are shaping. We need to come up with solutions to these problems and the perfect way to do that is by voting. The 2016 elections had a low young voter turnout, and this year’s midterm elections had people begging younger people to vote. We must know that voting is important because if we vote, we can get the right people into office that will work on this major issue. This is our future and we need to make the right decisions to fix this issue.
