How are you going to fix it?

“Weather” or not you’re an avid climate-change denier, a flat-earther or a gung-ho environmental activist, we all have one thing in common: we live on this planet. According to the most recently completed Climate Change Assessment by the US Global Change Research Program, our common home is going to face some serious hardships in the years to come if we don’t collectively get our act together.

Since 1990, these National Climate Assessments are issued. Each “includes more than 1,000 pages and the work of more than 300 authors breaking down climate change’s impacts in specific regions across the country, touching on everything from agricultural changes to sea-level rise to health effects.”

If you take a look at the 2018 report, you will see that the findings are grim and allow little room for any more delay in implementing eco-friendly policies. However, it is extremely difficult for our government to push these necessary policies when President Donald Trump denies climate change is a fact.  

Throughout the month of December and these past few days of January, the inconsistent East Coast weather patterns reinforce last year’s climate studies findings. After the unexpected snowstorm on Nov. 21,  Trump replied with a tweet saying “Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever happened to Global Warming?”

Let us not forget “global warming” is a term that was coined in the 1970s in response to a gradual period of the earth warming. Just because the word “warming” is in this dated term, that does not constitute an eternal heating of the earth as being the only environmental and ecological shift the 21st century is facing.

The impact of our current destructive path isn’t just making the earth “hotter.”  It is causing severe changes in weather patterns which will, in turn, affect all social, political, cultural, and economic aspects of our lives.

So if you are outraged at the lack of government response, I am putting together a quick guide on what you can do to help fix these issues.

First, start small and look at the facts for yourself. Believe it or not, non-partisan activities still exist, and simply living on this planet is one of them. Take a look at the unbiased facts and data of the most recent report, and make your own conscious choice to believe what you want to believe.

Assuming you find the data compelling enough to get behind, see what you can do on campus. There are so many small ways you can reduce your carbon footprint here at St. Joe’s.

Carpool with a friend if you live off campus, invest in a reusable straw for your iced coffee ($7.99 on Amazon for an 8-pack), eat all the food you put on your plate in the Campion Dining Hall, and if you can carry what you buy from Target in two hands, then you don’t need a plastic bag to put it in your car.

Finally, make your voice heard. Last semester, we saw all over campus how making your voice public can insight change. Email your state and federal representatives, take on your own initiatives and make your dissent heard.

The bleak effects of climate change are begging to take hold. Whether or not our government chooses to respond is the business of each and every one of us.

I once saw a quote that read “there are no jobs on a dead planet.” This really hit home for me. It’s time to start putting our environment above all else and push for the change that is necessary for the future of our common home.