Climate Changes — We Don’t Do Anything
By JENNIFER LEE | FRESH TALK, The Hartford Courant
Apparently, climate change has made itself at home in our country.
A National Climate Assessment report released by the White House on May 6 tells of temperature increases, extended heat waves, melting glaciers, wildfires we couldn’t prevent, floods we couldn’t escape and endless droughts that put our green lawns and cornfields at risk. In short, the havoc our new climate has wreaked on ecosystems and the species within them.
It’s all very shocking — if you haven’t paid attention to science news in recent decades. Climate change contrarians will be enraged that our government continues to engage in this elaborate mind-control conspiracy. Most normal members of society might feel a bit angered, a bit motivated to do something, but in the long run nothing will change.
In this case, doomsayers aren’t the pessimists, but the realists. As climate models increase in sophistication and accuracy, our prospects continue to worsen. Scientists release data projecting higher sea levels, more severe droughts, bigger natural disasters.
And yet, year after year, we prove that we simply don’t care about what repercussions our actions have on the environment. According to Pew Research Center, a third of American adults do not think climate change is a legitimate concern. Certain “civilian scientists,” after extensive and rigorous studies, concluded these trends are from “natural patterns” and have nothing to do with the most dominant and destructive species on this planet.
Plenty of Americans, however, do believe in climate change (as they do gravity and relativity, among other “theories”), but does that mean anything? Forgive the awkward analogy, but consider how millions of Americans identify as Christian, yet fail to attend church. Belief has never been an indicator of action. And my, have we failed to take action.
Our carbon emissions per capita have barely budged after decades of environmentalists’ pleas to burn less fossil fuel, consume less, buy more efficiently. No surprise there — environmentalism has largely been mocked and dismissed as the work of hippies and tree huggers. Any sort of anti-carbon, anti-environmental destruction initiatives are quickly struck down by corporations seeking to preserve their bottom lines. Forests are massive carbon sinks, essential to preventing the deterioration of our global ecosystem; yet time and time again, we argue needlessly over whether the logging industry would be harmed by regulation. We claim that jobs are more important than a bunch of trees and that development potential should not be sacrificed to preserve natural ecosystems.
When environmentally friendly business ventures do arise — those that have massive potential for growth — the only response seems to be skepticism and annoyance. After all, who wants a sleek wind turbine a few miles away from their suburban home instead of a natural gas-guzzling, emissions-spewing power plant out of sight and out of mind? Even solar ventures are criticized, with the echoes of failed investments always reverberating in the background. In the eyes of the climate contrarians, technology can never improve and we can never move on from the past.
So far, we have given scientists no reason to believe that we will change our ways. As a country, we have continued with business as usual for far too long. We are motivated by war and economic growth and maintaining our superior position in the world. I cannot look forward to a comfortable retirement, thanks to the previous generation’s lack of action, nor can I look forward to owning a car or having a secure food supply or taking one of those precious jobs in the wildlife destruction industry.
We can continue to invest in unsustainable initiatives like oil mining and suburban developments and, of course, war (which is the one thing we have always excelled at), but it will come back to bite us, and it will not be as easy to deny as a mere scientist’s plea.
Jennifer Lee, 14, of Manchester is an eighth-grader at Two Rivers Magnet Middle School.
Source: Hartford Courant
One Response
Dear Jennifer Lee, You are an amazing and talented child with a very grown up consciousness. You have said so much in so few words. You are why I keep trying to let people know we must change and we can change, but for a few powerful entities holding everyone back. I’m sorry the very existence of young people like yourself is so threatened. I’m so glad to hear your voice in this obdurate discussion that seems to go nowhere. Please do not give up, and please invite your contemporaries into this discussion. We need to hear this honest message from all of you.