Writing

Opinion: Saving the planet is no small task

We’re seeing the effects.

We smell the BS.

We’re hearing about fires in Australia.

We feel powerless.

And the truth is, we need a change in mindset. From everyone. The threat of climate change has always been on the horizon. It’s just become a lot more urgent for all of us, and we still aren’t doing enough. It’s easy to say that it’s game over. The world is supposed to end in 2030, or was it 2050? It’ll end at some point, that doesn’t mean we can just throw our hands up and allow it to be on our watch.

Yet, it feels hopeless. We can swap for metal straws, stop eating animal products or at least reduce our consumption of them. We can carpool, go zero waste and make sustainable choices in every possible facet of our lives. But that doesn’t stop greenhouse gases from filling the atmosphere at an increasingly alarming rate. And it doesn’t stop erratic weather patterns or clean the oceans. So, what’s the point?

The point is we have to. But we can’t just use a metal straw one time and say that the environment has been saved, either. So, we’re left with a dilemma. An individual’s sustainable decisions can’t save the environment, only sustainable decisions of multibillion-dollar corporations can. We can’t afford to be unsustainable either. Because it’s going to take everyone.

We have practiced a lifestyle of overconsumption, of thoughtless use without consideration for others or for the people and things that will come after us. We have done that for a while. After all of that, we have been left with an existential nightmare. So, no one person or one company could possibly hope to salvage the burning remains of our greed. Or to clean the oceans or plant every single tree that has been cut down.

Saving the planet, it seems, is not such a small task.

It wouldn’t be. People are terrified of change, especially when the change that is required is drastic. We’ve passed the point of taking small steps towards addressing climate change. We need to leap, jump, pole-vault, whatever we have to do to solve the problem. We need to be radical. We need to do it now.

Unfortunately, a large majority of the people in power aren’t willing to do that. Most of them are crawling towards a resolution, others are just statues. We can’t afford that. Our generation, especially, cannot afford

that. Because it isn’t just about saving the planet for right now, it’s about doing it for later. Climate change is our midlife crisis, and we don’t get a choice in the matter.

So, it’s fallen on our laps. It’s fallen on the laps of high schoolers to fix the planet that the people before us destroyed. Fair enough, we accept that challenge. Because we can take it on.

Climate change may feel so overwhelming that we feel powerless, but we aren’t. We have voices that are ready to yell and changes that we are ready to implement. And we need a complete restructure of how we live to do that. We need to make individual sustainable choices. We also need to demand corporations make them too. We need to demand that governments make them, too. And truth be told, we have that power. We have the power to vote, and soon enough, we will have the power to be voted for. Climate change has felt impossible for so long, but we’re just going to have to fix it.

Despite the enormity of the issue, we hear change coming. And it’s thunderous.

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Freshman year I thought that what I wrote was the best I could do. Now, when I look back at it, I can't recognize my own writing. There's a reason for that. Since then, I've developed a writing voice. I have accepted that humour isn't my strong suit and that writing like I'm studying to be a National Merit Finalist is not my wheelhouse, either. I write how I speak. I like short sentences and starting them with "and" or "but" (sorry, English teachers). I like write in a way that's accessible to all readers, and when I'm writing an opinion piece, I am unapologetic about what I think and that is exactly how I will write. My adviser has read editorials I've written and asked me if I was angry when I was writing them. Sometimes, I am. Some opinions just make you angry, and I'm not afraid to let people know. But this is a stark contrast to how I once wrote opinion pieces. My first column was on the Syrian refugee crisis. I sounded wishy washy and if I covered my byline, I probably would have forgotten that I was the one who had written it in the first place. Thankfully, I've moved past that. Now, I have a voice. And I'm not afraid for people to hear it.