By: Brianna Clipper
Wicked winters. Scorching summers. Stormy springs. Flooding falls. Every year, the weather worsens with increasingly common natural disasters and out-of-season storms. It all leads back to one thing--climate change. Though the notion--along with all of the research proving its relevance-- is often dismissed as a scam, it only takes a look around to see the burgeoning reality that is our present and future.
We all know the cause of climate change; fossil fuels have become a progressively more dangerous source of energy since their first wide-spread usage in the late eighteenth century. However, humans are not the sole catalyst behind this global distress. The earth has always gone through climate fluctuations, varying cooling and warming in the never-ending search for balance. The first ice age happened without human intervention--why shouldn’t this one?
Although it is a natural process, this particular instance of climate change is occurring at an unprecedented speed, assisted by the master executioner--mankind. Normally, our planet’s climate changes gradually by approximately a degree per century. Now, aided by mankind, the climate changes by a degree almost every year. That is a drastic change, and it can be seen just by watching the weather channel. Record-breaking cold, heat, and natural disasters seem to be happening every week, each more devastating than the last. Raging fires in California are followed immediately by intense flooding and mudslides. Hurricanes batter the Southeast in the fall, winter, and spring, relentless. Tornadoes ravage Midwestern towns before they flood and freeze. The East coast is buffered by brutal blizzards, wicked cold and even a few hurricanes. Our entire country is in a state of natural discord because of just a degree warmer than last year.
Still, the question remains: Can we change it? The answer is no. We can’t. It is much too late to reverse the course the earth is following. However, there are ways to slow the effect; recycling, picking up trash, and conserving energy, to name a few. But that is not enough. We would have to rely on a new, clean energy source in order to avoid catastrophic consequences. We have to pave a future fit for future generations.