A Teenager’s Cry for Help

Climate Change: two words representing a magnitude of changes occurring across the Earth at an alarming rate that pose a dire threat to all forms of life on Earth. Now, most of us know about climate change and are fully aware of its effects yet we choose to ignore them in order to lessen our guilt. Because no matter how much you twist and turn the facts, the truth will always be that we are the ones who have caused this.

If I had a penny for every time I had tried to discuss the horrors and stark reality of the situation, only to be shot down and experience a drastic change of topic, I would be rich. Humans procrastinate… a lot. You see, we human beings choose to believe that someone will do the work for us, and clean up our act for us. We are selfish creatures and until we have not been personally affected in a dire manner, we won’t do anything about it, because well, why should I care, right? I feel infuriated when I see people’s response to this but what right do I have to judge them and change their minds when my own family won’t listen to me? I have fought, I have cried and I have reasoned but no one is willing to sacrifice the luxuries we have gotten used to. Now, I am not opposed to living a comfortable life, but the question we need to ask ourselves is at what cost does this lifestyle come? For every notebook you buy, a tree is cut down somewhere, for every minute you are on a call, your device is generating 50-60 grams of CO2 which doesn’t seem like much but when you combine that with the fact that there are 8.1 billion people on this planet it adds up to a very undesirable number.

The world is falling apart. Greenhouse gas levels are at an all time high, over 1 million species face extinction and we are running out of time. If nothing is done in the next 6 years, that is by 2030, then it may become irreversible. Our oceans are dying, in the last 30 years, we have lost 50% of the world’s coral reef and 2/3rds of the Great Barrier Reef has been destroyed due to coral bleaching. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations declared in 2021 that some amount of global warming can no longer be reversed. According to their report, the global temperatures have already risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius above 1850-1900 levels .

The “tipping point” of climate change, estimated to be 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels has a 50% chance of occurring within the next ten years. It is estimated that this level of warming will kill 70–90% of coral reefs, increase the frequency of wildfires by a magnitude of 8.5, and raise global sea levels by 0.3 meters.

If this isn’t enough to convince you of the situation, then I don’t know what to do. I implore you to act fast because if we don’t act now, it will be too late. Save the planet, do your bit. It’s okay to be a bit selfish so don’t do it for the world, do it for you, do it for your child so that they have a chance to grow up and explore this world we fondly call home. If we work together, then maybe not all hope is lost. It is time to give back to the Earth, time to right our wrongs and I can only wish that we have what it takes to overturn this threat to her existence.