Our climate becoming overwhelmed

Traffic+on+the+101+Freeway+in+Los+Angeles%2C+Calif.+backs+up+on+March+27%2C+2015%2C+the+second+day+of+a+heat+wave.+

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Traffic on the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, Calif. backs up on March 27, 2015, the second day of a heat wave.

Beata Warren, Guest Writer

I for one don’t want my species to go extinct just because the human race wasn’t able to agree on the fact that we are killing ourselves.

The human race is killing itself along with so many other species through climate change. While some people think climate change is a hoax, it’s not. There is scientific evidence proving that we have been doing this to ourselves with our carbon emissions.

Science teacher Corey Rice, with concerns about climate change and how it’s not being fixed, said “It turns out we have way more [carbon emissions] than double what it was 400 years ago.”

That is not supposed to happen that quickly to our environment, and it needs to stop soon.

We as a whole, the species of humans on this Earth, have the responsibility to take care of ourselves and to fix this problem. If not fixed soon, we could singlehandedly make ourselves go extinct for one reason, and that is our burning of fossil fuels.

Sophomore Michael Pawlusik has concern over our climate and future. He said, “Climate change ultimately is going to kill us if we don’t fix it soon. If it doesn’t kill us it’s going to kill our kids.”

Rice said, “You can even trace it down to the type of isotope of carbon that is released and that’s populated our atmosphere, and when you do that you can see if it was volcanoes or if it was human fossil fuel burning, because they have different isotopes. And it turns out that when you do that it’s very clear that it’s all human fossil fuel use.”

The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) stated, “As climate change continues, dangerous weather events are becoming more frequent or severe in the US and around the globe.” This is concerning because with the population growth in the world we are already running out of space, but to think that parts of our globe could be unlivable in our lifetime, forces to address so many different issues at once.

“Parts of this planet would be unlivable if we just let this thing go unchecked,” said Rice.

By the end of this century scientists predict the entire state of Florida will be under water. The human race is speeding climate change up between ice ages and no one is bothering to stop and fix the problem at hand, not only for our country but for the whole world.

The Environmental Defense Fund [EDF] is a non profit organization helping fix our earth’s climate and pollutant problems. The EDF website provides this statement: “Now, as study results start to emerge, we’re learning there’s little time to waste if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change”

Climate change is very real, and little is being done about it. While the Paris agreements are in place so that globally we lessen and lessen our change on the climate, we as a whole are not working fast enough.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) stated, “Stabilizing the global climate is the greatest challenge of the 21st century. Temperatures have exceeded global annual averages for 38 consecutive years. The impacts are being felt all around the world.”

Rice said, “Europe is completely on board, China and India are even on board. And right now, those two are big polluters but it’s because they’re still developing and they’ve been developing under fossil fuel.”

The EDF also said, “We can’t get to a safe climate without action by Congress, even under the most aggressive scenario of executive action.”

The U.S.A and most likely other countries as well are not addressing this issue like they should. The EDF said “Uncombusted natural gas is mostly methane, which is much more potent than carbon dioxide. Until recently, no one knew how much of it was leaking into the air.”

We, the kids of this generation, are going to have it so much worse if we do not start working to fix or slow down climate change now. By the time this generation is in power… it might be too late.