Acting Now for our Future

I feel this every day as I attend Stansted College and learn math, English, CW, and French. While I am in class, I am unable to take action on a matter that is affecting everyone's lives and not just mine. The fact that we only have 12 years left to take action and make a difference in hopes of saving our planet before climate change becomes irreversible.

Climate change is not a joke, it is one of the biggest and toughest problems society has been faced with. Climate change is not a noticeable thing, you cannot look outside your window and see the difference it is actually making. Scientists are able to see it harm our planet progressively as it becomes worse. But what comes next? Climate change is affecting the entire ecosystem, it is increasing temperatures and melting glaciers, which leads to the rising of water levels. It is putting animals into extinction as they are losing their ecosystems and more.

What shocks me is that even though this is all happening, most people seem to ignore this and go about their days as if this was normal. We tend to watch and wait until the last minute, hoping it will fix itself. For example, the Australian wildfires. We all say we want change and show compassion for these issues and animals involved but what are we really doing to encourage change?

Our society has given more attention and glory to a young girl dancing behind a screen than to global warming and pollution that we have created. It is hard to fathom. Most of us tend to care more about Kylie Jenner’s relationship status than the fires in Australia. We care more about gossip, care more about other people’s lives and giving our opinions on people’s lives without the person asking them, while complaining about every little thing that happened in our lives. About 156 million people spend countless hours on apps and give their attention to random videos online but no one seems to follow the account trying to help the Earth or planting trees to save the Amazon. The Amazon plays a critical influence on the earth, especially on carbon cycles and regulating the world's oxygen. Without the Amazon and other natural sites, we wouldn't survive.

To be honest, I am just like all of you. I do the same. I’ve spent most part of my day watching Tik Toks and not doing homework or not doing something that would be productive and make a difference somehow. All those things that I just said that our generation does before caring about the world, I still do. I am not saying that we should stop and devote our lives to save the planet, but why not start helping the planet too by doing small things?

I know this is said way too often but why don't we add simple tasks to our daily lives, like using reusable bags, recycle, saving electricity, taking shorter showers and do things that would make it a better place, make a difference to our world. Our world needs our help despite it not being the first thing on our minds. This subject arose when I randomly walked into Ariela and Sofia's room after studying. Their discussions about this inspired me and opened my mind, showing me how fast our planet is changing. This made me realize that we need to make a change. Let's take these upcoming years and make a change.