While here at CSU, the average student’s exposure level to scientific evidence of climate change is quite high. Students often hear and rightfully believe that human activity is causing potentially harmful shifts in the earth’s climate.
But while future generations of students may be the ones to find a solution to our pollution, every day the world refuses to act to combat the evisceration of the climate leads to tragic effects.
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In 2012, over 670,000 people died in China from the negative effects of coal-burning pollution. That’s over 130 times the 5,000 deaths from Ebola so far, and yet it has received a fraction of the news coverage.
America has its pollution problems as well. While President Obama has issued executive orders to reduce carbon emissions, the new Republican Senate leadership has vowed to de-fund these EPA efforts. And while some of these Senators are fairly protecting businesses from government overreach, the new man in charge of the committee that controls environmental policy, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok.), wrote a book called, “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” which as you might guess, is not peer-reviewed or scientifically credible.
While these problems seem beyond our immediate ability to address, in fact, they are not. Our generation is intricately connected to the rest of the world through our social networks and our consumption patterns. Reach out to your representatives, your friends, your family, whoever you can reach. Learn about the products you consume, and limit your personal contributions to our environment’s decay.
It’s no longer a mess for someone else. The buck has already been passed. Let’s all work to preserve the only world we’ve got.
