During the twentieth century, we have seen an exponential increase in climate change, irreversibly impacting Earth’s environment. At McLean High School, the concept of climate change might seem bigger than the individual, but local change is the key to global success.
Climate change refers to the phenomena that are caused by greenhouse gasses and the overuse of burning fossil fuels, thinning the ozone layer and allowing the sun’s rays to increasingly penetrate the Earth, trapping heat inside the planet.
Recent extreme weather events, such as California’s wildfires, are alarming proof of climate change’s punishing consequences. California has a high population and limited water reserves, contributing to the destructiveness of the fires.
In addition, the Santa Ana winds in California—a natural phenomenon that can reach over a hundred miles per hour—which along with the dry season, play a crucial role in the rapid spread of the fires.
“[California] always has strong winds during this time of year, but this was unprecedented,” AP Environmental Science teacher Shayna Kirschenbaum said. “That could be due to the fact that we have El Niño and La Niña oscillation forms.”
The recent strong weather has to do with the cooler ocean temperatures and warmer wind temperatures and how they interact can cause more storms. The United States is seeing more natural storms and disasters than usual due to the increase in atmosphere temperature, which results in higher wind speeds and storms.
“We just had winter storms in places that don't see winter storms, like Louisiana, Florida and Texas,” Kirschenbaum said. “They're unable to do anything right now, because they don't have the infrastructure to take care of snow.”
As climate change surges, the environment continues to worsen, and humans will not be the only ones who will suffer. Animal and plant life will be drastically affected, their lives torn apart from the consequences of human actions.
Global warming has also caused glaciers to melt at unprecedented rates, causing higher sea levels and desalination of oceans.
As we continue to overuse our natural resources, a positive feedback loop in the environment is created. This refers to a cycle of events that loops back on itself and continues to worsen as time goes on.
“The more we burn fossil fuels, the more greenhouse gases go into the atmosphere and the warmer the atmosphere gets,” Kirschenbaum said. “There is then more melting of glaciers, which leads to more water and water vapor, which is a greenhouse gas. That greenhouse gas makes the temperature warmer, and it's just this continuous loop of more, more, more.”
Although some critics of climate change say these events are naturally occurring, our actions make them worse. Naturally, the Earth goes through the process of climate change. However, the real problem began when we alarmingly increased the burning of coal and fossil fuels.
Due to the worsened cycle of warming, Earth’s entire population must take a step back and reconsider their daily practices. Some aspects of people’s daily routines harm the environment, and their impact could be decreased with a few simple actions.
“It's important to contribute whatever amount you can [to resolve] climate change,” Forder said. “People can walk or take public transport instead of driving, turn lights off when not in use and reuse things that require fossil fuels to create, such as plastic bags.”
There are also some solutions that are more local and specific to McLean students. By stepping back and banding together with our fellow students, we can decrease the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted, starting with our very own J-Lot. Students can choose to carpool and conserve gas while also protecting the environment.
Climate change rages on, ever-present in our society, and actions must be taken to fight and combat the threat it poses to our health and safety. Everyone must work to reverse the catastrophic effects of climate change, as sitting by means condemning our planet to death.
“Even if we set up our infrastructure for renewables right now and got rid of fossil fuels, we would still be 30 years behind where we need to be infrastructure-wise, so we would still need to rely on these fossil fuels for 30 more years,” Kirschenbaum said. “And do we have 30 more years?”
