Climate change refers to long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns. The burning of fossil fuels—like coal, oil and gas—produce greenhouse gas emissions that trap the sun’s heat within the Earth’s atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise.

Currently, greenhouse gas emissions are at their highest levels in 2 million years, and are continuing to rise.

The Earth is now about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the late 1800’s, and the last decade (2011-2020) was the warmest on record.

The consequences of climate change include intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.

The consequences of climate change include intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.

Is all hope lost? Nope!

There’s still plenty of action to be taken that can combat the globally changing climate. Unfortunately, most of this action needs to be implemented on a federal level, or a global scale, making it frustrating to be an individual in the environmental space right now. Change is hard, and while transitioning to renewable energy sources, and producing and consuming less seem to be simple changes, it is as usual, not quite as simple as it seems.

However, as a younger generation comes forward, complacency is no longer acceptable. Those in power politically are finally realizing that this generation will not be quiet, because their future is on the line.