A change needs to be made before it is too late for the planet

By: Gavin McClean

April 19, 2021

Whenever I hear any conversation about climate change, it is always about innovations that are going to be made and the way energy is produced will be different. Sometimes the question of whether or not Global Warming is even real or not comes up, which is a whole other level of ridiculous. All in all, it is just a bunch of the same old conversations about what could be done or what higher ups are going to do, but no major change ever comes.

In today's world, fossil fuels are constantly being used for heating, electricity, transportation, etc. The constant burning of fossil fuels has caused global warming. If these greenhouse gasses continue to be emitted, then eventually, it will be too late to reverse the damage. A change in how we produce energy needs to come soon..

According to the World Wildlife Fund, in the next 20-40 years global warming will cause sea levels to rise up to 1.8 ft, over 2.7 billion people will be exposed to extreme heat waves, and the risk of flooding will increase by 170%.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to be part of a world that looks like that.

Let’s not forget to mention that natural disasters, like hurricanes, are also results from global warming. We have seen what those kinds of disasters can do to communities and even whole cities. . Now add over 100% more floods and severe heat waves, and an even greater amount of lives will be taken or destroyed.

“The threshold of global warming could be crossed as soon as 2027,” says Shirley Cardenas, a researcher from McGill University.

The effects of global warming will be irreversible sooner than we think, and if we don’t act on it soon, the future will not be very pleasant.

Although this is a future that our generation doesn’t want to live in, it isn’t just about us when it comes to global warming's effect on the future. Yes, what we could go through later on as a result of global warming is bad, it is nothing compared to what it could be like after we are gone. What kind of world will our children, grandchildren and future generations be living in? Will there even be a future for us at that point, who knows what the effects of global warming will be by that point in time.

It is our responsibility as humans to leave a better world for the people who will come after us and not leave it as a wasteland. That is a concept that the current people with power, like corporations and the government, don’t understand. They need to care about the future and not how the world can be satisfied right now. The ones in power are the ones who need to make it required to find new ways and make a change and set us on the right path. It is truly sad how much people care about making money in the present more than the future of our planet.

Now, I understand that just switching to new energy is not that simple. Fossil Fuels are proven to be much more useful and lasting compared to other forms of energy. Fossil fuels are also more abundant than the other natural and environmentally safe energy sources. Another thing to consider is that people have jobs that are dependent on burning these fuels. There is no doubt it is very difficult to make the switch to new energy and leave fossil fuels behind.

Still, we have already seen examples of how we can create new energy such as wind energy, hydro power, solar energy, etc. Things like electric vehicles have already been created and many people use them everyday. Solar panels are being used to create power for houses. I’m not saying that we need to switch all at once, but we need to make a bigger push to make the swap. New energy needs to be introduced and implemented faster and positions of power need to start bringing their attention to discovering newer, more efficient ways to create energy without fossil fuels.

The change needs to begin now so that the world can start to innovate greater ways of creating energy sooner. We don’t have all of the answers now, but if we don’t act soon the time for us to discover and implement these changes will have already passed. People who are in the positions of power where they can make the change need to step up and push us in that direction. It’s not just about us and our future, but the generations that come after.