Imagine a time when you could row a boat to reach the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It is a fantastical and haunting image, but not outside the realms of possibility.
According to NASA, it would take just a three-meter rise in sea level to submerge Miami and a one-meter rise to sink New Orleans. If you have lived along the eastern to southern coasts of the U.S. within the past decade, you and your home would have likely been incapacitated by a devastating hurricane or two.
Hurricane Sandy was Long Island’s ultimate nemesis. I remembered it happened in October because as a nine-year-old, having Halloween canceled was unthinkable. I know and appreciate now, as a 16-year-old, that our temporary loss of power and heat was a mere inconvenience relative to our South Shore neighbors whose homes and finances were completely wiped out.
Earlier this summer, I spent a week at the University of Vermont with 35 other high school students who qualified as national finalists for the U.S. Earth Science Olympiads.
We represented the most passionate students of earth science in the country with an appreciation for all the natural world provides for humans. When it came to the topic of climate change; however, the irony was not lost on us that humankind was betraying Mother Earth.
NASA reported that human activity increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere by more than a third since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
The Environmental Protection Agency reported that CO2, which can come in the form of burning fossil fuels such as natural gas and oil, as well as chemical reactions such as cement manufacturing, contributed 82 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. But what spooked us was the viral headline late last year stating that U.N. climate scientists concluded we had just 12 years left until carbon emissions reach “a point of no return.”
Why this matters is that an abundance of carbon trapped in our atmosphere contributes to the concentration of greenhouse gases that warm the earth. As the planet warms, the polar ice caps melt and oceans in warmer regions are excessively heated, causing sea levels to rise and weather patterns to become violently erratic.
Small, obscure islands in the Pacific have started to sink while the world’s most affluent waterfront properties have witnessed eroding coastlines. Water, our source of livelihood, has become a force to reckon with.
At the end of camp, the students were asked to give an “earth systems pledge,” one that would describe what you would do with your knowledge of earth science for the greater good.
But when we stepped back to think about that pledge, we realized what a daunting task that was to place onto the shoulders of teenagers. Climate change was irreversibly headed towards catastrophe, so will it be left to us kids to solve for human survival in a new Darwinian world?
Resentment sinks in because we feel so heavily burdened by those before us who neither had the foresight nor cared.
Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg said it so movingly when the Swedish climate activist addressed the British Parliament. “That future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit and that you only live once. You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to.”
Thunberg is currently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and what a glorious victory that would be if she were to win.
I have much confidence that my generation has the right value system and the drive to put global warming in check. We will study and pursue careers in science, education, politics, and business that formalize climate control innovations, practices, and legislation.
But for now, we can emulate Thunberg and the Parkland students who taught us how to be influential before we are even old enough to vote. We can start by encouraging our parents and other adults to vote for a President who will put us back on the Paris Agreement.
We can educate fellow students on climate change and instill in them the urgent need for their active participation. We can live up to our pledge at USESO to become the future leaders who will stem climate change.
My only hope is that we can affect change now because we are running out of time.
Avery Park
Junior at Great Neck North High School
