NASHER REFLECTIONS: “SAVING THE THIRD PLANET” BY ZION
The Spring season is a season of new beginnings, of reflection, and a time to welcome in change. As April is Earth Month, we have been thinking a lot about the impact of climate change on young people’s lives and their futures.
Many of us have witnessed the inadequate responses of government policy and many others believe that we have insufficient power to limit its harm. Nashers have been at the forefront of these discussions in our programs and are deepening their understanding around critical environmental justice issues. Zion (she/her), a junior at Cambria Heights Academy in Queens, penned the essay below on the effects of climate change and our role in saving our planet.
We’re grateful to Zion for sharing this call to action with us!
“SAVING THE THIRD PLANET”
The sky was aglow with bright city lights. Gradually, the cities of industrial practices blackened the air and toughened the lives of wildlife creatures, while silently affecting our meteorological conditions. We have resourceful organisms such as polar bears, giant pandas, green sea turtles, tigers and birds that are on the brink of being extinct. These wildlife are just a few of the lives that are being threatened.
Climate change refers to the long-term changes in the climate that occur over decades and longer. It’s a steady brewing conflict that is now coming into full effect. Industrial life in the cities has been culminating for centuries now and it’s poisoning the conditions of all living things. The ignition of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gasses cause a huge mass of global emissions. Examples of global emissions are carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Emissions build up in the atmosphere and warm the climate.
When the meteorological conditions undertake the trapping of more heat, it causes an increase in wildfires. In 2021, California was facing abnormal fire circumstances of numerous fires, including the Dixie Fire, McFarland Fire, Caldor Fire, and others due to intense heat. Another downfall that comes with the rise of heat temperatures is the melting of glaciers. The Arctic is warming about twice as fast, leading to the ice that polar bears rely upon to thaw away. The ice melting doesn’t only affect polar bears. but also seals and penguins.
We need to dismount the dangers of climate change. I stand by the idea that we do this through speaking up, coaching every generation and the media to take a stand for the next generation and themselves, to force change. We can implement alternative energy sources such as wind and solar powers, which limit the situation with fossil fuels and global emissions. As an affected citizen of global warming in this community, you can find ways to make transportation green. You can carpool, take bikes, and public transportation if your community offers it. This could be a train, bus. and walking even works. This plan set also helps with the emissions from fossil fuel that affect our warming.
Climate change has affected my community and I because the weather in New York has been irregular. In one case in the winter of 2020 there was a high temperature of 74 degrees. There is an issue with the heat and emissions even in my area, not just the Arctic. Global warming also brings my community hotter summers that become harder to bear for places that don’t usually have them.
As a country and a place with a growing population we need to work on our sustainability. Sustainability is us as the current leading generation meeting our needs without compromising the ability of future generations. Ensuring that the next group of people have resources to meet their needs is accomplished with us, not over using material and damaging land and animal life. Resources are finite and sustaining a balance of uses is a start.
Act now for our planet, it's rapidly changing for the worse. The wildlife is dying off, the air quality is diminishing, and the seasons as we know it are becoming unpredictable. However, there is a way we can save and grow the things damaged back. There is alternative powering, public transportation, and there is advertisement and protest to bring action and attention to the cause for the next generations.