We’re still not talking about climate change
By: Cody Boteler, Editor-in-Chief
Here’s the thing about Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hermine:
It has a ridiculous name. I wish it were Hermione. I like Harry Potter a lot, sorry.
Here’s the other thing about Hermine.
I wish we were using it to talk more seriously about global climate change and the consequences that are going to come from it.
Yeah, I’ve seen a few headlines about how Hermine is causing coastal flooding, and how we’re already dealing with coastal flooding and how coastal flooding is going to get worse.
That’s great. Don’t get me wrong. But global climate change is going to bring so, so much more than coastal flooding—which, by itself, is going to be devastating to cities along the coast: cities like New York, Boston, New Orleans, Miami and San Francisco. Millions of people displaced in the U.S. alone.
But there’s going to be so much more than that. Weather patterns are going to change, storms are going to become more intense and everyone, on a global level, will need to make drastic lifestyle changes.
Global climate change is the most important thing that we’ve ever had to face and we’re not talking about it.
We’re not talking about it. The effects of global warming should be the lead story on every news cast and featured in every single edition of every major newspaper.
I’m mad that we don’t talk about it. It’s the single most life-changing thing that we’re all going to deal with, but we’re too busy either pretending it’s too far off to worry about or worse, ignoring the facts and pretending it doesn’t exist.
By ignoring climate change, by not talking about it, we’re essentially throwing our futures away. We’re betting that the world won’t change on us—but it already is. Glaciers are retreating and sea levels are already rising.
We’re doing irreparable harm to this planet. The longer we refuse to talk about it, the more harm that we’ll do. The more likely it is that we and our children will suffer.
It’s hard, sometimes, to not feel overwhelmed by the doom and gloom. I met a former environmental reporter at my internship who said she had to change focus because reporting on the end of the world got too depressing.
I can sympathize with her. I sell myself an eternal optimist, but it’s really, really hard to stay optimistic when a lot of people are refusing to take any sort of action.
But, at this point, we have to.
