Editorial: Stopping the apocalypse

Climate change is no longer a hypothetical. The planet is dying, and we have only one shot at saving it.

Much of the time can be spent pointing fingers. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, there are 100 corporations that are responsible for 71 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. These companies refuse to hold themselves accountable. A lot of the time, these companies will turn around and point fingers right back at consumer behavior. Regardless of who is causing it and why it’s happening, we need to do something about it.

Carbon emissions are one of the biggest contributors to global warming. It is released through the burning of fossil fuels for energy. This energy is used to power our homes, cars, and phones. So, even in our own communities, we can take steps to reduce our carbon footprint. By using less energy, we can cut down on our consumption of fossil fuels while also saving money.

Even in Munster, initiatives we learned back in elementary school to “reduce, reuse, and recycle” may have become a whisper in the back of our minds. Take the Little Calumet River, for example, where litter can be found alongside the riverbanks and in the water. This litter subsequently destroys the local ecosystems. 

It all comes down to how much we’re willing to take action. When you see trash as you are walking along a sidewalk, do you reach to pick it up? The majority of people would like to think that they do, but in reality most people tend to brush it off as someone else’s responsibility. The truth is that we can’t rely on others to clean up our planet. It needs to start with you. 

We don’t realize how much we have until it’s all gone. The energy we use on a day-to-day basis might not strike us as a particularly significant part of life until the power goes out. In the same way, until we are all cognizant of the resources that we rely on, we’ll never realize how lucky we are to almost always have them available for us, and will never be able to tackle how to save them. 

Try to go beyond recycling— take the next step to educate yourself. From accredited sources such as National Geographic, whose articles and documentaries provide real life examples of how global warming is destroying ecosystems, to volunteering for cleaner Earth initiatives. Invest in a reusable water bottle, register to vote for legislation that will help, make your diet more climate-friendly and go outside in your free time. The more time you spend with the planet, the more inclined you will feel to take care of it.

Regardless of if you believe climate change is a reality, bettering the environment by regulating your own behavior will help make the world a better place in the end. If you decide not to do anything, and climate change actually does affect Earth in the way scientists project it to, we’ll lose everything.