Twelve years is all humanity has to start making changes to keep this planet alive. 

The Washington Post said, “the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Assessment reports late last year made it clear that the world must cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 45 percent in 12 years to preserve any hope of maintaining a livable planet.” 

Climate change is alive and unfortunately, well. Day by day humans are adding to the growing problem by using one use plastic products, driving gas guzzlers, and creating masses of waste. Humans are so blind to the destruction that they are causing that little if anything has been done to change it. 

There are some people who do not believe climate change and global warming are real such as the President of the United States, Donald Trump. On January 28 2019 President Trump tweeted, “In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!”

It is incompetent people such as President Donald Trump that will ultimately cause the death of our planet. People who do not believe in climate change are in the same category as people who believe the Earth is flat and the moon landing never happened. They could be shown hundreds of studies from hundreds of scientists and it is still not enough to convince them. 

California has seen the effects of climate change up close and personal in the last few years. The devastating fires that ripped through Northern California, one of which was too close to home just in Santa Rosa. According to National Geographic “California has warmed by about three degrees Fahrenheit. That extra-warmed air sucks water out of plants and soils, leaving the trees, shrubs, and rolling grasslands of the state dry and primed to burn.” 

More recently Guerneville was submerged in water due to a record breaking rainfall. The U.S. Global Change Research Program found that “increasingly, humanity is also adding to weather-related factors, as human-induced warming increases heavy downpours, causes more extensive storm surges due to sea level rise, and leads to more rapid spring snowmelt.” These two disasters are complete opposites but both extremely unfortunate. They reflect how much the planet is changing and reacting to citizen’s lack of care for the environment.

Climate change can feel extremely overwhelming and that the average person cannot do anything to help because they are just one person. Luckily this is not true. There are so many ways an individual person can make an impact on climate change. It can be as small as changing up one’s commute or morning routine. 

Commuting to school and work is something everyone does and there are many ways to make it greener. Carpooling is not only a great way to cut emissions but the use of the carpool lane is a nice perk as well. Taking public transit or riding a bike are also good options for commuting. 

Everyone has heard of reduce, reuse, and recycle but it actually needs to be used to work. Recycle whenever possible, reduce the amount of waste made, and reuse as much as possible. The most important thing someone can do to combat climate change is electing officials who actually believe in it. The more officials in office that believe in it the more likely they are to actively make changes for the better rather than ignoring the problem.   

Climate change is not an individual problem or even a single country’s problem, it is a global problem. One person, as small as that might seem, can help whether or not they believe it. The solution starts with the people who started this catastrophe in the first place. Everyone from every corner of the Earth needs to join together in repairing the damage before it is really too late.