We are about three months into Trump’s presidency and I am still angry. Sometimes, I’ll be going about my day, and I’ll remember that some of the most powerful people in the world openly want to take away environmental protections, women’s access to reproductive healthcare, and increase spending on our already massive military. All of this is concerning, but for me, the most pressing issue is climate change.
If you haven’t noticed, we currently live under a government that is trying to kill us.
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Sounds dramatic? It is, and it requires your attention.
I’m not joking when I say this: I believe that the cuts, budgets, and bills that are floating around congress right now will kill many Americans. The new healthcare bill alone will cause at least 24 million people to lose their health insurance. I do not doubt that many of those without health insurance, those getting reduced medicine costs thanks to the ACA, and those getting reduced cancer treatments will die. It is a life and death situation, and I need people to take this seriously.
This has already become normal. Do not make this type of behavior normal. Cutting healthcare is not protecting people, and neither is building a wall (but that’s another topic). You know what really isn’t helping people to live healthy and happy lives? Getting rid of the EPA. Taking away pollution restrictions. Backing away on efforts to fight climate change.
I’m not going to write about the science of climate change. Facts are facts: climate change is happening, and it is caused by human activities.
This is a serious issue. We have government officials wanting to take away environmental protections and cut funding for climate change.
Can I just ask, real quick, what is so wrong about wanting clean air and water? Are government officials that desperate for money from oil and coal companies?
Let’s be real: taking away environmental protections opens up business opportunities for big oil and coal corporations. Allowing companies to dump toxic waste into rivers (yes, this is a real thing) doesn’t do anybody good but the people running those businesses.
Protections that prohibit the dumping of toxic or hazardous waste into rivers is meant to protect us, the public.
I think it’s difficult for us to understand exactly what life was like before the EPA was formed, and before subsequent environmental laws and policies were in place. I asked my mom about this since she was my age when the EPA began:
“One of the things I remember as a kid, was, if you were driving and you had a coke cup in your hand, you’d throw it out the window. And you know, everyone would do that. The level of consciousness we had. We just didn’t think there would be any consequences to having garbage all over.”
This is generational amnesia, where new generations take the degraded environment they are presented with as the non-degraded one. From there, their degradation on the environment doesn’t feel that bad, but in reality, the historical effect only adds up. This trend will continue unless we educate ourselves and our children about environmental issues.
However, after new environmental laws were passed, on the surface problems, such as littering, drastically changed:
“I remember after that we never threw anything out the windows. Then they established litter laws in Oregon, so all of those laws and rules that I know as an adult became normal”.
I also asked her about air pollution:
“You would drive up and down the freeway, you know the lumber mills in Oregon? [The lumber mills] would be belching chemicals, huge smokestacks into the air. And that was just normal. Nobody thought ‘I wonder what’s coming out of there that we’re breathing, that’s giving us cancer?’ ”
We don’t seem to realize just how necessary the EPA is to our health. We don’t understand just how severe environmental problems were on the surface level before the EPA. Of course we still have environmental problems today that are not seen on the surface as problems. One of these is climate change. It is difficult, sometimes impossible for us to see that our actions and the actions of our government harm people across the world.
Those of us who live in clean and healthy environments in the US can’t easily see the effects of climate change. Those of us in poor cities, with poor access to clean drinking water and food deserts, along with pollution in homes, schools, and workplaces can see the effects much easier. Just because it is not happening to you does not mean it is not happening.
Southeast Asian countries and other islands are at the highest risk for negative consequences from climate change. For many, they don’t have 30 or 40 years to see what happens. No. They are being affected right now. People are losing their homes in island nations because of rising sea levels, warmer ocean temperatures, and increased ocean acidification in which much marine life simply cannot survive. They are losing their cultural identity, and many must relocate because their homes are underwater. For the first time in human history, we have climate refugees.
How can we accept this? I think that most of us would be outraged if this was in the news more often. If it was brought to our attention daily, and purposely, maybe we would be more awake. This is called moral blindness. Looking away from climate change directly for a moment, factory farming is a perfect example of this. Most of us know the suffering that animals face in factory farms. We know that they have short, painful, and uncomfortable lives. However, the way that is exposed in our country is mainly in documentaries, and not in mainstream media. The agricultural industrial complex specifically limits filming on farms and decreases transparency into their practices as much as possible.
With factory farming, one might say that conditions have improved significantly since the Upton Sinclair days. However, I think the improvements there were mainly focused around humans. It doesn’t seem that animals were treated any more kindly. But I understand that eating meat is engrained into cultures and societies, and it is not always financially feasible for everybody to be vegetarian or vegan.
That being said, I know that there must be other people out there who care. Maybe I’m not seeing them clearly, but I have to keep the hope alive that other young people are motivated and concerned about our planet and our government.
Yes, it would be nice to live our lives and pretend that nothing has really changed. It’s easier to block it out. It’s easy to keep going with the status quo because you don’t have to take any real action or make any real change.
I ask you to not look at what is easiest, but what is the most necessary. Climate change is an especially difficult problem because we first have people who simply don’t believe it is happening, or they don’t believe humans have caused it. Second, we have people who know that climate change is happening but prefer to ignore it because they don’t want to lose money. Third, we have problems within negotiating climate change mitigation itself. Who is responsible for emissions? How do we assign responsibilities in a fair and reasonable matter? How do we get countries to agree on change?
If we’ve looked at the past, we know that legal action is likely not the quickest route. Especially with the government we have now. If we really want change, we can’t rely solely on the legal and political level. We should involve government and all, but what will really push us along is business forces. We have to push businesses to be more “green”. To be more sustainable, and to focus their efforts on climate change mitigation.
There is not a day that goes by without climate change crossing my mind. But, I also think about social, political, racial, and cultural issues as well. You cannot just think of climate change alone because it is not just a scientific issue. You also cannot look at issues with racial discrimination without factoring in environmental issues, particularly with housing and employment. It will be a long journey to change, but we must remember that it is possible if we care enough.
