“Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The individuals who argue that climate change isn’t happening from human involvement are like the individuals who argued that the world is flat, the facts don’t match their opinions and everyone will laugh at them in the future. However, the difference now is that future generations may not live long enough to laugh at the ignorant.
College students across the country (and world) are taking a stand as they engage in individual protests against the leadership of their colleges who refuse to divest from fossil fuels.
Students from the University of Oregon even created a mock wedding with the bride being the coal industry, and the groom being the University of Oregon mascot—the Duck. The wedding started from a protest by Divest UO and other divestment groups who were protesting the UO Foundation’s refusal to drop its holdings in the fossil fuel company.
Alongside the protests from the University of Oregon, students at the University College London “covered themselves in oil for an orgy… as part of fossil fuel protest”. Rest assured they got half-naked, but they didn’t act like an orgy; they just took over a hallway outside a meeting full of UCL Council members. In other instances like Harvard, students are also pushing their administration to divest their $31 billion endowment in fossil fuel companies.
Well done students, now you can tell your future children that you weren’t a part of the problem, but rather a part of the solution.
So, what is the message? Students are tired of the complete neglect in taking steps towards alleviating climate change, and they want a leader to step up and address the issue.
I can already hear a rebuttal arguing that there isn’t enough evidence to prove climate change, which somehow still floats around in peoples’ minds.
According to a member of the National Science Board and former Reed College President, James Powell, global warming consensus in the scientific community exceeds 99.99 percent.
The increase in global warming is not natural, the current warming trend is something that has never been seen in the last 1,300 years. Humans are the cause, which is why we can see the increase in carbon in the environment—which creates a hotter climate—starting around the industrial revolution. Furthermore, each year we continually set records for the hottest months.
Due to all of the increased heat, there have been large scale changes within the animal kingdom as well. Scientists have estimated that one-third of animals will be affected by the problem of climate change in the next century because of unsuitable habitats and ecosystems.
As many people in the older generations have been able to blow off this mass destruction of ecosystems, young adults realize just how much is at stake.
With climate change comes increased drought causing more famine and conflicts. Have you heard of the Syrian war? According to the New York Times, a large part of the war was started from a drought crisis that was made worse by human influences on climate change. Other outcomes include more extreme natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy in 2012 being the largest Atlantic hurricane on record. These events will only continue to get worse in the years that follow.
If you deny the evidence and still firmly believe that climate change isn’t a problem, just sit back and stay out a position of power so that these educated students can rise up. They are ready to listen to the facts and lead the fight against climate change.