Life After Earth

By: Sydnee Brown

“Everything I've ever cared about, everything I've worked for, has all been preparation for a future that no longer exists.” 

A line from the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, I considered dramatic when I watched for the first few times - but it hits a little different in 2020, paired with some startling predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

It is equally terrifying and almost impossible to fathom - that we may only have less than 10 sustainable years left on this planet. Unless, we make a plan to address the causes of climate change. 

“To avoid some of the most devastating impacts of climate change, the world must slash carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, and completely decarbonize by 2050,” said Andrew Winston, from Harvard Business Review.

Due to the increase in greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuels and livestock, the earth is experiencing a gradual change in climate regularities and will continue to do so. 

Higher sea levels. More extreme storms and droughts. Drastic temperature variability. Melting ice caps, species and habitat extinction, and even difficulty growing crops. All of these symptoms can be attributed to the notorious effects of near-irreversible climate change. 

But when did climate change turn from a global crisis to a partisan issue? Even the lack of minority representation inside most climate change movements supports America’s stance on keeping the destruction we’re causing - out of the public eye.

In 2016, meant to encourage government regulations and set goals that would help reduce greenhouse emissions, The Paris Climate Agreement was designed to tackle climate change as a global effort.

Although hundreds of countries and organizations like the European Union, China, and India have signed the agreement, President Trump withdrew from the agreement, and therefore disregarded America’s major contribution to greenhouse gases.

So what does that mean for our future?

As the generation up next to work, play, raise a family, and live well, we should be interested in making sure there is an Earth to live on. We can so easily get caught up in what is going on in our lives from day to day and it can be difficult to imagine working on future problems as well.

Diverse climate change movements like Sunrise and Zero Hour, are great places to learn more and get involved, because from here on, our future from is literally what we make it.