Don’t Look Back; We’re Not Going That Way!
By Will Charouhis, Founder of Forces of Nature
The last decade rang out the hottest decade documented in human history. Although scientists have long predicted global warming would lead to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, no one listened. But as one climate disaster after another broke records across the decade-in virtually every category-that science debate has ended. Behind the disastrous images of our crumbling planet that now roll across our screens with alarming regularity, are a roster of stats.
The greatest crisis ever to face humanity, one year in the making, arrived full throttle this decade. It will be remembered as the years our planet started to melt-measurably. Our glaciers began an inevitable retreat, melting at breakneck speeds so fast they can be caught on camera. Almost every single glacier on Earth is shrinking now. The melt from Greenland and Antarctica added over 36 millimeters of extra freshwater to the world’s oceans as the decade rolled away from us. These ocean changes slowed down the north to south current that controls the world’s weather, and the world watched as one after the other, deadly weather events unfolded, affecting every continent on earth.
Mother Nature’s reaction to the science experiment we’ve conducted on our planet is just beginning; this story is hurtling us towards an uninhabitable planet. Across the planet, the last 5 years were the hottest ever recorded. From the extreme floods in Venice to the fires in Australia and the burning of the Amazon, we ended the decade in a way no one imagined when it started. The pictures of the death and destruction barreling in as we close out the year are those imagined in a bad science–fiction movie. Except they are real.
On the cusp of 2020, the state of the planet is dire. In the last decade, fossil fuel emissions increased by 10%, and are on the rise. The best science available indicates that we have already reached the point of no return—the tipping point beyond which we cannot recover the world as we know it.
Our inaction this last decade has ceded the eventual fate of coral reefs, the inevitable future migration of millions who live along the coast, and our own Florida Keys. It was a deadly lost decade. Or was it?
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Out of death and destruction, our generation stood up. In the fight against climate change, an army of youth has finally got the world’s attention. A climate activist was Time’s Person of the year! More than 7.6 million people have taken to the streets in protest, twice in the last 3 months! True, the climate is not on the front pages, where it needs to be, but more and more people are coming around to the science.
It’s in 2020. The decade ended without enough action to save our planet. Almost everything and yet nothing has changed.
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But the message of hope is this: While it is too late to stop climate change, it is not too late to slow it. Every action we take will slow the effects of global warming incrementally, giving us time to adapt to the changes, and therefore give us a better chance for survival. The question is do we have what it takes? The solutions are here-surprisingly, many of the solutions are profitable, and the solutions will make our lives better. Unite behind the science and join the youth who remain steadfast in their call to action.
Together we are unstoppable youth calling for immediate action to end climate change.
One of the people. By the people. For the planet.
Because there is no Planet B.
We’ve all just got to do something. Stand with us.
