In class today, we were asked to write down answers to the question, “Why don’t people care about climate change?” My classmates and I came up with many reasons, for example: global warming hasn’t personally affected people, it’s not viewed as a serious issue in our society, people aren’t properly informed, etc. With our current technology and knowledge of global warming, we have an accurate picture of what our Earth could look like in the next couple years. I think it’s important to start creating ways to get the public involved and informed of global warming and how it’s going to affect our communities if we don’t address it.

First, we need to start by educating the younger generation that will be growing up and living in the aftermath of our current actions. The government or activists should supply school funding to provide environmental classes that inform students of the changing climate and how to adapt. By learning about this issue at such a young age, this generation will be innovative and motivated to adapt and maybe reverse global warming. Adam Dyster stated in his article, Comment: education is the key to addressing climate change, “It equips youth with the skills to help combat climate change, and be part of a green recovering, and positive future.”

To address this generation, we need to provide ways for people to learn about global warming in engaging ways. This could be providing information sessions, hosting activist events and debates on television, etc. One main reason people aren’t caring about global warming is because they aren’t taking global warming seriously. People aren’t seeing the short-term side effects, let alone the long-term. It’s important that we make it known that the cli-fi novels we are currently reading in class could easily become reality. Dan Bloom states, in the article ‘Cli-fi’: Could A Literary Genre Help Save The Planet?, “cli-fi is a fiction genre that might be helpful in waking people up and serving as an alarm bell.”

Here’s an example of a cli-fi novel we’re reading in class.

Last, but not least, after we educate people, we need to get them involved in saving our planet. We could get kids involved by teaching them to recycle, plant trees and flowers, or read cli-fi stories. To address the current population, we could supply more recycling bins, make global warming information sessions accessible and known, and show them ways to easily cut down on water, electric, oil, and gas usage. Many people don’t think their actions can make a difference, but anything helps. If you want to learn more about easy ways to stop global warming on an individual level, visit the website Stop Global Warming.

People need to stop turning a blind eye to global warming. It’s happening, and we need to adapt. The best way to get everyone involved is to educate the younger generation, engage and inform the current generation, and show people how easy it is to cut down their natural resource usage. The more people that see the consequences of global warming, the more people will band together to save our future.