Prior to this class I never thought about climate change for more than a couple of minutes when I would read about an area affected by climate change, or the toll it will have on our future world. Which seems surreal because I find myself seeing and thinking about climate change so frequently now that it has become a daily thought of mine. It’s like an ex-best friend that you try and avoid at all costs, but somehow they just happen to be at your new favorite coffee shop, around the corner and basically everywhere that you are. Similar to this ex-best friend climate change is something that is prevalent everywhere, it is the grass and flowers we see blooming way before they should be, it is the invisible winter that was nothing short of sunshine and 55 degrees (which is extremely warm for a Eugene winter,) it is everywhere. Unlike this unavoidable ex-best friend, climate change is something that can be tackled, something that is not all bad, and something that we can slow down the progression of if we put our entire effort forward.

With all of this in mind, after seeing how climate change is affecting the world around us immensely it shocked me to have a discussion with one of my roommates about climate change. After a long and tiring back-to-back argument about climate change I left the room furious. Essentially in a short synopsis she told me that she didn’t believe that climate change was moving at a more rapid pace because of the human effect on the world. She tried to explain to me that climate change would happen regardless because of the natural toll of the earth. As that is true, we have a huge impact and carbon footprint that is in-erasable. Everything we do is helping the progression of a world heavily affected by climate change, a world that could have a limitation on water intake, rising sea levels, cities being wiped out and so on.

The idea of any of those things happening would frighten most people, which is what shocked me most about this conversation that I had with one of my roommates. Although people are obviously entitled to their own opinion, I just don’t understand how someone could turn a blind eye to the world around us. For example, these wonderful sunny days in Eugene are an indicator that our climate is changing, it is hot somewhere where it is supposedly still “winter,” yet rather than a winter full of rain we have a winter filled with sunshine. Last year around this time, if not a month prior it was snowing here, and now it’s as sunny as can be. I suppose, if you don’t believe in climate change you can pin it to us being fairly lucky. But for those who realize and understand the path our world is taking can only hope that one day more people will realize that climate change is occurring, and will continue to occur if we don’t change.