CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS
Climate change. Plastic pollution. World-record breaking temperatures.
What is climate change and why is this generation of millennials so sought after it?
Climate change is basically an abnormality in the normal, habitable ecosystem of the earth.
Now, if that doesn’t mean much to you, this might be a good read for you.
Climate change has been around for a while now, dating back to almost the 19th century, but we’re
only just now realising how our activities as humans have caused the change to escalate to an
extremely high level in a very short time period.
What have we done to contribute to this change?
For about a century now, we have been growing our economies, our markets to make products
accessible to everyone and to make a big buck at the same time. However, this consumption-
production duality has caused much more harm than good.
The industrial activities that we depend upon- burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil have
increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases; which in turn raise global temperatures.
The exponentially increasing population demands more food produce- which means large-scale
deforestation to accommodate crop, dairy and meat farms.
The meat industry is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases like methane which play
a significant role in raising the temperature of the earth.
Another important cause of climate change is the increased usage of single-use plastic by the growing 7 billion+ people in the world. The consequences of these activities have caused some major changes to our planet. The excess
greenhouse gases emitted due to such activities have gone to levels beyond our understanding. This
affects global temperatures and brings about rises in sea levels across the planet, melting of
icecaps, icebergs, loss of natural animal habitat, extreme changes in the atmosphere in
geographical regions all over. If we do not work towards getting these temperatures down, we could be entering into
mass extinction- that we brought upon ourselves. On the plus side, due to youth movements across
the globe, more and more companies and a few governments have taken a step forward to stop contributing to global warming.
There are so multiple movements like protests, clean-ups, seminars, strikes, etc. that take place
across the globe on a daily basis to fight the change. It is time we realise that we cannot wait
for somebody else to make a difference. It starts with little actions taken by each and every one of
us- even if it is as simple as refusing a plastic straw. In conclusion, we are in the midst of a climate
crisis. And if we do not make changes now, the future generations are going to face hardships-
only to clean up the mess made by us.
-Navyaa Shah, II PU
