The effects of climate change
Opposite ends of our country have been battered by ferocious storms over the past few weeks. On Sept. 17, Alaska was confronted by a typhoon that was bigger than Texas when it hit the western coast. Hurricane Fiona made landfall on Sept. 18 in Puerto Rico, where many folks are still dealing with the longterm effects of Hurricane Maria from 2017. In both places, people are facing catastrophic flooding, loss of power, lack of access to food and water and, for some, lost homes. The strength and size of these storms will be called unprecedented, but with climate change continuing unabated, we will see — and we have already seen — weather records broken every single year.
Tucked away from hurricanes here in the middle of the continent, it is easy to feel distant from these disasters, from the people affected and the crises they represent. But we are experiencing the effects of climate change, too. I haven’t seen a White Christmas in Chicagoland in perhaps 10 years; the grass in my neighborhood oscillates between dried up and underwater as more frequent droughts are interspersed with more intense storms; the 60-degree days in December feel like something out of “The Twilight Zone”; and conversations with my peers about whether or not they want kids inevitably include fears about what our future may look like.
We may not be staring down typhoons and hurricanes, but we are affected all the same, in ways global and personal.
Even while grieving for those in Alaska and Puerto Rico and even while mourning the changes to our climate that can’t be reversed, I find hope and motivation in knowing there are still things I can do — things we can all do — to protect as much of what we love as possible. Stopping greenhouse gas emissions is huge and necessary; 2 degrees of atmospheric warming is still better than 3 or 6. Reducing overconsumption and waste — of food, water, clothing, plastic, etc. — means more resource availability in the future.
And remembering our connectedness, to our neighbors next door, to our fellow citizens in Alaska and Puerto Rico, to the land on which we rely, can be a great starting point for shifting the way we live to be more sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change.
— Leah Bieniak, St. Charles