Editorial Opinion

Climate change was an “inconvenient truth” 15 years ago. It’s still inconvenient.

Politicians fail to give it the attention it deserves; thus, failing our generation.

In a 2021 survey of 10,000 people from 10 countries, the University of Bath found that the majority of those surveyed were deeply worried about the future and felt as though governments were not doing enough to address climate change.We on the Editorial Board share the same feelings. A majority of governments around the world are failing younger generations.

Even if governments were to make a 180° shift and give it their all to end climate change, what has already been done will have horrible consequences. Damage is already seen with extreme weather, heat waves and 19 named storms so far this year.

But, that change most likely won’t happen at the snap of a finger. Governments are busy chasing dollars, and this can most specifically be said about the capitalist-rooted American government. With the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s obvious that there is a higher value for the economy and the circulation of dollars over the lives of citizens.

In an ideal world, national governments would come together and work to reverse and slow the damage they are doing to the Earth, but our society is not ideal.

The issue of climate change is another of many that are class issues, such as COVID-19 and natural disasters. Upper-class people are able to escape climate change, with enough money to relocate they won’t be displaced in the way that lower-class citizens will. It’s easier for the government to skirt around issues if those who  are mostly affected aren’t socially powerful, upper-class or white.

If the government did not choose to avoid the issue, there are a handful of climate change solutions for them to choose from: renewable power generation, lessening reliance on plastics and alternative fuels for transportation are just a few ideas that have already been proposed.

It’s not as if there aren’t any solutions, it’s just that governments are actively choosing to not invest money into these projects. Instead the government allows septic pools of misinformation to exist when lead scientists give public updates of the Earth’s poor status.

This trend can be extended to the COVID-19 pandemic. Politicians did not take science seriously and, according to the CDC, around 670,000 people have lost their lives because of COVID-19.

If governments continue to treat climate change as a minor issue, more people will lose their lives and become climate refugees to something that could have been prevented.