We’ve all been taught from an early age to recycle. There’s always something an individual can do to help save the earth. But is individual effort enough? Is thinking globally and acting locally a realistic solution to growing climate change?
The answer as of the present day is no.
With the number of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels in the atmosphere, as well as other pollutants affecting every aspect of our earthly habitats, there is no reason to think that the trend of making earth a worse planet on which to live will change any time soon.
According to Jemicy’s local environmental specialist and Science Department teacher Matt Torr, the earth is in some serious trouble.
“Looking at the data, we are certainly on a fast-track to environmental destruction. Just take a look at the greenhouse gas levels of NO2 and how they dropped across the planet when the pandemic first hit earlier this year. Our normal day-to-day activities that cause a ton of pollution were greatly reduced; people were not commuting, companies were not producing, so air pollution decreased. This just proves that humans are expediting the rate at which these gases are introduced into the atmosphere,” wrote Torr by email.
Unless we understand the causes, the effects, and how to innovatively change what we do, our way of life can make the earth uninhabitable.
Others however think that things are not so dire.
“I feel that our path is okay. We have been able to build cars that can drive by themselves and have electrically powered. But not everyone uses an electric car. The pollution is very bad for the earth,” responded sophomore Max Burman via Snapchat.
Climate change is a hot button issue in politics, but let’s go over what that means for us objectively. Research from NASA shows the ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, hurricanes are growing stronger, there are drastic changes in temperature, and the planet is experiencing more droughts.
What does all of this have to do with us?
All this human interference affects all forms of life detrimentally. Farmers will be out of luck because crops become harder to grow each year due to harsh weather conditions and droughts. With sea levels rising and natural disasters, such as hurricanes becoming stronger, parts of our country are falling into the ocean as well as being wrecked annually..
What can we do about this? We can go to wind and solar-powered energy to start.
“If we converted to solar and wind power and even other renewables, we would benefit immensely; the air would be cleaner, we wouldn’t run the risk of oil spills or pollution through the transportation of fossil fuels, and we wouldn’t be polluting when we burn these fossil fuels (and these are just a few examples of how we would benefit). It’s hard to really quantify a number of how much it would really help but the data shows that the planet would benefit greatly from switching to renewable energy; Project Drawdown does a nice job of making these numbers a bit more tangible,” wrote Torr.
There are inventions to help us clean up the environment that are working efficiently even today.
“Scrubbers’ clean a factory’s air pollution before it is emitted into the air. But I think my personal favorites are ones that use nature to solve the problem. For example, using algae as a biofuel, mushrooms for packaging, or harnessing the power of the ocean to supply energy. Locally, I think Mr. Trash Wheel in Baltimore’s harbor is a pretty cool way to reduce waste in our waterways,” Torr wrote.
“There are dispensers that help us throw out less plastic bottles. That, along with renewable energy, is important to help the environment,” said senior Eli Greenwald.
Burman insists we’re on the right path.
“I do think we are doing our best to fix the environment. We have people that have made machines to clean out the ocean of trash and we can grow plants by using ultra violet lights.”
There are many other innovations that could help humans reverse the current trends.
Julia Dimaio, Jemicy’s Science Department Chair, has some ideas.
“ I think the plastic vortex (or the extreme plastic pollution) in the oceans is something that can be solved very quickly with a biodegradable polymer. We need to replace ALL plastics with something that can easily dissolve (and become pH neutral!) in water after only a few months. This would mean that things like shampoos and ketchup bottles will need to be discarded more quickly than usual, but HOPEFULLY would also be compostable.” wrote Dimaio via email.
We need both government, business, and society as a whole to work in tandem to tackle these problems.
“I do not believe that we are doing our best to stop the destruction of our environment. Laws need to be enforced with stricter penalties, pristine lands and waterways need indefinite protection, and every human being needs to have the same environmental mindset; unfortunately, there is just too much wiggle room and as a result, the planet isn’t completely protected,” Torr wrote.
However, he does believe that we are moving in the right direction environmentally.
What is Jemicy already doing to help?
According to Assistant Head of the Upper School Mark Palmerino, the Jemicy administration is looking for ways to make the earth cleaner for their staff and their students.
“We installed solar panels, automatic light switches, and touchless sinks. We also have our recycling bins in every classroom, compost bins throughout the building, and we are looking to start a gardening club,” wrote Palmerino.
We can all help by using renewable energy, recycling, and even signing petitions. If you’d like to, here are a few links to petitions you can sign:
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/environment/#hottest
https://www.change.org/t/environmental-protection-en-us
https://www.change.org/t/oceans-2
https://www.oceancare.org/en/topical/petitions/
https://oceana.org/take-action
Everybody has an impact on the earth, let’s do our part to preserve it.
MOOSE PRINTS 