Many Lambert students are contributing to a problem, but they do not know what it is they are creating. This problem is called climate change and everyone living on this planet is affected by it. To understand how to stop climate change, one must know what it is. According to the United Nations, climate change is the “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.” In other words, it is, quite literally, a change in climate. The warming and rising of the oceans, increases in temperature and loss of species are some of the many effects of climate change.
History
Climate change has always been around. Evidence from NASA shows that there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warm periods. After the Ice Age 11,700 years ago, the modern climate era began and so did human civilization. The mid-1800s marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the start of the climate change we see today began. This is also when the current warming trend began due to human activities that were (and still are) producing atmospheric gasses. The gasses get trapped in the atmosphere and absorb the Sun’s energy, which, in return, heats up the Earth.
Solutions
The question now arises, what can students at Lambert do? There are many ways students can help out in the push against climate change. For example, students can turn off the lights in empty rooms to conserve power and take shorter showers to save water. Freshman Ella Snyder discusses other ways students can go green.
“I think, trash wise, it is really easy to just put your plastic bottles in the blue recycling can, put the trash and the food in the black one,” she explained. “Don’t waste paper. We do notes a lot and I know that I use both sides of the paper just so that I don’t waste.”
Simple changes like the ones mentioned can go a long way. There are so many other ways students can make a difference, but educating others about what is going on with the environment is very important. The more people know, the more help will be available to stop climate change.
