Jack Boss

5/26/17

Global warming. Climate change. You hear it all of the time, but what does it mean? What it
really means is the end. The end of life as we know it. Incalculable destruction, rising tides,
cities washed away by the horrendous and horribly destructive waves and hurricanes, California
covered in fire, a never-ending dryness. And for what? All so that society can have
convenience? Get to work faster? Get our clothes shipped for less money? No! We need to put
an end to this blasphemy. What is the point of having cheap energy if we are going to have to
pay dearly for it when the tides rise.

Interestingly enough, we are already seeing the effects. Tides are rising at an ever increasing
rate, which is a direct consequence of the melting icecaps. We can see this in places like
Florida. Miami has already had to invest about $500 million dollars into flood prevention and
protection, and as the tides rise, the severity and cost of these floods will rise along with it. Ever
since the beginning of industrialization, the earth's temperature has skyrocketed because of the
use of the fossil fuels that our factories and cars have had to use. These fossil fuels release
long ago trapped carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gasses that trap heat within our
atmosphere. Since 1914, the temperature on earth has sweltered to an average of 1.3 to 1.8
degrees fahrenheit warmer than before. That is an astronomical increase. As our population has
exploded, our fossil fuel use has increased in tandem, as well as the extent of our deforestation
and our livestock farming, all of which have added to the ever-increasing warming of our planet.

If we continue like this, our planet is a ticking time bomb. Eventually, the earth will warm enough
to begin melting ice in peat bogs which contains methane. At this point, it will become positive
feedback. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas, 23 times more than carbon dioxide
in fact, and it will only increase our rate of global warming. This, in turn, will contribute by
releasing even more methane from pockets of the gas trapped within ice caps, essentially
dooming life as we know it. The timer on the implosion of life will tick down to 0. This could be
our extinction event. Maybe whatever life inhabits earth will speak of the era of humans just as
we speak if the era of the dinosaurs.

We as controllers of this planet must fix this or controllers of this planet we will be no more. This
is the battle of our generation and we need to see it as such, or we will not have the abilities to
worry about more petty issues. What will the next President matter if the sea is lapping at your
front door, your front lawn inundated with water. It needs to be stopped before it changes our
lives and our childrens forever. Believe me, it already has. We need to fight the use of fossil
fuels in the way we do. Stop being so dismissive of it. Fossil fuels may be helping you in the
present, but in the long run, they will only hurt and the more we use the more it will hurt. The
thing that I think most people don't realize is how much of this hurt is caused by westerners. We
as westerners, and even more so as Americans, consume an enormous amount of fossil fuel
per capita. Americans have more than double the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per
capita than China. Interesting how China is always framed as the bad guy now, isnt it? To be
fair though, it's not just westerners. It's all of us. We as humanity need to take a group
responsibility. Lets fix our problem, stop the polluting, and be conscious. Look at what were
really doing to our planet. Look at the hidden byproducts of our daily lives. How much gas does
it take to ship that. How many pounds of carbon dioxide does that put in the atmosphere? We
need to stop worrying about profit margins and start worrying about our future populations. We
need to start worrying about the right things before it's too late and start teaching people about
how we can fix it. It is our duty to raise awareness, reduce ignorance, and get on the right path
towards a brighter future.