Prior to this reading, I always knew climate change was an issue. I believed it was a totally valid threat and something had to be done to change, but never before had I realized the magnitude of it all. That being said, McKibben’s first chapter was terrifyingly serious.
Startling statistics revealed our planet is exponentially being consumed by carbon dioxide, and if things keep going at the rate they are, we may not have the most basic need of food available to us. McKibben made it very clear that the damage done really is not reversible. I know people who think recycling and carpooling will bring back the clean green Earth we all expect to have, however it’s not that simple. If we work hard enough, we may be able to slow down or stop the process of this destruction, but we can’t be fooled: what’s done is done.
I was curious about the rate of rising CO2 levels, so I searched for some graphs and information. This one interested me, so I went to the source to read more about it. Surprisingly, the author of the article was trying to argue that climate change isn’t effecting the Earth as much as everyone claims, and that we can all calm down. In my opinion, just because it may not be hitting us right this second (although, has anyone else noticed the lack of snow this January?), doesn’t mean we should ignore the problem! As McKibben brought up, how will we be able to look at our grandchildren when our planet is deteriorating and say we didn’t realize this was a problem?
In the midst of all this chaos, it is comforting to know that there are some efforts being put forward to slow our Earth from being destroyed completely. McKibben brought up the Copenhagen Accord which the U.N. put together in hopes of saving the place we call home. My hope is that we will all start to do our part, no matter how small, to try to slow the process of destruction to our planet.
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