As a 17 year old student there are a variety of things that should concern me – my grades, my friends, my hobbies – but you may not think climate change would be on that list when I have never experienced a ‘normal’ year.
I am concerned about and believe in climate change because there are historical records to back up the fact that today's climate is not 'normal'. For someone that shouldn't know any different to the climate I live in, I can understand why people of the generations before look at people like me wondering how we can be concerned about a change we haven't truly experienced.
I have always been a bit of an eco-warrior. Personally, the environment is a huge part of my life – I adore hiking and camping. This is technically irrelevant. I worry about climate change because I look out my window today and see rain. It’s rained almost every day for the past 2 months. There's widespread flooding and rising sea levels have caused tides to be higher making the storm surges even worse for coastal communities.
The potential disaster that could arise from climate change isn't something I want to ignore – even if it does all turn out to be a lie. There's no harm in going renewable for a variety of other reasons. I want to ensure that my children (and their children) can live a life without suffering extreme weather or becoming climate refugees.
As for other people, I wouldn't generalise that my generation is concerned. Many people I talk to on the matter don't want to hear it and some might believe it but don't even care. They share the "I'll be dead by the time it happens anyway" view, that is selfish. We live in a global community where the damage one country does may not be noticeable at the source, but somewhere else people suffer for it (acid rain is a prime example of this). We might not be directly responsible for the problem, but we're still making it worse and we may well be the last generation with a chance to prevent the worst of the impacts from coming about.
Written 27.01.2014
