Let’s talk about climate change for a minute.
Sure, we hear plenty about it. But many ask questions about it. Is it real? Is it manmade? Can we really do anything about it?
I believe climate change is 100 percent real. The earth is getting hotter. In June, Portland, Oregon recorded a temperature of 121 degrees F one day. Good grief! Oregon! I have never been to that state, but I’ve always imagined it as a cool (temperature-wise) place. I have never even been exposed to a temperature that hot, not even in my home state of Maryland, where things can get pretty steamy in the summer sometimes. What did those poor people do to survive that day?
This brings me to the wildfires in the western states. Horrific. Imagine having to leave your home because a fire was coming to devour it, and then losing everything except the clothes on your back and whatever you were able to take with you.
This kind of thing didn’t seem to exist when I was a child. For that matter, it seemed that winters had more snow when I was young, too.
I believe that climate change is mostly manmade. It would very gradually happen even if there were no humans on earth, but we are speeding it up big time. That isn’t a good thing for today’s children. (I myself have no children and my niece and nephew are grown, but I am concerned about their potential children, as well as the grandchildren of my cousins.)
Can we do anything about it?
I believe that it is too late to reverse climate change; however, we can help to slow it down. Many lists of things people can do to slow down climate change can be found by Googling, but this is one of my favorite ones. (Sadly, I live in a condo building and cannot install solar panels on my building’s roof. My aunt and uncle, however, made their Massachusetts home completely solar a number of years ago. Go them!)
One thing that I heard reduces the carbon footprint of a single person more than anything else: Have one less child.
Done.