People have been arguing over the necessity of environmental preservation for a long time, and it appears to have culminated into a global movement. On March 15, 2019, students all over the world walked out of school to support the movement for environmental change. Issaquah High School participated in it as well, and seeing fellow students get involved indicates how personal the issue is becoming. People are beginning to realize that our world has taken a drastic turn for the worst because of humanity’s disregard for nature. Earth is already starting to pay the price, so it is time we do something to rectify our actions.

People always bring up statistics and other reasons as to why climate change is an impending problem. However, I feel as if everyone is aware of those facts, and it now comes down to how aware people are of the consequences of environmental change.

Primarily, by polluting the world we live on, other organisms are being drastically affected. Various animal populations have been reduced or gone extinct due to habitat loss, and the human race is directly responsible for that. Plus, the relationships between animal species are destroyed at a rapid speed because of how the loss of one species affects the other. As our population grows, we start compromising the lives of other creatures to provide for ourselves. Ethically speaking, that is incredibly unfair and terribly self-centered. Our behavior is so disruptive to the ecosystems that have been present for centuries, and our complete disregard for anything outside ourselves is unacceptable.

Secondly, this is the very planet we live on. There is no “back-up” planet for us to fall back on, and there should be no need. At your own house, you would be upset if someone started cutting down the trees in your backyard and leaving trash all over the floor, right? Then why is it okay when it comes to polluting the Earth? This point also relates to something I strongly I believe: that every individual can make a difference, but as long as big industries are still booming, true progress is not being made. Exploiting your home’s resources for cash and refusing to change anything despite seeing the detrimental effects of your actions is something I cannot understand. These big industries have to be addressed and improved for real change to be made.

Speaking of industries, most people know that environmental change has been taking a turn for the worse since the late 19th century. Back then, industry started taking shape and has never stopped growing since. Rapid urbanization as well as an increase in population led to more jobs being available as well as necessary. As a result, there were thousands of people in areas using the Earth’s resources at an excessive rate. No one at the time was aware of the consequences of their actions, and their lack of knowledge led to the suffering of generations centuries later. Why should we do the same thing to our future generations, assuming that the planet lasts long enough for them to exist? We are completely aware of what is happening, and we have the potential to make a change. So what is stopping us?

Global change should not be an argument anymore. Something needs to be done, and that something needs to be done now. Let us stop waiting for someone else to take the lead on matters such as this and start making changes on our own. For example, there is a search engine you can install called Ecosia that plants a tree every 45 searches you make. Even small actions such as installing a new search engine can go a long way, and the time has come for everyone to start doing those small actions.