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Climate change. With just two words, the United States—no, scratch that—the entire world has become divided, concerned, and frantic. “Switch to reusable straws! Ban plastic bags! Buy an electric car! Go vegan!” An elevated threat to our existence has resulted in amplified calls to resistance that sound just like this. With these calls comes trends, confusion, and debate. The Ecolibrium Project is not only here to take steps to prevent environmental destruction, but it’s here to make informed decisions to halt the effects of climate change and educate the public about what exactly is going on in our world—our home. What even is climate change/global warming? A lot of people take part in heated debates about climate change and global warming without actually knowing what the two are. Let’s start with climate change. Climate Change, by definition, is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates This is fancy-talk for the following: climate change is changes in weather over a long period of time. Today, climate change takes the form of global warming with the burning of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases. However, climate change also takes into account the natural factors such as El Niño and La Niña, which are examples of natural weather patterns. Scientists observe climate change by analyzing various indicators such as rising sea levels, ice loss, and ocean temperatures rising—to name a few. But for the most part, climate change today is taking the form of global warming. According to NASA, global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. Global warming only refers to rises in temperature as a result of human activity. Therefore, it is of our utmost responsibility to prevent global warming, because we are in control of those rising temperatures With those out of the way, how is climate change and global warming affecting the planet? If you don’t already know, it’s awful. The rising sea levels, rising temperatures, increasing droughts, and melting ice are just some of the things that are occuring as a result of global warming. While it may not seem detrimental at first, it must be noted that all of these factors largely affect our ecosystems and our way of life. Ice melting away is causing species like the Adélie penguin in Antarctica to experience a quick decrease in population, while others must migrate to cooler areas. Diseases can spread. Rapid extinction will occur. Hurricanes will wreak more havoc than mankind could’ve ever imagined, while droughts in other regions cut off all drinking water in the area. It’s time to act. Projects like ours, the Ecolibrium Project, are organized to stop these events from occurring. We want to make a change for the better of the people, for the better of the animals, for the better of our planet. Together, we will make small changes that will eventually snowball into astounding impacts. It’s not a leap of faith. It’s a leap to save our lives.  Annika Garza is a high school junior living in a small city of Northern California with her family. She is a part of her school's robotics team and serves as the Chief of Communications Officer for her team. In addition to AP and honors classes, Annika is enrolled in the engineering pathway at her school and hopes to become an engineer in the future. While she doesn't know specifically what she wants to major in, her interests lie in fields that involve biology or the environment. With the Ecolibrium Project, Annika hopes to not only bring awareness to the deteriorating environment, but she also wants to make a change by starting small in her local community and build from there.
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NOW'S THE TIME TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE FOR GOOD. |
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