12.9 Climate Change

The most troubling thing I find about climate change is the current leadership in the U.S. mocks the seriousness of the issue. Our president describes it as a “hoax” and supports every industry that is contributing to it  (including oil companies, factories, and factory farms). He actually took our country out of the global climate change agreement. I find it troubling that our government allows one man to single handedly expose our entire population to such a massive environmental calamity. It is sickening to say the least. As public health professionals, we need to have more of a say on capitol hill. We need to advocate for policy changes and re-look at the limits we set in place for these companies.  Policies need to be stricter and heavily enforced by the department of justice. There needs to be checks and balances. Advocation for a zero-tolerance policy would do the nation a lot of good and reduce emissions. We can start at the state level and have our representatives pressure capitol hill. In the meantime, we can continue to educate our communities about proper trash disposal, recycling, and composting. If I were to describe climate change to my family basically as due to air pollution and trash, we are causing the earth to get hotter. This is changing the weather and basically in the future will destroy our children’s ability to enjoy the earth as we did. Realistically we millennials will have nowhere near the experience as our children will in their future if this continues to go un-checked. I would let them know the little lifestyle changes they could make to help the cause. If everyone had the same view towards changing the earth- we could reverse the looming doomsday scenario we are facing.