Nathanael Mooney, Campus Carrier staff writer
As December arrives and the end of the year approaches, many have noticed the weather has been warmer than in recent years. This is due primarily to climate change. Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Studies, Zachary Taylor started his career to inform people on this issue.
“Personally, one of the reasons I have this job is that I want to teach as many people as I can,” Taylor said. “Young people should be really fired up about this, so do all those good advocacy things like voting and talking to your representatives.”
This year, the member nations of the United Nations (UN) have been unable to achieve their goal of keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius, established by the Paris Agreement in 2015, an international treaty on climate change. Taylor is not surprised by the outcome.
“The Paris Agreement is good for what it is, but it’s a non-binding agreement, so it was just countries promising to do so,” Taylor said. “That 1.5 [degree goal] was always on the optimistic side of things.”
Despite the continued rise in temperature, students still care about this issue and are looking for ways to combat the problem. Sophomore biology major Torrey Anderson believes that change will come from collective action.
“We can do small stuff, but it isn’t going to do much if one person does it,” Anderson said. “It has to be collective action.”
Awareness of the issue is something that students try to emphasize. Junior Emily Conaway, an officer of the Eco Club, values spreading the word.
“I think being more aware of what’s going on around you, informing yourself is important, and not just ignoring the problem,” Conaway said. “Especially if you don’t think it exists, do your research on it. There is no harm in looking it up.”
A lack of awareness on the issue is becoming more of a problem as time passes. The next administration in the United States is poised to appoint climate change deniers to powerful government positions. An example of this would be Chris Wright, a fossil fuel and gas executive and CEO, leading the Department of Energy. Taylor sees these proceedings as a sad reality of the system we live in.
“The longer the current system [is] in place, these big companies, especially fossil fuel companies, just make so much money and they distribute that money to the people who get to make some of the decisions so there is a huge amount of power behind keeping things the way they are,” Taylor said.
Conaway believes some of the rejection on this issue comes from fear.
“I think that we don’t like to listen to science sometimes because it’s scary,” Conaway said. “We don’t want to accept that our world is changing and there are things we can do about [climate change], but it is changing fast and we need to do something faster.”
In order to combat climate change, some see taking on related issues to be a better way to get people to care. Taylor sees these related issues as the key to encouraging people to fight climate change.
“Sometimes, it seems to me like the best way to get people to work on climate change is to not even talk about climate change, but talk about pollution, jobs or talk about other things in that sense,” Taylor said.
While individuals should try to be as environmentally friendly as possible in their day to day lives, students and staff alike realize change is unlikely to happen on an individual level.
“It isn’t productive to feel incredibly guilty about your contributions to climate change because the way they are going to have to change are bigger societal and systematic changes, not necessarily things that you can do on your own,” Taylor said.
Students believe it is important not to lose hope, and to keep fighting against this crisis even when things seem bleak.
“It is something we are going to have to deal with,” Andersen said. “I don’t know if it can be reversed but there is definitely stuff we can still do about it.”