In today’s society, it could possibly be viewed as Millennials and Generation Z are caring more for the Earth, more than other generations. With the fad of metal straws to using toothbrushes made of wood, people have been doing what they think is best for the environment and way of life.
“Right there from the start, I won’t say harming the Earth. The Earth has been through much much much much worse. I would say harming us, harming our way of life,” said Environmental Science teacher Joseph Rogalski.
The Earth has been through much worse, as Rogalski said. It has lived through the Ice Age, countless changes on land and weather, so the issue is not people harming the Earth. It is people’s actions harming each other and other life forms living on Earth.
“I would say that probably one of the biggest issues I see is the fact that global warming exists and there is scientific fact about it, but people choose to believe that it’s happening or not. Scientific facts are facts. The issue we don’t know is what are the specific things causing the warming trends,” said science department chair Laura Bertermann
According to NASA, “the current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th Century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.”
With the Earth warming, many things have been melting or dying off due to the heat. For example, ice caps are melting. Without them, polar bears have been dying off or starving due to them not having food near or at home. Scientists and many people have been trying to find a way where everyone can go eco friendly without it having a bad effect on the Earth.
“We need to affect consumption and lower our consumption. We can do that by doing a little bit at a time. You hit people with sacrifices they have to make. People aren’t going to want to go for that. Encouraging people to do small steps like maybe start with one day a week don’t eat meat to lower your consumption. If everyone did that, that would be a significant impact. Start small and then ramp it up,” Rogalski said.