Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive and the richest man in the world, announced Monday that he had pledged $10 billion to tackle the climate crisis in a new initiative called the Bezos Earth Fund. Climate change is a big problem that many people choose to ignore.

“The increase in population for the last 200 years has had a tremendous impact on climate change because of the need for more of the resources, such as land, agriculture, livestock, oil, etc… The more roads, houses and buildings that are built, that grass or forest doesn’t exist anymore. The more demand for food, the less natural land we have,” said Christine Applehans, Environmental Club sponsor.

Climate change is caused by the greenhouse effect. People contribute to climate change every day. By using plastic and things like that, it is impossible to stop using these things.

“Basically, what could help now, is people should try and leave less of a carbon footprint. This would include carpooling, turning lights off when a room or area is not in use, even reusing plastic zip lock bags by washing them after use. Less consumption of fossil fuels and products made of petroleum,” Applehans said.

People can help the climate problem by doing small things. By doing this, we can make a big impact collectively.

“People need to learn how to recycle correctly. That collectively will make a great impact on the plastic that ends up in the wrong place,” said senior Jenna White.

Jeff Bezos’ Earth fund can be used for many things to help the environment. Other people have planted trees to make their own impact.

“The terms ‘climatic change’ and ‘global warming’ have been around since the mid 1970’s. But awareness has only dramatically grown in recent years. As awareness grows, so does the effort to combat climate change,” Applehans said.