A Letter to the Non-Believers.

Most of these posts are all about environmental news. While I had planned to write about environmental feats and challenges of 2018, I felt more passionate to write this. This is intended to be a plea. A plea to the climate change "non-believers". A plea to the people who would rather not think about any possibility of adverse climate and environmental effects of their actions. Too many people in this world have quite bad habits that have really terrible effects on everyone. Companies that pour unimaginable amounts of chemicals into the water that we drink. Factories and power plants shooting toxic particles into the air causing all sorts of problems. Some of these chemicals turn to greenhouse gases further aiding climate change. The rest will condense and create acid rain or will immediately collect into streams and river systems.

The reasons people refuse to acknowledge these issues are beyond me or most activists to comprehend. Maybe it is because the problems that the United States creates, with our lavish lifestyles, are not seen here. The problems are pushed away from us by wind cycles around the planet. Many of the after effects will occur in other countries that might not be as well equipped to deal with these problems as the United States is. This isn't just a theory. This has been proven time and time again.

Some people in this world believe that they can pay for things and not see the effects of climate change. That's not false. Some people CAN afford to not see the effects but they force everyone else to face the challenges of climate change that they have created. We see examples of this even today. Massive flooding and other natural disasters in poverty stricken areas mostly due to severe and unexpected weather events. We see more 50, 100, and even 500 year storms today than ever. These storms are labeled as "blank" year storms because that's how often they should theoretically occur. We see these massive storms every year, if not multiple times a year.

Flooding reaching as high as roofs of houses after Hurricane Katrina (2005)

Hurricane Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Matthew, Harvey, Irma, and Florence. These are all too familiar names for many people in the U.S. These storms all occurred between 2015 and 2018. We continue to see more massive and destructive storms now than years ago.

Some climate change "non-believers" may actually think climate change does not exist and that it is a hoax created by the Russians (makes sense...). If that is you, this letter is not for you. I don't understand you, no one understands you, I'm sorry. However, some think that it is only a naturally occurring process, humans have minimal to no impact on it, and there is nothing that can be done by humans to change it.

This graph clearly shows the global temperature increasing rapidly after the industrial revolution

There are thousands of graphs that all explain similar things: Humans have a massive impact on climate change. We do a lot of damage on the environment. Over-hunting causing endangered species, decades of tons of chemicals poured into bodies of water, micro-plastics ending up in the foods we eat, etc. Here’s the problem though… for some of these issues, we choose to fix them. There are very strict laws in the country on how often you can hunt and what the appropriate amount is. Hunting keeps over population of species to a minimum, provides food for families, and due to the laws, endangered species usually become endangered because of other reasons. For some reason, we've found a way to make the majority of people happy with this issue, but cannot create a compromise for many other environmental problems!

There is a common misconception that "green options" are more expensive than traditional options in every case. Sometimes, this is all too true. There is a lot of research being done to see how we can make "green options" the same price, if not cheaper than its traditional competitor. At the end of the day, people will care about the environment, but not if it costs them substantially more to make a change. However, a lot of the alternative choices people could be making cost near nothing, it is merely an inconvenience. I have a few friends who have gone zero-waste, minimal waste, or zero-plastic. While that is absolutely awesome, that's not what environmentalists are asking of you. It's more simple than that.

I've had conversations with cashiers in many different stores. I buy one or two things from a store and they ask the age old question, "Would you like a bag with that?". Most of the time I'll just say no and go on with my day, but sometimes I answer with another question, "Do people actually get bags for one or two items?". The cashiers always respond, "Yes, sometimes asking for two or three bags." It's not just bags! It's an idea. We, as a society, have a major problem with our "throw away culture". This leads to wasted energy, litter, pollution, you name it! We use a single use item, throw it in any bin we find, and never think about it again.

"One bag/straw/cup/wrapper/bottle/container can't affect the world that much." - Millions of people every day.

If we want to see a change as a society, we need to look at climate change and related topics differently than we currently are. As of now, its an over-politicized term that is thought to cost too much to fix or isn't even real, "so why waste the money?". Lets say the 99% of scientists are wrong. Climate Change is not accelerated or impacted at all by humans. What's the real downside? Is it not true that it's better to be safe than sorry? We see that thought process in a lot of governmental programs nowadays. To my knowledge, we are not currently in an active war, yet our military budget is one of the highest percentages of our GDP. We could have the same thought process with climate change and environmental activism, but the EPA has a budget that is 4% of the entire military budget.

The Discretionary portion of the US Budget includes all governmental sectors besides programs like Social Security.

Rather than viewing climate change as a chore or choosing to "let someone else handle it" we should look at it like a goal. The EPA can't do much besides minimal research with the budget they've been afforded. If we choose to take this problem head-on, we could make an actual difference. And if I'm wrong... then we've created a plan for future generations if they need one, engaged in a generally effective ocean clean up effort, and we would have a new outlook on the environment (remember, it's not a chore). My mom always told me, it's easier to keep yourself out of a hole if you never start digging one. Once you're in it, it's a whole lot harder to get out.

Better safe than sorry.