As of now, in 2015 we are on a precipice. The ease of our lifestyle, with its four-car households, thermostats cranked up to 70, and prepackaged everything has begun to take its toll. In our effort to continue to live our lavish lifestyle, we have sacrificed countless species, forests, and glaciers. The next thing that we sacrifice will be mankind.

The impacts of our lifestyle are staggering. To burn all of the limited fossil fuels that remain would raise the temperature 16.2 degrees, about nine times the dangerous amount that we have already raised it. This increase in heat would have immediate and devastating impacts, including melting of ice that would raise sea levels enough to eliminate life in many places.

The results of human impact on the earth cannot be stressed enough. To save ourselves will take a monumental effort, but it is possible. Tax incentives for homes and businesses that use alternative energy, higher prices for fossil fuels, and tax cuts for people who walk or bike to work are all good places for the government to start.

Citizens can walk and bike instead of driving, invest in alternative energy, and try to support local business to make a small and relatively painless change that will benefit mankind. If we take action now we may be able to slow our cataclysmic descent into peril. It takes every citizen and every politician to make a change this big; this is the issue that crosses race, gender, and age barriers. The future of the human race pertains to everyone.


Caroline Bearce

Monarch High student