Staff Ed: Climate change requires immediate action

By THE BLUE AND GRAY EDITORIAL BOARD

Climate change is a crisis, and it is happening now. According to a report issued Wednesday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations, detrimental effects of climate change on the oceans alone pose a profound risk to hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts. 

Rising temperatures and sea levels fuel storms like Hurricane Dorian, making them linger longer and cause more destruction. They also lead to declining fish populations, which threaten global food security. Scientists have been warning about these changes for decades, and it has only gotten worse.

On Monday morning, 32 activists were arrested in Washington, D.C. for blockading major intersections. Last Friday, 100,000 people took to the streets in Berlin, Melbourne and London. 60,000 people marched through Manhattan. Tens of thousands of people rallied in Nairobi, Mumbai, Kampala, Manila and Rio de Janeiro. Led by younger generations, the goal of these protests was to demand action against climate change now to ensure a future for everyone.  

This pressing issue of climate change deserves the attention and activism of every Mary Washington student. The effects of climate change will become more and more evident in coming years. This makes the global climate crisis a unique and never before seen disaster that our generation will be stuck dealing with the ramifications of. We must demand action from our government, large corporations and industries, and this action must be immediate. As Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate change activist told protesters in New York, “Right now we are the ones who are making a difference. If no one else will take action, then we will.”