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Jerome Foster II is a 17-year-old boy in Washington, D.C., USA. He’s a climate activist, National Geographic Explorer, Smithsonian Ambassador, and the Founder and Editor in Chief of ‘The Climate Reporter.’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/teenage-climate-activist-jerome-foster-is-in-a-race-against-time--and-adults/2020/03/10/86a53fac-618b-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html
The top Green House Gas emitters contribute more than half of total global emissions, while the bottom 100 countries only account for 3.5 percent. The top five countries contributing are the United States, Russia, China, Iran, and Canada. We think that every country will feel its effects, but the arctic regions will be crippled beyond belief. According to NASA, the Arctic is experiencing climate change at twice the rate of the rest of the globe. “The World from our Childhood is no longer here.” In this single sentence, ten indigenous tribe members from Alaska perfectly capture the catastrophic climate change is wreaking on our fragile environment.
The Global North absolutely has moral obligations to reduce emissions, but so does the Global South. Climate Change is not a fight we can leave to only half the planet; it belongs to everyone. It would be negligent as a global community for us to focus on the North solely. Climate change is a war we must wage on all fronts.
Our government could do a lot better job recognizing and combating climate change. Instead of making climate change an afterthought, this issue needs to be at the forefront of our leaders’ minds. We must reduce our carbon emissions and make changes to our economy to be not so climate harmful. In our small community, we could do a better job with our energy usage. Heating is a big deal up here from October-April, and rather than use gas, Woodstoves are an excellent alternative. One of us, Brook, already uses a woodstove. Oil drilling is a huge industry where we live and has shown to have harmful effects on our environment, our case study's focus. Some environmental groups are protesting their development and calling for offshore oil drilling to stop, while others are searching for ways to make drilling more eco-friendly.
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3 Comment(s)
Hi Regan and Brook!
Thankyou for sharing your story. I agree with you when you say that the government could do a better job combating climate change as I know that that is something we struggle with aswell. Climate change is becoming more evident each day so we must take action before it's too late.
Hello Regan and Brook, I am very impressed on how much factual information you were able to write down to give people the full understanding on how bad climate change really is. Also, I fully support your statement where you said that "Climate change is not something that we can leave to only half the planet" as we all live on this planet and we all are capable in contributing to fixing our climate change issue that we are currently stuck in.
-Davis
Hi Regan and Brook,
Thank you for sharing your information gathered. Is there anything that your school is doing in particular to helping with less energy use? Have you been in contact with your government and raising awareness that they need to do something? Do you believe they should stop oil drilling entirely or create a more eco- friendly way. Thank you for your contribution and can't wait to hear back from you.
Hello Taylor,
Thank you for your questions. Our school has a simple recycling program, but not much beyond that. Solar energy isn't effective because the sun doesn't rise for more than four hours from November-March. Of course, there are other options, but we don't believe our school has looked into them. The government is very aware of the issues climate change poses to Alaska and has taken some small action. Oil drilling can have some terrifying effects on the environment, but we think that they should be allowed to continue their work with the proper precautions. The oil industry accounts for one-third of Alaska's jobs and half of Alaska's economy. We need to find the balance between protecting our planet and protecting our livelihoods.
We appreciate your comments and hope this answered all your questions.
Andrea Beneke
Nov 17, 2020