Daisy Dewsnap: We need to take action on climate change

Regular columnist, secondary school student Daisy Dewsnap, considers how making a small change collectively will help make a big change to a world her own generation will inherit.

“We have a single mission: to protect and hand on the planet to the next generation,”  Francois Hollande.

Climate change is one of the biggest issues within today’s society and is frequently spoken about in the media. 

As a teenager, growing up being surrounded by and influenced by various news stories and media platforms, I have developed many opinions of my own on this subject and wanted to talk about them in this article.

Let’s start with the statistics. Since the late 19th century, our planet’s average surface temperature has risen by around 1.14 degrees Celsius.

This change has been largely driven by an increase in carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions released into the atmosphere. A huge problem that is commonly being spoken about is the shrinking ice sheets. 

Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment shows that Greenland has lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost around 148 billion tons. Global sea levels have risen around eight inches (20 centimetres) in the last century as well.

These are all facts and statistics that we are well aware of and that we’re constantly being reminded of. 

Around the world, young people have begun to talk about climate change more than ever. As the next generation, they have realised that this is something that will hugely impact their lives too and they want to do something about it. It’s not enough to just read about it or watch it on the BBC, they need to take action. 

Greta Thunberg, whom I’m sure we’ve all heard of, inspires many teens across the world with her passion and desire to fight for climate change and take care of our world.

It feels like we’re at breaking point. This is no longer something we can dismiss and beat around the bush. We need to take action.

Ever since I was born, I have been surrounded by new-found technology and inventions. 

I’ve always known the main form of transport to be in a car. Most of the food I’ve ever purchased has been inside plastic packaging. No one leaves the house without their mobile phones… There are so many things that I would class as ‘the norm’ and yet these are ALL things contributing to climate change and slowly helping to deteriorate our planet.

The main problem that is stopping us from making much progress with this movement is our fear of change. 

Collectively, as humans, we loath and try our best to avoid change. This can include changes to our daily routine, changes to the way we live our lives… 

But there is no denying that we are much too comfortable in the way we’re living at present and no one is prepared to change their routines so drastically as to make a difference. Yet this is what we have to do. If we want to make a change to the planet, we must make a change to ourselves and the things that we do from day to day. Try to reduce your digital footprint, optimise your diet, save energy, find compromises to driving in your car everywhere, avoid plastic. There is so much we could do if we set our minds to it and get over our fear of the unknown or our fear of change. 

Yes, things would be different and our ‘norm’ wouldn’t be the same as the one that we’ve grown up with. But if a slight change to our lives can make a big change to the planet, then it’s worth the risk.