Climate Change has been a very “hot” topic in the media over the years, with many articles and debates over whether or not it is too late to truly recover from the harm we have caused. I believe that we can recover from it, but we cannot recover fully. Most of the damage we have caused is irreversible, such as sea levels rising and ice sheets melting. Those are simply things that we sadly cannot fix. However, there are damages we can fix, like gas emissions, pollution, and deforestation.

We have been seeing much more effort from people in wanting to fix our planet, with a big increase in beach cleanups and much more recycling efforts. This has also been expressed in the media we consume, such as Mr. Beast’s “Team Trees” and “Team Seas,” a fundraiser to help clean up our oceans and plant more trees. I think all of this exposure through media is very needed; it allows for the younger generation to also make a conscious effort to clean up after themselves and to recycle. All of these are positive efforts in helping our planet as much as we can, and it is paying off; the ozone layer is gradually healing due to the combined efforts of countless fundraisers as well as the phasing out of many harmful chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (a chemical typically used in refrigerants and aerosol sprays).

One of the main causes of climate change is gas emissions which are an issue because they’ve raised the temperature of our planet by around 2.5 degrees. This may sound like a minor issue, but it actually causes severe issues for our forests, glaciers, and most of our grasslands. Rising temperatures due to climate change are one of the main reasons why there have been so many forest fires because it has been drier and hotter during the summer and spring months which makes fires more likely. Though most forest fires and extreme heat coverage are in California and Arizona, here in Arkansas, we also face extreme temperatures. This is a global matter, not a selective issue. My home state, Louisiana, has also been facing severe flooding and high temperatures, with the state slowly sinking near the Gulf. Gas emissions also hurt our ozone layer, leading to harsher sunlight entering and worsening our environment. This causes more droughts, as well as more dry seasons for our agriculture. If we were to lessen our gas emissions, it wouldn’t make the immediate change that most people would expect. This is because most of the heat is trapped in our oceans and other bodies of water, meaning we would have to wait around a decade for the majority of the trapped heat to escape our oceans.

So, besides the unfixable, what can we do to help better our climate? Well, we can start recycling more, reduce our plastic waste that goes into the oceans, and start decreasing the amount of trees cut down. These things could help better our climate in their own ways. However, with all of this effort, we would never be able to see the difference in our lifetime, because it would take over 70 years for a noticeable change to really take place. Even so, we should still make the effort for the future generations, as well as the future of our planet as a whole.