My Young Views on Climate Change

 My Views on Climate Change

Climate Change Street Campaign

By Sydney Sohn

 

Climate change has been a topic of concern for several years now. However, it is 2022, and action must be taken to slow the rate of climate change before it becomes irreversible. If current climate actions such as less transparency and other day-to-day environmental activities we take continue, it can easily and rapidly create a damaged world for future generations.

To begin, a core negatively impacting climate action is less transparency. Some examples of non-transparent activities by companies are Amazon, Apple, and Google, as they do not publicly demonstrate support for anti-corruption on their website [1]. We will not be able to win the fight against climate change without being transparent because if countries globally do not put effort into becoming transparent on their climate contributions, we will never leave the "planning" stage [2]. We would not be able to reach the point where it is time to take action. 

 

But why exactly is climate transparency so vital? This is because it allows for reliable scientific climate data to help us make safe and informed decisions. When countries can present the collected and analyzed climate data, it will allow for assessing needs and priorities and checking the work progress. Governments can make tailored, practical, and sensible climate policies and develop plans if they have solid data. Such actions will also help assess the support(s) needed. Take COVID-19 as an example. We learned from this pandemic that it is always the reliable and constantly updated data that allows policymakers to make informed decisions in both rushed and paced times.

Not taking action in the issued field of climate transparency will result in financial regulations (credit cards, unethical mortgages, etc.) improving, but public fossil fuel finance will continue. Another crucial result would be Climate Ambition. G20 members urgently need to strengthen climate action as there is urgently high ambition, but the G20 is not exactly on track for a 1.5°c world (the Ambition Gap). To elaborate, the Ambition Gap is "the gap between the NDC and the 1.5°C compatible range as modeled by the 1.5°C National Pathways Explorer and derived from 11 global models of the IPCC special report on 1.5°C" according to the Climate Transparency Report [3].

With the act of not taking action, the youth ten years from now would be unable to live in the world we got to see and experience. Furthermore, issues regarding the lack of transparency [4], especially for countries collecting, analyzing, and presenting data found to help ensure a solution to our climate problems, would leave the environment to die in front of the younger generation's eyes.

As a youth, there are also many ways we can help contribute to putting a halt to climate change. Environmentally, we can all begin to take action by finding solutions to current problems that result in environmental damage. For instance, we produce 300 million tons of plastic each year globally. Half of that waste is single-use plastics. This is nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population [5]. This much plastic being left and disintegrating into our world causes vast amounts of climate issues and is the main factor in polluted air in the sky. 

 

A few other ways we could help contribute to putting a halt to climate change is to leave your car at home. If your destination is within the area you are in, simply walk. If not, try taking public transportation systems to reduce carbon dioxide from releasing into the atmosphere [6]. Another way is to respect and protect green spaces in your surroundings. You can do this by creating your own green space (plant trees, plants, etc.) and helping organizations or groups near you to help protect and conserve local parks' stay green'. Organizations such as Fields In Trust and the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces have great advice and can help you with resources for doing some hands-on contributions [7].

We can also contribute in terms of climate integrity, decreasing corruption, and living moral lives with higher values. As discussed earlier, climate integrity (such as transparency) significantly affects climate change issues [8]. As we are the younger generation, it is now and will continue to be up to us. How we handle situations today and how we act and decide upon thoughts will affect our and others' futures.

What exactly are my visions and hopes for our generation and the next generations? First, we can all work together with climate integrity (such as transparency) to build stronger and better solutions to put a grand stop to climate change. This will require action from many people worldwide, but we can work together to create the final outcome—stopping climate change and building a new and safe environment to live in.

 

 

Works Cited

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-worlds-least-transparent-companies-2014-11#:~:text=%22Amazon%2C%20Apple%20and%20Google%20are,anti%2Dcorruption%20training%20for%20staff.

[2]  https://www.undp.org/blog/we-wont-win-fight-against-climate-change-without-transparency

[3] https://www.climate-transparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CT2021-Highlights-Report.pdf

[4] https://www.undp.org/blog/we-wont-win-fight-against-climate-change-without-transparency

[5]

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/single-use-plastics-101#:~:text=We%20produce%20300%20million%20tons,of%20the%20entire%20human%20population.

[6] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/stories/climate-action/

[7] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/stories/climate-action/

[8] https://www.undp.org/blog/we-wont-win-fight-against-climate-change-without-transparency

 

Author:

Sydney is a sophomore attending an International High School located in South Korea, and over the summer, she got to intern at TI Korea. Through the internship experienced, she was able to learn, explore, and help contribute ideas to take action against global climate corruption.