Big Red Goes Green
It was a warm spring day in the midst of my kindergarten career, minutes before my 21 classmates and I were set to be released to our favorite part of the day: recess. I was on the smaller side, even as a five year old, and I remember standing on my tiptoes to reach the art supplies shelf so I could put away the box of multicolored beads as quickly as possible and experience the wood chip glory of my elementary school’s playground. I can’t recall now if the dried glue on my fingers got caught in the container holding the beads or if I just lost my balance, but the next thing I knew my posterior was on the ground and hundreds of beads were rolling all around me.
I did what any—and mind you I’m not proud of this—little child of slightly higher than average levels of selfishness would do: I bolted for the door, passed the rows of cubbies and ran right to the tire-swing. I later learned that two of my good friends cleaned up my mess so that they would be allowed to go to recess.
Exonians must live deliberately and consciously to aid this cause.
I preface my piece with this anecdote because I compare my friends to my small home country of Bangladesh. Unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the 56,977 square mile subcontinental country of Bangladesh deals with the messes which those of us living in the United States and other luxurious countries impose on its people daily.
Before we further discuss this metaphor, here is a brief refresher on how climate change works: our Earth is surrounded by an atmosphere composed of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. The atmosphere is the reason Earth can sustain all this life; it traps in the sun’s heat and then radiates it back into space. But every time we release greenhouse gases, the atmosphere thickens. It has been thickening since the 1760 Industrial Revolution, when people first began to burn oil and coal. Ever since, more and more heat is being trapped within the atmosphere, causing extreme temperatures across the globe. For Bangladesh, this means sea levels rising, violent cyclones and frequent floods. People who waste food, go on planes or leave the lights on too long are major contributors to this problem.
Bangladesh is poor, at a GDP per capita of 1,358.78 USD. As a result, the average Bangladeshi doesn’t emit even one-seventieth of the carbon the average American does. So why are they having to figure out ways to salvage their land after saline contamination? Why are so many Bangladeshis forced to relocate after melting run-off from the Himalayan Mountains wipes out their farms and houses? Why are groups of young people across Bangladesh convening to find ways to create healthcare after The World Health Organization made a claim that water-borne diseases like cholera are becoming even more common? It isn’t their responsibility. They didn’t make the mess, but they’re having to clean up everyday, and that is an enormous injustice.
The world currently faces two possible scenarios of total destruction: nuclear warfare and environmental catastrophe. To preserve the well-being of our planet, we must act at every level of our lives, large and small. Exonians must live deliberately and consciously to aid this cause. We have to prepare to vote for, and maybe even be, the politicians that establish carbon taxes. We have to go to affected areas and provide help and constructive ideas for improvement, and we have to ensure that climate change and its effects receive the awareness and news the most impending global conflict in the world currently merits.