Earlier this month, scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were asked to compile a report on the specific impacts of a 1.5 degree Celsius global warming. That’s only 0.5 degrees more than how much the Earth has warmed already. Considering the detrimental effects predicted beyond the 1.5 mark, the phrase “1.5 to stay alive” has been coined as a new slogan for environmental change.

With an administration at the White House that seems to be doing its best to work to promote action against the good of the planet, motivated individuals and community members have started to take the responsibility of the Earth’s welfare into their own hands.

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Ethan Thompson, the New York Public Interest Research Group’s project coordinator at Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF, said in an email that in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, “we must begin an immediate transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy.” That means “cutting ties to dirty and dangerous power sources of the 20th century,” he said.

To protest the state’s looming proposals for hundreds of miles of new pipeline, natural gas power plants and gas storage facilities, NYPIRG called upon students and community members to rally together to take down a poisonous industry.

“Students have been hosting call in drives to Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo’s office each week in opposition to new proposals such as the CPV Power plant in Orange County, NY or the new proposal for the Cayuga Power Plant,” Thompson said.

It’s tempting to leave the work of environmental activism to those who seem to have it under control. But acting as a bystander is not something that can be afforded to residents of a disenfranchised community such as Syracuse, where effects of climate change tend to hit the hardest.

There is a long history of powerful institutions taking advantage of the defenseless, and the issue of global warming isn’t an exception. If and when the Earth does warm beyond the 1.5 degree Celsius point, it will be the impoverished and, most likely, innocent communities left to pay for the damage.

As people who are in the position to enact change, it’s our responsibility to act for those who don’t have the same opportunities.

One of the easiest and most immediate ways we can begin to prompt change is in the upcoming congressional midterm elections. For the sake of the planet and its people, it’s important that the environmental policies of each candidate be considered carefully.

Emily Cerrito is a sophomore television, radio and film major. Her column appears weekly. You can reach her at ercerrit@syr.edu.

Published on October 24, 2018 at 7:53 pm