One of my favorites spots to study is a small coffee shop called Milltown Coffee located on River Drive street, where I can enjoy gazing at the Mississippi River outside the window.  Recently, as I was driving to the Coffee shop, I kept encountering detour signs making me change the entire path I usually take to get there. When I finally made it, I noticed that the street next to the Coffee shop that I usually drive on was extremely flooded with water. 
There has been historic catastrophic flooding along the Mississippi and the states along the Mississippi. Rising sea levels is one of the many effects of global warming. Global warming is no longer a problem of just the future – it’s a problem of the present. We can’t keep speaking of it as if it’ll happen in the years to come. We are seeing and experiencing its devastating effects right now.
According to NASA, today’s CO2 levels have been higher than they have been since almost 1 million years. Graphs from NASA show that CO2 levels are exponentially increasing in the atmosphere – with no end in sight. Both this year and next year, oil production around the world is going to increase. We just need more and more oil to feed our trucks and cars.
If the graph continues to go up, there will be an energy imbalance. In other words, there will be greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that trap a lot of heat. The earth is going to warm; it’s going to continue to produce these massive destructive storms. It’s going to continue to produce these massive destructive droughts.
Biology professor, Steve Hager, admitted that: “a lot of people don’t like the phrase global warming, myself included, what people refer to it more of as is global weirding.” “That is what we’re going to see in the future-totally unpredictable changes. More and more of these massive storms. You won’t be able to say that they’re going to happen here or they’re going to happen there, we won’t be able to predict any of that.”
It is us, who are inheriting this issue, that must change our ways. There are droughts in the Middle East, Africa, the pacific and in deserts southwest of United States. There are excessive massive giant storms in Africa. The Philippines are getting slammed with storms, as well as South Asia. Basically, these droughts and storms will keep happening if we don’t do anything about it.
Hager said the one thing that could help would be “If parents would live more sustainable and more reasonable, not just within their means” “But even if they’re rich, just live off the land and teach their kids to live off the land. It would be so good for the planet.” We need to change how we are used to a very extravagant lifestyle using fossil fuels.
The way to work towards a more green future is a collective approach. We all can start to drive less, buy local foods, make our own food, etc. to lessen the greenhouse gasses which are contributing to climate change. However, I can’t do it alone. Everyone must work together and change their everyday habits in order to obtain a future where the environment looks healthier and greener.
Graphics by Noah Robey.