Why Ignorance is Setting Mainstream America

Back in the Battle Against Climate Change

Sophia Germond
UNST Sustainability

Introduction:
Unable to settle on a genre we had already studied in class, I
thought about one of my favorite non-fiction authors: David Foster
Wallace. The late author has a very unique style to his essays:
personal, yet informative, with a distinct flare of cynicism. His essay
titles are usually long and uniquely descriptive. What I love about his
essays is that they feel like a conversation youre having with your
talkative, wise, and incredibly enthusiastic uncle. I say uncle and not
father, or grandfather, because the kinds of things David Foster
Wallace likes to write about isnt something your father would feel
comfortable talking about with you, and your grandfather might feel
embarrassed to say in this day and age. So uncle it is. I chose this
genre/style of writing because I feel it best reflects my own writing
style, and it is what I feel most comfortable in.

In light of the extremely warm weather we have been

experiencing in Portland this winter, prompting meteorologists on TV to
call the phenomenon Juneuary, I looked back on temperature records
for Portland, Oregon. Though Intellicast.com does not list what year
they started recording daily temperatures, it lists the record highs and
lows, and what year they occurred. On the Intellicast.com database,
the average low temperature for January has been listed as 37
Fahrenheit, with the average high as 46. The record low recorded for
Portland in January was in 1979, with a bone-shatteringly cold 12

Fahrenheit. Ten years ago, in 2005, Januarys record high was a balmy
65, not terribly far from what weve been experiencing so far. This
week has been averaging in the low 50s, and not once have we
experienced a lasting snowfall this winter.
And all of that is just at home. Worldwide, temperatures are
rising, however subtle and invisible it seems. California is experiencing
one of the worst droughts in a century, with entire lakes drying up
without any sources to refill them. On Mt. Hood, the permanent
glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. This seasons snowpack is so
low, skiers and snowboarders are faced with dangerous patches of ice
and other hazards. Snow and glacial melt feeds the Bull Run River, the
primary source for Portlands water supply. If we lose those glaciers,
we ourselves could be seeing similar droughts to that of California, an
extremely opposite situation to what we are typically used to in the
rainy Willamette Valley.
Atmospheric temperatures rise like this when there is a massive
amount of greenhouse gasses trapped within the atmosphere.
Sunlight, or short wave radiation, passes into the atmosphere to warm
the Earths surface and air, and under typical circumstances, reflects
from the Earths surface and back into outer space. But with the
added amount of greenhouse gasses and carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere, that heat is trapped within the atmosphere, raising

temperatures slowly, yet surely.
Global climate change disbelievers like to claim this definitely
occurring effect to be part of some sort of natural cycle that the
Earth is and has been experiencing over and over since the last ice
age. Despite very obvious evidence of current carbon dioxide levels
rising, ice cap volumes decreasing, and global temperatures changing
far beyond their previous records, these conservatives, most of them
leaning on the right side of the aisle, continue to deny the fact that the
Earths climate is changing more than it is supposed to. On ABCs
This Week, Floridas Republican senator Marco Rubio, who seems to
be hinting towards a possible Presidential run in 2016, stated, I do not
believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our
climate the way these scientists are portraying itI do not believe that
the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it, except it
will destroy our economy. Of course, he is ignoring the fact that
switching to renewable resources like wind and solar will save the US
millions in oil and coal costs. But thats his belief, and as much as he
believes that humans arent responsible for whatever is happening to
our climate (at least he acknowledges that its changing, which is a big
step for most GOP politicians) doesnt mean its not true, and the world
will happily continue turning whether his opinion shifts one way or the
other.

President Obama in his 2015 State of the Union address spoke on

the threat of climate change. At every pause for the house chambers
applause, the left side of the aisle gave standing ovations, while the
right side remained seated, hands still in their laps. The President
went on to both explain how climate change poses as a huge threat to
the security of our future and the health of both our citizens and the
world, and to throw incredible shade on the stiff-backed and relatively
stubborn republicans in the chamber during the address.
I personally know people who deny the existence of climate
change. These same people, of course, dislike the current president to
a great degree, and do not believe in vaccinating children from horrific
diseases that are easily preventable. Needless to say, we have vastly
different views. My parents raised me in a household where we tried to
be as conscious to our own health, and the health of our planet, as
possible. My father, despite a semi-conservative, east-coast oldmoney upbringing, taught my sister and I that the most important
resource we have is the Earth, and everything on it, and that it must be
respected. Every plant, animal, every drop of water, they were all part
of a delicate, vital system that needs protecting.
Sometimes my father would tell me stories about the Oregon he
had grown up in; an Oregon where it rained almost twice as much,
where the weather was cooler and snowed more in the winter months.

It has changed dramatically since then, but those of us born in the last
twenty years do not know these differences as well as our parents do.
My father would also tell me stories about the house my
grandfather grew up in, where my father would sometimes visit, and
where I visited in the early years of my life to see my great-grandfather
before he passed away. The house, since torn down in favor of a
McMansion, was settled in a posh neighborhood in New Jersey near the
beach, on a calm river. In the mid-twentieth century, in the winter, the
river would freeze so thick that my grandfather and his friends would
drive cars on it without caution or fear of breaking through. Today, the
river no longer freezes, the dock has submerged, and the backyard
turned into a marsh. If that doesnt scream climate change, well, I
dont know what does.
Global warming and climate change has always been a truth in
my life. My family has always done our best to cut down on how much
gas we use, how much water is being wasted when we shower, wash
dishes, do our laundry, and water our vegetable gardens. We bought
energy-smart windows to reduce the amount of natural gas we use to
heat our home each winter, recycle anything possible and compost all
food scraps. Beef is forbidden in the household, most of our meat
literally shot by my father and sister in the hunting seasons. The
majority of our vegetable intake in the summer is sourced from our

backyard. My parents have done their best to lower their impact on

the planet, short of buying one of those terribly expensive electric cars.
My personal carbon output is 6.4 tons of carbon dioxide a year, less
than a quarter than that of the national average (27 tons), yet still
larger than the world average per person (5.5 tons). I do my best to
reduce my waste as possible, whenever and wherever I can.
My family is probably one of the greener families in our
suburban city. There are still thousands of families whose carbon
footprint is astoundingly high. Yes, it is much more convenient to do
the bad thing and buy non-organic foods and beef, or use water as
much as one wishes, or leave the living room lights on all weekend
even though one is driving up to Seattle or going camping in Hood
National Forest. But that idea of affluence and comfort and the
American Way of Doing Things needs to end. Nearly every country in
the world knows who we are, how we live, and how much filthy money
we have. So why arent we trying to set an example of how clean
energy and low-impact living can also be cost-effective and simple? Is
it that hard for Americans to turn off the tap while brushing our teeth,
or to recycle those flimsy plastic water bottles? Does that suburban
family really need a Hummer or an SUV to be their primary vehicle?
Maybe gas prices have dropped to a level we havent seen since my
generation was still in elementary school, but that doesnt mean it
doesnt come with a cost. Lowered prices means more people on the

roads, feeling a freedom to drive as much as they want, which

amounts to more carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions than
before.
Its true, huge steps have been made towards treating the
climate change issue. The President even acknowledged it in his state
of the union address (though had Al Gore been elected President in
2000, perhaps our nation would have made even more significant
advances on combating climate change). However, for the future of
our planets health, even more drastic changes have to be made. From
Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth, we see that unless we do something
major to address the amount of carbon and greenhouse gasses being
pumped into the sky, the world as we know it is virtually over.
Our planet is telling us plain and clear that it is hurting, that we
are poisoning the oceans and the sky, and that we need to fix it now, or
itll be too late. Americans are chiefly responsible for many of the
planets maladies; so lets make it our responsibility to resolve these
issues, reduce our carbon footprint, and ultimately save the world for
the future of humanity to thrive. And maybe, in a hundred years or so,
the average low temperatures for Portland, Oregon can return to what
they were. Maybe.