Community Service

For the past month, I’ve been so stressed out that I haven’t been eating properly. I’ve been staying up super late, and I’ve been falling behind on my grades. Why? Because of climate change.  I saw a quote that said, “Our generation is the first generation to feel the effects of climate change and is also the last generation that can do something about it” and it scares me, so much. World leaders won’t listen to us because we are just children.  We’ve barely reached one of the hardest points of our lives, making that awkward transition from child to teen, then teen to adult, and with all the stresses we already have, saving the world is apparently one of them as well. Teens are having to step in where adults are failing us. Their ditching us. It’s my future, OUR future, I have to fight for. 

I’ve been indulging myself in fantasies that some alien race will come and save us, leaving all the bad people behind and sending us to a new earth where we will be taught how to properly take care of it this time. Or scientists will discover something totally game changing and everything will be okay, or I’ll magically be sucked into a video game like Skyrim Elder Scrolls or Overwatch because the characters in those games don’t have to worry about climate change. 

You’re reading this and thinking, “What the heck—those are dumb ideas” and they are, I’m not going to deny that.  But they are because I am only a child, and like a child I will indulge myself in the thought that everything will be okay.  But I know it’s not true.

I have ideas on how I can help.  There’s a mushroom that can actually decompose plastic and it can be used to clean up landfills.  Companies have created environment safe materials that humanity could use. We should plant more trees and build (grow?) more gardens.  There are so many things we can do but no one is listening to us.  Because we are children. 

So I’m asking you to please listen to me because I have a voice too.  It’s my future, it’s your grandchildren’s future, your own child’s future. We can make it, but we all have to contribute and work together as one species. That means less recycling and more reducing.  But instead of throwing recyclables away, put them in the recycle bin, or stop buying so much plastic.  Stop buying water bottles and buy a hydroflask, maybe start a mini garden in your backyard. Don’t be so wasteful, and maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference.  There’s a chance, and we need to do everything in our power to take it.  Because there isn’t a plan B.

Isabella Morado