Summer in November: how global warming is affecting our planet

by Jezel Tracey ’24

Photo courtesy of Rawpixel

A normal fall day on a college campus looks like girls wearing Uggs and guys wearing the same sneakers as in the summer. However, this year, fall in Friartown is a little different. One day winter is approaching. Then winter takes a break and the sun is almost 40 degrees warmer than before. As animals begin to prepare for hibernation, emotions prepare for seasonal depression, and leaves prepare to fall, time is saying something different. Although most don’t pray for the cold, when it hits near 80 degrees in November, prayer becomes more for the world than for themselves. When a friend falls ill around this time, their response is “it’s because the seasons change”. However, this has been most people’s response for the past three months. Whether it’s cold when it’s supposed to be hot, or hot when it’s supposed to be cold, the Earth is undergoing an inevitable change: global warming.

Global warming is exactly what it sounds like. When the earth is affected by global warming, it experiences abnormal weather changes. However, the issue of global warming goes deeper than the decision fatigue one can feel from not knowing what to wear. On the contrary, these weather changes increase temperatures which can be uncomfortable and damaging in a month like November. Hurricanes, storms, the drying up of large bodies of water and wildfires are evident in today’s most recent disasters.

What seemed like a rise in temperature or a beautiful summer day meant death, calamity and disaster for the animals around us. When the Earth is hot during times when it is not supposed to be, the ecosystem reflects exactly that, and the environment as well as society suffer the negative effects.

Every year, the temperature of the earth increases. Global warming is not news. However, seeing its effects in everyday life makes it more real or present. It should not be seen from a superficial point of view, but rather from a more serious point of view. While this affects your choice of outfit, it ultimately has very damaging and catastrophic effects on the future of the earth.

Generation Z has never been the one to take things seriously. In today’s society, the main source of information comes from social networks. While it plays an important role in letting the world know what’s going on, what often runs through streams and timelines isn’t awareness of a given situation. Instead, more and more memes are being shared about kids never being able to grow up because of the world’s waning fate and Thanksgiving becoming a barbecue. Often, jokes like these are used as coping mechanisms to divert society’s attention from the threat that global warming poses to the existence of humanity.

It is important to consider global warming not only as an environmental problem. On the contrary, many societal factors must also be taken into account. Often when people have conversations about global warming, they look at what is affected more than who is affected.

There are a plethora of communities that don’t have the privilege of turning on the air conditioning when it hits 80 degrees in November. Specifically, low-income and poor communities are susceptible to natural disasters due to a lack of adequate financial resources to combat them. If the victims of tragedies are taken into account, the reasons why they become victims are not.

Although climate change is affecting the fate of Earth’s existence, that doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions to the problem. Some things one can do to help prevent or slow the process of global warming are switching to a plant-based diet, recycling, and walking instead of driving.

Conversations about global warming are more important than Twitter and Instagram memes about the end of the world. To understand and be proactive in change, it is important to examine the causes, effects and impacts of environmental issues.