November 5th, 2020
In our rapidly evolving world, the development of infrastructure and technology is not a pure positive growth, and, in fact, actually has some various negative outcomes. One such outcome is the production of greenhouse gasses, which in abundance, would eventually lead to a global climate change. A change which will alter our world in numerous harmful ways. In Greta Thunberg’s TEDx Talk, “The disarming case to act right now on climate change”, she advocates to the audience the importance of climate change and the criticality that humanity must act now in order to avoid a terrible future. Suggesting that we should reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and other various gasses, by at least 15 percent each year, we may be able to avoid having the world increase by 2 degrees globally in temperature — An increase that would cause havoc as seas rise and ecosystems die. We are already facing the consequences of human development, with mass extinction events occurring due to human influence upon wildlife and an increase in global temperatures, yet nearly the whole of humanity appears to be blind to these threats. Scientists, news stations, and countries ignore the issue of climate change, opting to instead turn their eyes to other issues. With nobody altering the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere, along with nobody paying climate change any mind, we truly will face a terrible future that Greta Thunberg warns us about. A future in which the young people today will never be able to enjoy.
Overall, Greta Thunberg’s presentation was well-crafted and clearly stated the issue at hand. Climate change is a difficult and complex topic to discuss, and for a short 10 minute talk, enough information was conveyed to show the threat of climate change, possible solutions to global warming, and to appeal to the audience. The main criticisms that could be found is that the actual outcome of climate change was not clearly discussed or shown. Possible results to global warming, such as accurate estimates to rising sea levels or reduction in wildlife, would’ve been a great addition to further push the threat of global warming. A large portion of the speech went over Greta Thunberg’s rise to where she is today, and while that is important to show how serious she believes this threat to be, does take away crucial time that could be used to further discuss climate change. Appeal to the audience is important, but so is properly explaining the issue-at-hand.
As a future writer, and possible journalist, I may be able to help promote awareness for fixing climate change. Through the usage of articles or books I write, I can inform more people about climate change, teaching them of the future threats if nothing is changed, and what each of us can do to possibly alter the future. Greta Thunberg said that people simply don’t understand climate change, or don’t even know it exists. With my skills, I can be the one to fix one issue at hand, to fit a jigsaw into the massive puzzle that is saving our future.
-Aaron Wells
