Over It: Political War on Climate Change
posted by Jessahna Whitney | October 9, 2019 | In OpinionIt’s Friday night.
No, no. It’s Friday night of The Voice student newspaper production weekend. Submissions of stories and photos to be published in the paper’s upcoming issue are due by 11:59pm. A deadline that student staffers know too well.
Here I sit at 8:25 p.m., at a loss for words to write. At a loss for the will to care any further.
Because now it’s 8:30, and I still don’t want to write the story I said I would.
I think my problem is that I’m over it.
I’m over the story. I’m over the coverage. I’m over the division among people.
I’m over the politics.
The story I said I’d write involves 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg and America’s favorite villain, President Donald Trump. The internet has been closely following Thunberg’s school strike for climate while also intently watching Trump’s and other world leaders’ criticisms of her. Trump took to Twitter to make fun of the passionate advocate in more than one jeering and sarcastic tweet.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin also undermined Thunberg by dismissing her as a nice but undereducated girl. News outlet Reuters reported Putin’s perspective, which was expressed at an energy forum in Moscow: “I’m sure that Greta is a kind and very sincere girl. But adults must do everything not to bring teenagers and children into some extreme situations.”
That’s just one part of the issue in a nutshell, of course. Deeper into my internet dumpster-diving, I found reports of one Iowa teacher sent on leave after posting a serious physical threat aimed at Thunberg on Facebook.
Fox News reported: “The post came ahead of the Swedish teen’s planned visit to Iowa City for a student-led climate protest on Friday. The post asked, ‘Who’s all going?’ to the event. A user named Matt Baish responded, ‘Dont have my sniper rifle.’” (Baish misspelled don’t.)
At about this point in my research, I decided I was truly over it, though I suspect this feeling has been in the making for quite some time now.
Political news is depressing. The drama between parties on the issue of climate change in particular is ridiculous. I’m not even worried anymore about people who deny climate change, which is sad because I used to be. I’m just over the madness.
I was raised to care about the environment and nature. I was raised to respect the land.
I was also raised to respect other people. The political war on climate change, among other topics, has gotten unbelievably out of hand in recent years. I’m personally sickened by the endless cycle of such ugly communication between people.
Climate change is an issue that affects every living being on Earth. The least we can do is temporarily cast our differences aside and come up with a plan to better our future, or there will be no future at all.
Until we come together, I’m afraid the planet’s temperature will continue to rise until it’s even hotter than today’s political climate. (Pun intended.)
And frankly, I’m just about over it.
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