As students, we often feel as if there isn’t much we can do when it comes to global issues. I often catch myself saying, “But I’m just one person, what can I do?” Everyone must overcome this looming thought in order to make any bit of change. According to the U.N., the Climate Crisis “is the defining crisis of our time and it is happening even more quickly than we feared” (United Nations). Climate change is causing the overall temperature of the Earth to increase, and these hotter temperatures are causing harm to our ecosystems, increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, adding to food and water insecurity, disrupting our economies, making our sea levels rise, melting the Arctic, killing our coral reefs, acidifying our oceans, burning our forests, and much more. The U.N. also goes on to discuss how the Climate Crisis is “a race we can win”. In order to mitigate, or manage, the Climate Crisis, all humans must make conscious efforts to make their lifestyle environmentally friendly.
I talked to both Ms. McDermott, the Environmental Systems and Societies teacher here at Centaurus, and Miss Harris, the class’ student teacher from CU Boulder. I asked them what they think students can do to help mitigate the Climate Crisis. When asked what she thought, Ms. McDermott said that students must “read the news and understand what’s happening in their local neighborhood, their local town, and globally.” She also emphasized the importance of registering to vote as soon as you’re 18, saying, “Vote with the climate in mind.” To help the climate through voting, students should research candidates before they vote in order to gauge what their policies are on topics regarding the environment. Another topic brought up was fast fashion. Fast fashion is the business strategy used by large industries when they mass-produce popular clothing items at a low cost and get them sold at retail stores while the demand is at its highest. Fast fashion is not environmentally friendly as “the fashion industry consumes one-tenth of all of the water used industrially” (Le). Fast fashion also contributes to the production of microplastics and leads to overconsumption. Ms. McDermott suggests that you should always be “thinking about what you buy.” One of the easiest ways she claims students can contribute to the mitigation of the Climate Crisis is by “talking to [their] parents and grandparents” and “helping [them] make changes.”
When asking Miss Harris what she thinks students can do to help mitigate the Climate Crisis, she first said, “Recycling is a must.” She believes separating your recyclables from your trash is an easy way to start helping the climate. Miss Harris also claimed, “Meal prepping helps save a lot of [food waste].” Knowing exactly what food you’re going to eat prevents you from getting meals you might not finish and spending excess money. Both recycling and planning out meals are daily tasks that require low effort while still improving the state of our environment.
Personally, I have not been doing as much as I could be doing when it comes to making environmentally mindful decisions. Each day before school, I sit in my idling car for about ten minutes. My car isn’t electric or even a recent model. Because my car was made in the early 2000s, it was not designed with the environment in mind and has much higher carbon emissions when compared to more recently developed cars. Idling in my car each morning isn’t a necessity, and is just a luxury. Out of all my daily actions, turning off my car when I’m parked is an easy habit to get into.
Although it may seem difficult to change the state of our climate when looking at the issue globally, even something as small as sitting down with your family and talking about how to recycle properly can help make a difference. As students, we should always keep the state of our environment in mind because the world we have now is the only one we have for the rest of our lives. Like teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg says, “You are never too small to make a difference.”
Sources
United Nations. “The Climate Crisis – a Race We Can Win.” United Nations, 2019, www.un.org/en/un75/climate-crisis-race-we-can-win. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.
Le, Ngan. “The Impact of Fast Fashion on the Environment.” Princeton Student Climate Initiative, Princeton University, 20 July 2020, psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.
