Global Warming is Your Problem Too

Story by Paris Murray. Map courtesy of Visual Capitalist.

We all felt the heat over the summer, even the air quality at the end of last school year was different. If you live in the DMV area, you may have noticed that it’s been a lot hotter than usual. 7News First Alert Meteorologist, Mark Peña, reported that this summer “Reagan National Airport recorded 98 degrees fahrenheit, while BWI Marshall Airport and Dulles International Airport hit temperatures of 99 degrees fahrenheit. The old record for Reagan National was 96 degrees fahrenheit and was set in 2019. The former record at Dulles was 95 degrees fahrenheit and set in 1985.” Global warming might just be the cause of this, and I’m here to let FNN readers know that you can help. 

First I’d like to say that the hot weather we endured for most, if not the entirety of the summer is not normal. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Global temperatures rose by about 1.8 degrees fahrenheit from 1901 to 2020. Sea level rise has accelerated from 1.7mm/year to 3.2mm/year since 1993. Glaciers are shrinking: average thickness of 30 well-studied glaciers has decreased more than 60 feet since 1980. The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic at the end of summer has shrunk by about 40% since 1979. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 25% since 1958, and by about 40% since the Industrial Revolution.” In short, our planet is getting hotter and that has rippling effects on every aspect of earth's geography.

This may seem like an impossible problem to solve, but there are ways you can help. For instance, creating an ‘Eco Group/Club’ at your school would be an amazing way to not only make a difference, but also make new friends, especially since it's the beginning of the school year. With an Eco Group, you can work with the student government of your school to minimize your school’s carbon footprint and find more ways to reduce waste through composting or litterless lunches. 

Another option is to stop using fast fashion sites. Fast fashion is defined by Investopedia as “low-priced but stylish clothing that moves quickly from design to retail to meet trends.” So for example, if you buy clothes from websites like Shein, Fashion Nova and or Dollskill, the environmental impact of doing so is a lot bigger than you’d expect. Good On You, a site that suggests more environmentally safe clothing options, states, “The pressure to reduce costs and speed up production time means environmental corners are more likely to be cut. Fast fashion’s negative impact includes its use of cheap, toxic textile dyes—making the fashion industry the one of the largest polluters of clean water globally, right up there with agriculture.” Therefore, pollution that emits into the air as a gas from fast fashion manufacturing accelerates global warming. To help the planet, you can try green alternatives like thrifting or using the Good On You Guide. This guide compiles a list of fashion companies that don't pollute the environment and brands with a positive impact. 

To sum it up, there’s always something you can do about global warming, whether it's big or small, your actions have an impact! The earth is our home, and we need to take care of it.

Paris Murray is a senior at Friendship Collegiate Academy.