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Living on a Dying Earth
LIVING
ON A DYING EARTH
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By: Sydney Sinks
Our generation has been tasked with saving the planet. But when the problems are so overwhelming, can we do it?
We’ve spent most of our lives being told that the planet is dying.
It’s true, the Earth is struggling. And as human beings — specifically, as young people — it’s our responsibility to do as much as we can to help. But when the situation is so dire and more bad news comes in every day, it’s hard to know where to even start.
At best, we feel lost. At worst, apathetic. How do you save a future that already seems out of reach?
“The problem with environmental issues is they’re very big,” says Millikin biology professor Roslyn O’Conner. “Like, what am I going to do about climate change? So then you just give up, really, because you’re like, it’s too big, I can’t do anything. But I would argue, and many would argue, that this is how change happens. Any change is by the individuals and individuals doing their
own part and individuals then joining with others to make impact.”
O’Conner points to Greta Thunberg, Generation Z’s climate change warrior, as an example of someone who has rallied others to get involved in environmental activism. Thunberg, a teenager from Sweden, made headlines at the 2019 U.N. Climate Action Summit where she gave an impassioned speech urging politicians to take climate change seriously. At only 16 years old, Thunberg listed the ways that world leaders were failing younger generations.
“This is all wrong,” Thunberg began. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
She has a point. According to a 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we need to implement intensive changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 34–35 degrees Fahrenheit — and if that doesn’t happen within the next few years, we’ll be too late.
We’re already seeing a lot of these effects. The sea level is rising at approximately 1/8 inch per year, and 2020 was the hottest year on record. More natural disasters, more air pollution and more pandemics are possible as the Earth continues to heat up. And when places become too hot to sustain life, we’ll lose wildlife species and gain — or even become — climate refugees, people who are displaced because of climate change.
A lot of environmental issues can be attributed to systems that are much bigger than the individual. According to a 2019 study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), industries accounted for 13% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Transportation, including vessels to ship products across the U.S., account for 29%. Corporations and politicians make most of the decisions that have led to the current climate crisis. People have called for more regulations to minimize the greenhouse gas released into the environment, but there hasn’t been much progress.
This is when people start to feel overwhelmed. When there’s so much to do and it all feels out of our hands, calls to action don’t seem to work.
“We have this horrible revolving door, it seems, of just being stagnant and just going, oh, that’s just the way it is,” says Luke Russo, an environmental studies and criminal justice double major.
That’s not good enough for him. Russo, who also serves as the president of Millikin’s Environmental Affairs Council, has taken a special
interest in issues in Decatur, including Decatur’s water quality.
According to him, the city’s drinking water has phosphorus and nitrate levels that are technically below the EPA’s limit, but high enough to cause different cancers after five to ten years of use. “You read about these case studies that are halfway across the world, you know?” Russo says. “And Decatur is a perfect storm for that.”
But while Russo and other students have been trying to raise awareness, it’s hard when many members of the Decatur community work for the factories that have contributed to the high levels of chemicals in the water; shutting down these factories would lead to job loss. And they can’t simply warn people not to drink the water, because that’s unrealistic. Avoiding the city water and using only bottled water requires money that most people don’t have, and that’s saying nothing of the plastic waste that would come from it.
While these environmental issues feel overwhelming, O’Conner urges people not to give up.
“The way we deal with hopelessness is to act,” O’Conner says. She tells people to pick one thing they’re passionate about and use it to help. “Just finding something little, because when it’s too big and you realize you can’t solve the problem on your own, you’ll give up,” she explains. “But there are so many little pieces that you can do, that you can solve, that you can work on in your own life that do make a difference.”
Making conscious choices about what we buy, lobbying for better legislation, and spreading awareness about environmental issues are all real ways to make an impact. O’Conner also points out that consumers keep businesses running, and we can push for change by being intentional about where we spend our money.
For Russo, it’s all about community. “That’s the best way to combat climate change — think global, act local,” Russo says. He works at both Donnie’s Homespun Pizza and Pure Coffee House in Decatur. Pure Coffee House gives their compost to Good Samaritan Inn, a farm-to-table soup kitchen in town. Good Samaritan Inn then gives fresh basil to Donnie’s. This helps the environment while building ties throughout the community.
Russo also believes that changing our mindsets could be a big step in fixing environmental issues. He says to think of humans as a part of nature instead of focusing on what we can take from nature. Russo is hopeful that these changes could lead to powerful results.
“I think we can do it,” Russo says. “But it’s to the point now where it’s like, what more can we do? We can’t celebrate victories anymore. We just got to keep going . . . It’s never going to be enough at this point, unless something really really drastically happens, which is daunting as all hell. So it’s tough, but I think it’s doable. I don’t think it’s going to be doable forever, but I think it’s doable.”
O’Conner echoes him. “The good news is, in my 50-plus years, I’ve seen things get better,” she says. She points to the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, which were enacted in the 60s and 70s; these acts have had tangible effects on the air and water quality over the last 50 years. O’Conner thinks that more improvements like this are possible, even if it takes a long time to see their results.
“These are long-term changes that might not happen in our lifetime,” O’Conner says. “Am I going to see it resolved in my lifetime? No, I’m not. But does that mean we’re not going to work on it? No, it doesn’t. I’m still going to do my part.” She encourages people to think about future generations as a reason to care about the environment and do what we can to help.
And while the issues are so daunting that some people might become apathetic, O’Conner has observed the opposite in her classroom. “In my 20 years of teaching, I’ve seen the students are much more active,” O’Conner says. “They care more, and they are making change. And I think probably one of the most important things you can do as an individual is decide what choices you make and how those choices affect the environment.”
These are reasons for hope. Seeking out like-minded people, pushing for legislative change, making intentional choices about what we buy and from who — all of these are positive actions we can take that could make a genuine difference for future generations. As young people find our place on the Earth, we’re also trying to save it. Whether it’s possible or not remains to be seen, but these actions are a good place to start.
“It comes with this young person’s responsibility, our generation’s responsibility,” Russo says. “And it’s more than we should be able to put on our shoulders. It’s too much for us. But we have to do something. If we have the ability to just do a little bit, we owe it to ourselves.”
