In this issue: “Wos” says goodbye..........................3 Versailles: the WE hangout...............17 “Dreams come true”...........................21 Vol. XLV No.4
West Essex High School, 65 West Greenbrook Road, North Caldwell, NJ
June 2006
Do teens see the “inconvenient truth?” WE students interviewed believe that global warming exists, but what are they willing to do to stop it? gas but, instead, decided to get “a smaller, yet still fuel-efficient car.” Although not a hybrid, her Toyota Yaris “gets thirty five miles in the city and thirty nine on the highway” as compared to the other compact cars she considered. The other eighteen people in the survey are aware but feel that nothing can be done. Sophomore Michael Uceda believes that he has little say in the issue, so “why bother?” “It needs to be a huge collaborative effort,” said Uceda. “It’s not enough for just one person to try to recycle as much as [possible].” However, “every person’s contribution is important,” said Nichols. “It is true that one person recycling alone will not significantly reduce the amount of waste that society produces,” he added. “But [as a matter of fact], many people do recycle, and many cities across the country make recycling very convenient for its citizens.” Also, it’s true that if only one person conserves energy by turning off lights, it “won’t make too much of a difference,” according to Nichols, “but if everyone inAmerica turns off [the] lights for an extra hour, it is conceivable that thousands, if not millions of tons of carbon could be saved from being released into the atmosphere.” Sophomore Charles Parkin agrees with Uceda, however, and adds that even if people of any age collectively commit to taking steps that would prevent warming, it’s difficult to know who would “actually recycle.” Those who “don’t see a visible threat,” according to Parkin, “won’t take the situation as a serious matter.”
Nichols admits that “not every single person in the U.S. is going to [recycle every single day], but the only way we’ll even get close is if people realize that their individual contriAsk five different teenagers and more than likely, they’ll butions are worthwhile.” give five different takes on global warming. The climate change and the danger of global warming just In fact, one West Essex student recycles in an effort to do doesn’t fit into a teenager’s list of priorities, however, acher part, while another has even invested in a fuel-efficient cording to junior Sagarika Nag who is “more concerned car.Athird believes that the efforts of just one person won’t with the immediate future, rather than something that might make a difference. not happen for another million years.” Yet another thinks that some teens just won’t take global Yet, Nichols contends that “global warming could comwarming seriously. Finally one is certain that change as a pletely melt the polar ice caps,” which is a serious threat. resultofglobalwarmingis“somethingthatmightnothappen “Even if only the Greenland ice sheet were to melt away, for another million years.” most of the populated eastern U.S. would be under water,” However, those certain changes to the environment can said Nichols who added that ifAntarctica were also to melt, be seen now with the “increase in hurricane strengths [and “an even larger area of land would be inundated.” the] reduction in [Arctic Ocean ice cover] and topical mounStill, even though Nag, who tookAPEnvironmental Scitain glacier cover” that lead to an increase in ocean water ence this past year and who realizes that global warming is levels, according to former West Essex student and current “an important issue” from what she learned in class, admits Brown University graduate student Jonathon Nichols who that there are “other things” she needs to focus on, such as studies paleoclimatology. finals and college applications. And according to a survey of fiftyWest Essex students, all “The global issue is something we should all be concerned agree with Nichols that global warming is happening. about, but it’s in the nature of humans to focus on issues, Of that fifty, thirty-two say that they are doing something however insignificant compared to the big picture, that affect to help prevent warming, by recycling, walking rather than their own lives before taking a step back and addressing driving, reusing sheets of paper, or even promoting hybrid global issues,” said Nag who finds her personal goals to be cars. more important. New car owner junior Alexa Zozzaro considered purRecent movies such as the documentary An Inconvechasing a fuel-efficient hybrid car in order to save money on nient Truth and The Day After Tomorrow have brought the issue to the masses. In An Inconvenient Truth, former Vice PresidentAl Gore delivers a presentation which shows extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics, and heat waves beyondanythingthat’severhappened,andcalls forhumankindtoconfrontwarmingnoworface such devastating consequences. The Day After Tomorrow portrays the world as a place on the brink of a new ice age as a result of an abrupt and catastrophic shift in the planet’s climate. The extremes such as intense flooding as depicted in The Day After Tomorrow “probably won’t happen anytime soon because there have been some efforts to slow down the process,” according to Zozzaro. However, “the movie made me realize that something needs to be done about the problem before the world [gets close to what] was depicted in the movie,” Zozzaro added. In the worst case scenario on global warming “society [would collapse] because of the inability to adapt to the changing climate and the exhausted fossil fuel supply,” according to Nichols, who envisions that “everyone pitches a tent on the ruins of their former civilization, and waits to die of dehydration from the “Satellites are used to map the extent and duration of snowmelt on the Greenland ice sheet. The dark red lack of fresh drinking water.” by Helen Wang ‘07
area represents the extent of snowmelt in 2005—the most extensive in the 27-year history of data collection” (The Union of Concerned Scientists).
photo courtesy of http://www.ucsusa.org
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