This article won second place in the 2020 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association spring awards ceremony.
Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Glaciers melting. Sea levels rising. Animals dying. Our world is getting hotter and soon it will be too late to undo the damage humans are causing.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), human activities are making a big impact on the Earth, warming it drastically over the last 50 years. There are many changes that need to be made, and teenagers and young adults everywhere are standing up to fight for the environment.
Sunrise is a youth led organization standing up against climate change. They organize youth strikes all over the country and work on solving environmental problems. SustainUS also encourages students to get involved in trying to help the Earth.
Junior Calder Burton is an example of a young person working to help the environment. He is involved in many conservation groups and reaches out to other students to spread awareness. He works with Calvin College, the Land Conservancy and the Turtle Survival Alliance.
Burton works at the Land Conservancy as a field botanist identifying pieces of land that are worth saving. He locates native plants and species that need to be kept safe on these pieces of land.
In addition to being a field botanist, Burton holds turtles during transferring when the Turtle Survival Alliance moves the animals from place to place.
“I work for the Turtle Survival Alliance as far as getting endangered and critically endangered species out and making sure laws get regulated,” Burton said.
Burton also works with local legislators and talks to them about things that can be done to help the Earth.
Junior Lizzie Hackett has been making strides in helping the environment. She doesn’t eat meat, she recycles and uses reusable cups, avoids using plastic and unnecessary paper products, avoids buying clothes new and has a wooden toothbrush.
Animal agriculture and the meat industry is a leading cause of global warming, so not buying into it reduces her negative impact on the Earth. She recently also bought vegan Birkenstocks to avoid the leather. However, it’s not easy to do all the time.
“The hardest thing about being environmentally conscious is the constant battle against, what feels like, almost everyone. It takes a lot of strength to stand up to everyone denying there’s a problem, or people who say they care but choose not to sacrifice even a tiny part of their life to change it,” Hackett said.
She believes that teenagers should be caring more about the impact we make on the Earth.
“It’s incredibly important for students to get involved because we are the future, and our voice is the most important,” Hackett said. “We are the ones that have to live on this planet longer than anyone else.”
Students like Burton and Hackett are choosing to help even when it gets hard. They’re standing up for what they believe in and pursuing their passions. They’re making a difference to change something that needs to be fixed.
“It’s a crisis and everybody should be helping,” Burton said. “It wasn’t really a matter of whether I wanted to or not, it needs to happen and needs to be done.”
