I’m okay with your displays of luxury; your house tours, the designer clothes, or even the way you get ready in the morning. Please keep all those if you must, I’m sure the world is better for it — but I beg you, please don’t give any more air time to fossil fuels.

I can think of no other substance less deserving of clout — it has plenty these days considering it’s causing the sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history.

If you thought that last bit sounded a bit melodramatic and harsh, you’d be correct because it was! And you know what, it’s also true! I don’t mean to sound preachy and that sentence in itself sounds plucked from one of those “self-righteous millennials” we’ve all come to hate. Of course, most people tend to reject orders to change their lifestyles (just google: “kissing in front of Westboro Baptist Church”), and if this message were actually coming from myself, I would understand if you brushed off my warnings or, just to spice up the encounter, maybe even flipped me off. However, the point is, these warnings are not mine. They are just one of the recent studies written by the global scientific consensus as shown by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — reports, I might add, that are becoming increasingly dire. You never hear these scientists report that their climate predictions are behind schedule, in fact they usually report that the effects of climate change are occurring faster than expected. All this is incredibly alarming. The IPCC report that was released in October of 2018 states that we have until 2030 to decrease CO2 emissions by 45% and then net-zero by 2075 if we want to prevent the Earth from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. Currently, the Earth is about 1 degree Celsius warmer than pre-Industrial era temperatures and already this is devastating the environment. According to the report, a 1.5 degree increase is still dire, but adaptable, given there would still be mass extinctions of life. If the Earth heats to 2 degrees and beyond, the tone is pretty apocalyptic — worse crop yields and extreme weather events. We currently emit about 42 gigatons of CO2 each year, and as of January 2018, we had a carbon budget of 420 gigatons — meaning we can’t exceed that amount if we want to stay within the 1.5 degree zone.

Now back to the point: we all grew up in a culture that is and continues to be lured by displays of wealth. They are, after all, dependable ways to attract viewers considering that we tend to be fascinated by things we can’t relate to. For example, I like watching videos of celebrities giving tours of their mansions. Even though I may never own a real mansion, I still like taking tours online of them. Some YouTubers fall into this category by making videos on private jets or about new cars. I used to like watching them, but lately I’ve grown distant from them. But it’s not cause I secretly envy them… well actually it is, you got me! No, the real reason is because of one 16 year old Swedish girl named Greta Thunberg. If you don’t know her, she’s a young climate activist who made headlines last year by holding school strikes in front of Sweden’s Parliament. She’s since inspired a whole movement of students and adults striking every Friday for Climate Action called Fridays for Future. In August 2019, she traveled across the Atlantic Ocean on a zero-emission sailing yacht to attend the UN Climate Summit in New York City. She refuses to fly due to the enormous CO2 emissions involved and has convinced her parents to limit their flying in Europe and become vegetarian like herself. She’s met with Pope Francis, President Obama, and has spoken in front of multiple government bodies. To quote Greta during a tearful speech she gave to the European Union Parliament this past April, “we are in the midst of the Sixth mass extinction, and the extinction rate is up to 10,000 times faster than what is considered normal, with up to 200 species becoming extinct every single day. Erosion of fertile topsoil, deforestation of our great forests, toxic air pollution, loss of insects and wildlife, the acidification of our oceans. These are all disastrous trends being accelerated by a way of life that we, here in our financially-fortunate part of the world, see as our right to simply carry on.”

I encourage you to read or watch the full speech here. I’m someone who already believes that Climate Change is real, but even she made me question my own habits and think about what I could change to lessen my carbon footprint. Because the more you read about this crisis, the more it becomes clear as she puts it that, “our house is on fire.”

There are things normal people can do to help.

You can stop eating meat, or at least stop eating beef. You can buy your clothes at thrift stores, decrease the amount of plastic you use and — if you have the means, you can buy vehicles that don’t rely on fossil fuels. And that is really my message here. If you have a platform with viewers and are deciding whether to buy a new car, try a hybrid or electric plug-in vehicle. Anything else! I no longer have any interest watching private jets and polluting cars and boats.

People tend to stick with what they know — our past experiences and notions often dictate our present tastes and we have generations of a fossil fuel-focused culture behind us. It’s something that’s been instilled in us; we take it for granted, and that’s as expected. Images in pop culture that over- emphasize material wealth have sold us a terrible falsehood. These items were always unsustainable but now, today, they have no place in a world where they are contributing to the destruction of our planet. Believe it or not, the Earth’s climate is changing and one thing is clear; we must change our habits now, or we will definitely be forced to change in the future; though when that time comes, there will be no other option. The optimistic message of the IPCC is that we still have room to implement dramatic change, but that requires change from everyone. So please (and this goes for all of us), please rethink your priorities and your tastes and ask yourself if they are even relevant anymore- and then change! :) It’s our only option.