Climate change lies on shoulders of youth

On July 29, I was being a quintessential teenager: FaceTiming my friends while lounging in my room. Then my dad came in to announce that a tornado had touched down.
Those of us living in Bucks County may have noticed a shift in the past few years. In middle and elementary school, it was customary to practice fire drills, evacuation drills, and shelter in place drills. But living in Pennsylvania, tornados retained a near fantasy reputation.
They were a mystical weather event that only happened in black and white in the Midwest. So it was strange and concerning when one day during 8th grade we had to hide after receiving a tornado warning. I remember the tense cloud of worry in my dad’s voice as we drove through hail on I-95, trying to get home. The next week in school we had our first tornado drill.
So what changed? The climate. In the last few months, Texas had a monster snowstorm, a whole town in Canada burned down, and historic flooding in Europe and heat waves across the United States are killing people. Seeing these natural disasters on the news is frightening, but Bucks County always felt unaffected. This summer, the climate crisis feels closer to home.
The 90-degree heat has stressed me out when preparing to go to work. This week, the tornadoes knocked down trees and powerlines, and destroyed a car dealership. In Bensalem, the tornado left a path of destruction, one that residents must weather while they are still recovering from historic floods from a few weeks ago. And the hazy skies the other day, caused by smoke from the fires on the West Coast, felt like an ominous warning.
I think the common misperception about climate change is that it’s just about the environment, only affecting animals and trees. But the truth is, the casualties in the climate crisis will be people, not just polar bears. The extreme weather events that are more frequent and more severe due to global warming will destroy homes, kill people, and endanger health.

Many of you will remember the fear of hiding in your basements last week, waiting for the tornadoes to pass, praying your family wouldn’t be hurt, knowing there was nothing you could do to stop it. It was completely out of your control. This is the feeling that young people experience all the time. The youth are always told that we are the hope of the future. I believe this is true. I myself have dreams of using poetry and filmmaking to tell powerful stories. But it is unfair to tell us we are the hope of the future when the adults in power are not doing enough to make sure we have a livable future to inherit.
I often feel like it’s my responsibility to help solve the climate crisis. Knowing that I have no power to write laws and am not yet old enough to vote makes me feel helpless. It angers me that the adults in power aren’t bold enough to take steps to protect the future of the young people they put so much hope in.
I feel like I have to spend time standing up against climate change in addition to getting good grades, having a healthy social life, getting enough sleep, and all the other things teenagers are expected to do. Yet, climate change isn’t the enemy. It’s the people in power who do nothing to stop it, and the people and companies that create it.
No teenager should feel like all the pressure to change a broken system is on their shoulders. And yes, the models that predict climate change could be slightly inaccurate. Yes, we don’t truly know what the future holds, but if the present is any indicator, climate change will continue to rear its ugly head.
So part of being a quintessential teengager, in addition to lounging in my room and FaceTiming my friends, is wearing the burden of the climate crisis on my shoulders.

Rhianna Searle lives in Churchville.

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