Last month, NASA reported that September of 2016 was the hottest September over a 136-year period of record-keeping. This means, as 97 percent of scientists have been saying, our climate is continuing to grow warmer.
According to ABC News, every month since October 2015 — with the exception of June 2016 — was the hottest month on record. This June was considered the third hottest June in recorded history.
Climate change is not a debate anymore. It hasn’t been a debate for a while now. Our Earth is warming, and if we don’t act today, we might not have a habitable planet tomorrow.
The science behind climate change is unanimous, despite what your PeePaw might tell you. Now we must make the policy behind climate change unanimous, which shouldn’t be hard considering climate change affects everyone equally, and we should all have a vested interest in protecting our planet.
You know where I’m going with this.
Right now, Louisiana has 24 candidates running for Senate. Of those, I’ve only seen two viable candidates speak out against climate change, and one of them has flip-flopped on the issue. Given the oil and gas industry’s influence in Louisiana, I’m not surprised.
In a 2014 study, economist Loren Scott found that the oil and gas company contribute about $73.8 billion to the state both directly and indirectly. He also found that the extraction, pipeline and refining industries employed about 64,669 people. Most politicians here won’t go against such a lucrative industry in the state.
Unfortunately, the presidential election is no better when it comes to the climate change policy debate. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are more interested in turning this race into a personality contest than into a debate on policy, and it’s working.
Right now, a Native American tribe in North Dakota is protesting the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7 billion pipeline that would span across four states and run through a Native American reservation.
While the tribe sought to halt the construction, a judge gave the pipeline developers the green light to continue construction.
This story touches on climate change, Native American sovereignty and business overreach, and it has lasting effects throughout the nation. However, both candidates’ personalities are so large and overbearing that they cannot speak on important issues.
Maybe we should demand more of our candidates. Maybe we should demand they speak out on important issues. We have the power to elect a candidate who would work to slow climate change, but focusing on emails and personality is easier, isn’t it?
While we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief after November 8th, our planet might never heal if we don’t do something now.
Cody Sibley is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Opelousas, Louisiana.