Global warming cannot become forgotten issue

If we leave things as they are, in 21 years, the glaciers in Montana’s Glacier National Park will be gone. In 41 years, up to 37 percent of current species will be extinct and in less than 100 years, parts of California will be underwater.

Despite these dire warnings, recent Gallup polls show that Americans are now less concerned about global warming than they were just last year.

According to one study, now 41 percent of Americans think global warming is exaggerated compared with last year’s 35 percent. In 2006, only 30 percent of Americans thought global warming was exaggerated.

These statistics characterize U.S. citizens in a way that is almost as disturbing as global warming itself. Since the U.S. is the second largest greenhouse gas contributor in the world, Americans, of all people, should be more concerned about the threat of rising sea levels, hotter weather and the increased strength and duration of hurricanes that global warming has caused.

On the plus side, as one of the primary perpetrators, we have the privilege to make a significant difference as a collective whole. Although it seems that our generation is better educated and more aware about the decline of our environment (indeed, the same Gallup poll showed that there was no change in the group of 18- to 29-year-olds in their attitude towards global warming), we often feel powerless to make a dent in an issue as massively intimidating as global warming.

However, stopping global warming doesn’t mean attacking all aspects of it at once. At UCLA, we are fortunate to have many options when it comes to bettering the environment. There are over two dozen environmental centers at UCLA and student organizations that undergraduates can take advantage of to help stave off warming, as well as classes on the environment that students can take to become better informed.

Our country and our school are certainly making positive changes; the Senate is currently pushing the Global Warming Bill, which aims to drastically reduce emissions by 2050, and UCLA is ranked as one of the top 10 greenest schools in the nation.

That said, we still can’t just ignore the fact that global warming is one of the most, if not the most, critical and pressing issues of our time.

Maybe people think the effects of global warming are too abstract, that they’re going to impact only the vague, distant environment, and that they’re never going to personally hurt them.

But global warming is a burning issue right here in Los Angeles. The California Climate Action Team predicts up to a 128 percent increase in wildfires by the end of this century due to increased temperatures.

In a recent report titled “Global Warming: Impacts to Public Health and Air Quality,” the American Lung Association foretells an additional 30 days annually of dangerously high levels of ozone ““ the main ingredient of smog and an “extremely reactive gas that attacks lung tissue by reacting chemically with it, causing inflammation and increased respiratory symptoms.”

The fiscal impact of global warming is undeniable as well. California’s wildfires alone cost the state $800 million a year, a number we can expect to see go up.

A report issued by the British government even predicts that the damage caused by global warming could cost 5 percent to 20 percent of the world’s GDP, which was $61.07 trillion in 2008.

The notion that global warming is somehow disappearing is frighteningly backward given that we have less and less time to ensure a safe future for coming generations.

Heating up over global warming? E-mail Nijhawan at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].