By Courtney Cooperman ’16, Ben Goodman ’16, and Anna Hope Emerson ’16, Editors-in-Chief

Addressing climate change is not merely a question of carbon dioxide and melting ice caps. As 97% of scientists concur, climate change is a human-produced problem. However, humans are not just the perpetrators of global warming – we are the victims too. When considering the intersection between humanity and climate change, we must go beyond acknowledging that it is anthropogenically caused. For climate change to be treated with proper urgency, we should emphasize its implications for the human experience.

Featuring imperiled biodiversity and helpless polar bears, popular imagery of climate change primarily portrays it as a form of destruction that humans inflict upon nature. Of course, the threats to the natural world are pivotal to address. Yet climate change cannot be overlooked as a hazard to humanity; we are both the source of the crisis and sufferers of its consequences. Reframing the issue may be the key to widespread mobilization for the policy and lifestyle changes that climate mitigation entails. In other words, to slow climate change while we still can, we need to place ourselves at the center of the issue. Selfishness can be a strategy.

In demonstrating the direct threats that climate change already poses to humanity, there is – unfortunately – no shortage of evidence to cite. The lifestyles of indigenous peoples in the Arctic, who contribute negligibly to carbon emissions, are intricately tied to their particular environments. Even slight alterations in temperature may undermine the survival strategies and traditions that have endured throughout generations.  The island nation of Kiribati, which rising sea levels will soon render entirely uninhabitable, already plans to relocate its residents to New Zealand and Australia. Tuvalu and the Maldives must wrestle with similar plans, while facing economic, resource, and health crises in the meantime. As small island nations suffer severely, their plight unmasks questions that climate change will force us all to grapple with eventually. While relocation will allow individuals to survive, it can mean the death of their languages, specialized knowledge, and cultural identities.

But what if we struggle to sympathize with the vulnerable? Perhaps we can think a little more selfishly. We are already experiencing an intense nativist reaction to refugees, a phenomenon that climate change will augment. By 2050, more than 150 million climate refugees will need resettlement. How can highly developed nations ethically deny entrance to people who have been displaced by the consequences of our industrialization? If we act now, we may be able to minimize an overwhelming influx and the backlash that would ensue.

Although some global temperature rise is inevitable, we can reduce climate emissions before adaptation becomes unmanageable. Luckily, international efforts to cut emissions are underway. In December, representatives from 196 countries traveled to Paris for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP21. The resulting agreement pledges to keep warming at less than 2ºC above preindustrial levels, with a target increase of only 1.5ºC. It also references adaptation efforts for populations that already face the effects of climate change.

The Paris Agreement is ambitious and promising, but will face the frustrating obstacle of politics and public apathy. Many do not ascribe much importance to climate change as a global crisis, and therefore do not see the need to cut carbon emissions, as the Paris Agreement prescribes. Donald Drumpf posted on Instagram:  “While the world is in turmoil and falling apart in so many different ways, especially with ISIS, our President is worried about global warming. What a ridiculous situation.” These sentiments, echoed by other Republican candidates, are alarmingly prevalent in American popular opinion. A 2013 PEW poll on global threats found that only 40% of the US sees global climate change as a major threat to the country. Emphasizing the human dimension of global warming’s consequences could counter this widespread indifference and mobilize people to act.

Luckily, at Newark Academy, we are already engaged in activism and discussion. Before the Paris climate

summit, a group of Green Committee members passionately paraded alongside hundreds of other activists at a climate march in New York City. Furthermore, Global Speaker Dr. Antwi Akom discussed climate change with reference to inequity and social justice concerns. It is crucial for us to elaborate on these conversations and ensure that climate change remains in the spotlight.

Discounting the importance of climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to successful mitigation efforts. Cutting emissions does require policy and lifestyle changes, and if we dismiss the crisis as irrelevant, it will be much more difficult to make the necessary sacrifices. To address climate change with the wholehearted determination that it demands, humanity must position itself at the core of the issue. Climate change is not just a problem for the polar bears – we cannot afford to overlook its profound repercussions for people.