Heat radiates off the blacktop as temperatures reach record-breaking numbers all throughout the month of July. As of July 2023, temperatures reached 7.2 Fahrenheit above average in places around the world, one of many being North America.
According to the recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) press release,“NASA Clocks July 2023 as Hottest Month on Record Ever since 1880,” billions of people could feel the excruciating heat around the world. Moreover, affecting local California and San Diego communities by creating unbearable conditions for citizens, specifically students.
“Our climate is a reflection of our amazing complex interactions and systems on our planet. Everything is supposed to work in balance; it’s a system. So when one system is thrown out of balance, the other systems get thrown out of balance and there are devastating consequences,” Advance Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Environmental Science Biology teacher, Jennifer Ekstein said. “Think of Earth as it’s own organism, like in our body that functions together to keep that being alive, we’re taxing those systems [on Earth].”
To keep the systems in check, Bonita Vista High (BVH) clubs and organizations on campus like the Green Team and Youth 4 a Sustainable Future (Y4SF) are working to combat the increasing heat. Climate awareness, climate and nature walks, beach clean ups and zero waste events are planned in the BVH community by the Green Team. Green Team President and senior Aaliyah Victoria, manages the various tasks and activities Green Team hosts to support the worldwide issue.
“It’s young people that should be educated about [climate change]. We’re going to be here for the longest time so this is going to be the largest impact [to future communities]. We’re going to feel the effects, not the people who are making the decisions [now],” Victoria said.
Similar to Green Team, Y4SF has made a significant impact on the San Diego community. Last year, Y4SF saved 36,000 pounds of food waste from going into landfills and creating methane to instead be placed back into the community to feed the hungry and make composting materials. Reducing food waste alone reduces the amount of methane gas that is emitted into the atmosphere.
“[Climate change] definitely plays a toll on how people feel. People are affected, whether emotionally or monetarily. There’s a lot of effects all the way around and this has happened so fast,” Y4SF founder Tina Matthias said.
As July reached its highest temperature, deaths, illnesses and mental health issues have become more pronounced and connected back to the heat. Many people feel that there is a need for solutions and support from higher political forces.
“Our government is forking out a lot of money to pay for all this and yet they’re not addressing the issue. I don’t think they’re doing enough to address that issue. They’re only thinking of monetary problems when we should be focusing on climate change and things that the communities can do,” Matthias said.
Several community members and students such as Victoria are working to raise awareness and educate to a larger scale. Victoria believes that the heat will be a call to action and hopes she can inform many more students about the causes and effects students have on the environment.
“It’s saddening to think that that was the hottest month recorded and it’s only going to get hotter from here. I hope it does act as a sense of urgency for people by not only hearing about it but experiencing it first hand. [This has] driven me to educate others more and has pushed me to reach out to more people,” Victoria said.
Aside from educating others, sustainable activities are acting on efforts to reduce the effects of climate change. Recycling food at school, reducing plastic, using portable solar charges, thrifting and even consuming less meat can greatly lessen the effects of climate change. According to Ekstein, in order to make a real impact, the youth must instill sustainable practices in future generations.
“As soon as they are born, as soon as they are walking and eating we have to make sure that [youth] understand that the earth has finite resources and that we need to take care of them. Everybody has to do it, if everybody does it and understands why and comes together as a shared common goal this is totally solvable,” Ekstein states.
If temperature rises natural disasters, natural gasses and sea levels will increase dramatically while states like Arizona will become inhabitable by the year 2050. According to Matthias the world has bypassed its limit and reached a point of no return.
“It’s not your generation, it’s our generations and older that have affected climate change and I’m so sorry for that. But if the youth can understand the changes they can make, we can hold it at this level [it is] right now. If the community comes together then [they can] work on it,” Matthias said.
