CalMatters’ op-ed contest for Earth Day, which is Saturday, invited middle and high schoolers to submit pieces
A firefighting helicopter flies near smoke and flames at the McKinney Fire, in the Klamath National Forest near Yreka, California, on August 2, 2022.California youth have sounded the alarm: climate change is not a future threat — it’s already here, flooding their streets, burning their neighborhoods, cutting their school days, upending their food systems and more.
I have never known a world in which summer temperatures did not break records. In 2018, when the Camp Fire cloaked my city in smoke, my friend created a song inspired by my asthma. It was entitled “If You Breathe, You’re Gonna Die.” We were 12 years old. At least 109,000 metric tons of methane gas were released into the air. We need to stop releases of methane, slow climate change and help our society become whole again.I’ll never be able to forget the fear I felt as a 12-year-old, being forced to pack up a few of my most important things just in case we had to evacuate due to encroaching wildfires.
Yet, many calls from youth for stricter climate policies are still being rejected. We must change this culture of looking down on students just because they’re younger or still in school.The sun was a smoky orange blob in the sky. I got out of the car as my eyes watered from the smoke. I tried my best, stumbling forward knowing that, on the other side, school was waiting. This was wildfire season.
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