Whether you believe in it or not, climate change is impacting the world and all of its inhabitants. When we notice how warm it is in December, melting ice caps in our north and south poles, and long lasting droughts in places like California, we have nothing but climate change to blame. While climate change has been going on for a long time, human activity is increasing the rates at which the temperature of the Earth rises. Our continued use of fossil fuels adds more CO2 to the atmosphere, poking holes in our ozone layer. Deforestation clears thousands of acres of land, removing plants that add more oxygen to our atmosphere. It is very clear that human activity is the driving force of global warming and climate change, but is this oppressive? I’d argue yes.
I believe that the use of fossil fuels and testing that adds pollutants to the atmosphere is an act that is ultimately oppressive. A lot of these tests are conducted in poorer neighborhoods where minorities live, putting them at risk to deal with the effects of the pollutants. We should also look at how the change in climate mainly affects those who are homeless. Those who live on the street have to survive through the harsh summers and winters that are getting worse every year due to the continued use of fossil fuels. I see this as oppressive because even though there are mountains of evidence to show what these big companies are doing to the Earth and the people who live here, noting is being done and the owners of these companies get richer and richer.
Lastly, and most recently, the modern day “space race” where we now have billionaires commissioning their own spaceships and traveling to space for fun as something that can potentially become oppressive. The way I see it, once the Earth eventually becomes uninhabitable, the wealthiest people will be able to leave and set up camp on the moon or possibly Mars while the rest of us are left to live in squalor.
Ultimately, I feel that since we know what the problems are but there is very little legislation to control or even terminate these large companies and their use of fossil fuels, climate change has become oppressive to the rest of the population. The sad part is that because of the severity of our actions we have put ourselves in a predicament where even if we stopped using fossil fuels completely, we have done irreparable damage to the Earth.
