This commentary is by Miles Anton, 17, a high school student and writer from Dover, Vt. His commentaries have been carried by VTDigger, the Brattleboro Reformer and VPR.
On July 2, a ruptured gas line in the Gulf of Mexico set the ocean on fire. The Mexican state oil company, Pemex, attributed the disaster to an underwater gas leak.
There were no casualties or even reported injuries, and within six hours the fire was extinguished. However, images of the gas fire spread far and wide across social media. Many compared the shocking images to H.P. Lovecraft’s oceanic monster Lord Cthulu.
Yet, the Pemex fire was not fictional nor supernatural, it is part of a larger problem; one humans choose to invite every day.
Oil fires occur all the time, most notably the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. Oil spills have catastrophic environmental effects on the ocean. According to NOAA, oil interferes with the water repellency of birds’ feathers, damages the lungs of whales and dolphins, and impairs fish reproduction.
Marine life contributes massively to the ecosystem, dispersing nutrients, controlling populations, and maintaining an oxygen balance. Oil spills are an unavoidable consequence of piping toxic materials through oceans, and until we switch to safer energy sources, the planet will continue to suffer.
To simply acknowledge these facts is extraordinarily easy. Over the last few decades, climate change activists have been quite effective at creating awareness. Most Americans understand the bitter reality of climate change. So when something like Deepwater or Pemex occurs, it is extraordinarily easy to watch the videos, send out a tweet, and go on with your life.
Unfortunately, spreading “awareness” is no longer sufficient, and there is a shocking incongruence between American’s ability to identify climate change as an existential threat and our willingness to treat it as such in daily life.
A 2019 study found that 68 percent of Americans would refuse to pay an additional $10 a month to fight climate change. Forty-three percent would refuse to take on a one-dollar increase per month. In my opinion, this is a national disgrace. Yes, there are many millions of Americans who do not believe climate change is real, but not enough to account for these numbers.
A Pew Poll conducted later in 2019 found that 77 percent of U.S. adults believe that developing alternative energy sources is more important than expanding fossil fuels, including 62 percent of Republicans.
The awareness is present; the impetus to act is not. The Pemex fire will quickly fall out of the national consciousness, even as the effects of climate change become closer and more acute. The last few weeks have boasted some of the highest temperatures, on record, in the Pacific Northwest. Climate change makes extreme temperatures more likely and exacerbates the effects of heat waves.
The reasonable response to the increased prevalence of climate-provoked incidents would be a mass awakening, a desire for action. But this is not occurring. Similar to other challenges of our day, climate change appears too big to conquer, a perception that diffuses the will to conquer it.
There are some positive signs: Recycling has become a cultural staple, plant-based diets are growing in popularity, certain municipalities and corporations have aimed for carbon neutrality. But these actions are too little too late, in many cases.
We have reached a new stage of crisis, and during this stage, uncomfortable conversations will need to take place. Is it necessary to nationalize the energy sector? What widespread changes will need to happen in agriculture, housing and transportation?
Climate change will serve as a testing ground for humanity. And now that awareness is present, action must follow. We are capable of ignoring climate change, but climate change will not do the same for us.
