By:Charlotte Sach
For vacation this summer, I visited an old village in the South of France. There was nothing particularly interesting about the village, with its clumsy cobblestone pathways and small resident population. However, more and more of those who live there have begun to move away.
Global climate change is affecting places around the world in a variety of ways. As a whole, planet Earth is heating up. This month, in Europe, 11,968 people have died from heat stroke. As I stood with my sign reading “Justice Climatique”, which means climate justice in French, a middle-aged lady approached me. The lady told me about a neighbor, who, while taking a gentle swim in her pool, had died one hot day.
That is why more people from this village are making a move(image shown above). With temperatures reaching 102 degrees Farenheit in the summer, the conditions are becoming too harsh for comfortable living. Daisy, a young girl from the center of town says, “There is nothing to do except lie in front of the bedroom fan, sweating.” Or worse, blast the air conditioner. As we all know, these solutions are temporary, as both fans and air conditioners use electricity, which is tied to unsustainable energy productions, thus greater carbon emissions.
Global climate change is a vast and gradual issue. Although it may not be affecting your community — yet — it is dramatically challenging others. Oftentimes, we act too late. It is too late for those who still remain in the village. Nevertheless, there are so many ways we can call for action. Individual, group, and global action is not only possible, but easy and simple with all of the modern-day support systems. Organizations like Youth4Climate or SanDiego350 will give you all of the resources that you need. You just need to find the initiative to start.