I believe climate change is more prevalent to people today than ever before. I tend to question why this is. Has climate change become a fact now more than ever, or are people starting to see the devastating effects of climate change first hand? I found an article that sums up the general public and their relationship with climate change, “Since antiquity, people believed that human activity might alter a local climate, but could scarcely affect the grand balances that governed the planet overall. Gradually scientists, aided by science journalists, informed the minority of educated people that modern civilization might cause global warming, sometime far in the future.” Its bazar to think we have always known that our selfish decisions would affect future generations to come. This says a lot to me about our species living on this planet together. Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (i.e., decades to millions of years). Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions.
Boulders deposited by glaciers far from any existing glaciers, led geologists to the conclusion that climate had changed in the past. 
Climate change has been a concern to humans since the nineteenth century. Only in the late nineteenth century did humans argue that our air pollution would create change in the climate, because of the emitting greenhouse gasses. Concerns of a global warming effect caused by CO2 were brought up in the nineteen sixties. Some scientists had an alternative view that our pollution was causing a cooling effect rather than warming. However, by the nineteen seventies more scientists sided with the viewpoint of a warming effect on the earth.
Recently I have developed an awareness for climate change. My awareness stemmed from my unconditional love for nature and the outdoors. The morals of conservation for our natural environment and wildlife reside in all of us. We receive so many things from nature whether it be physical materials, emotional aid, or spiritual connection. It only makes sense to give back to what provides for us. Studying adventure education in college, and knowing that the outdoors will be my work space has made my goals for sustainability even greater. The philosophies behind outdoor education have changed my life, and I want to use what I have learned, and will learn, to help others feel the same way. Through the natural environment we can teach the most essential aspects of life. 
We learn to reconnect with ourselves, we learn to have better relationships with loved ones, and we learn to connect with nature. I believe we can communicate the importance of environmental awareness through different outdoor pursuits. This belief is something I have always held close, and it is a goal of mine to apply to my future career.
Globally we have made tremendous strides to reach sustainability in the future. However it seems that our world leaders won’t be taking action on these goals for years to come, and by that point the destruction of our environment may be too great to come back from. From November 30th to December 12th representatives from many major countries came together to discuss goals for ending climate change in the Paris 2015 Climate Summit. Representatives came to agreement on: “The long-term goal of limiting temperature increases to 2°C – or a second, more ambitious target of 1.5°C – guides the agreement. Mitigation includes a long-term goal – early peaking, balancing emissions and sinks. The accompanying decision indicates that emissions need to be reduced from 55 gigatonnes (Gt) to 40Gt in 2030, a massive gap of 15Gt. A new global adaptation goal aims to increase countries’ adaptive capacity and resilience. There are also aims to achieve a finance increase to US$100 billion per year post 2020” (theconversation.com).
For the general public, we can take action to stop climate change, and reach sustainability now. Solar energy is a form of renewable energy we as consumers have access too. Solar energy may be expensive now, but it’s a great investment for the future that will eventually save you money. A man by the name of Elon Musk who is revolutionizing the world, has created a company called SolarCity. SolarCity would like to make sure everyone has their own solar system at home as a utility. Elon Musk has created a program in which he is leasing the products to people essentially for free. By doing this he is making it more affordable for the average person to buy into solar energy and save the earth. On a recent Ted Talk video, Elon Musk says that he believes solar energy will beat every form of energy within 30 years 
Elon Musk has also been innovating our ways of transportation with the renewable form of energy, electricity. Electric cars have been made for years now. Elon has created an electric car brand named Tesla that has sold more electric cars than any other brand. His cars are battery charged, and are extremely efficient. Tesla is the only auto piloted car on the market and can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in six seconds. People are starting to realize that because our human population is growing so fast that our resources won’t be able to keep up in the future.
Climate change should not be a political issue, yet today it is one of the leading topics of conversation in politics. Money is the cause of this. There is a lot of controversy surrounding today’s presidential campaign, but for some reason the controversial topic regarding animal agriculture has not been spoken of. I want to bring to your attention that animal agriculture is the leading cause for climate change. Climate change is a major topic in the presidential campaign of 2016, yet animal agriculture seems to be off limits. This is hypocrisy at its finest. If you believe in something like climate change; take the action to acknowledge the leading cause, and fix it. Climate change is a fact according to 97 percent of the scientist on earth today. If we continue to live as carelessly as we do regarding the environment; there will come a time of no return for life on earth as we know it today. A fantastic documentary was made about this issue named Cowspiracy. 
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. Not only does livestock play a major role in global warming; it is also the leading cause of resource consumption, and environmental degradation destroying the planet. Animal agriculture water consumption ranges from 34-76 trillion gallons annually. Our world population is growing at a rate that will not sustain our animal eating habits; there will simply not be enough food water or land on the planet. Renewable energy infrastructure to reduce climate change is projected to take up to 20 years. We can stop climate change today if we minimalize animal agriculture. You might be wondering why animal agriculture isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds when trying to stop climate change. This is because there are huge sums of money in the meat industry. Lobbyists are paying politicians to support them and politics are getting the lobbyists support in return. It is a corrupt system that needs to be exposed to the general public, and it’s not the cows fault.
With Climate change becoming a bigger threat to humanity we need to take immediate measures to stop it. The issue has become more prevalent to early generations today causing the push for action to be greater. People like Elon Musk are innovating in ways so that humanity can exist for years to come before we fully exhaust all of our resources.
By keeping everyone informed on present issues with our environment and foreseeable problems in the future we spread awareness that will cause an urgency to act. We cannot pretend that climate change isn’t real and somehow hope that it will disappear.
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