Feb. 21, five days after a snowstorm, the weather forecast is partly sunny with a high of 78 degrees.
As cheerful as the atmosphere of the Seton Hall Green is when the weather is nice, with people lounging on blankets and playing Frisbee, the reason behind such mild weather calls for a great deal of concern.
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Students relax on the University Green, enjoying the warm weather.
Sarah Yenesel/Photography Editor[/caption]
Our world is changing for the worst and the damage may be irreversible. Campus certainly is not the only place experiencing an increase in temperature.
According to the article “Arctic Ice, Permafrost, Shrinking Faster Than Ever” by the U.S. News and World Report, climate change is having a dramatic effect in the Arctic.
The report explained that “scientists say water temperatures [are] rising faster than it has in a millennium, sea ice melting at a rapid pace and permafrost is shrinking, perhaps for good.”
Although it’s said that the damage to our planet has been done and it appears there is no turning back, the need to take further action is pressing.
There are new statistics all over the world that surface every day that share more information about concerning rises in temperatures and absurd amounts of snowfall. Even if we get tired of scrolling through our phones and coming across new articles, let us not go blind to them. We cannot become desensitized to the harsh reality that the world around us is warming at a rapid speed.
On June 1, 2017, the United States became one of three countries to leave the 2015 Paris Agreement, an agreement among the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that would strive to maintain a global temperature rise above two degrees Celsius.
Nicaragua, one of the three countries, signed the treaty on Oct. 23, 2017, leaving the United States and Syria as the remaining two countries to withdraw from the agreement.
Despite the United States’ leave, 20 states and Puerto Rico joined the alliance.
All around the country, people are coming together for a common cause: to stop the inevitable monster that is global warming, no matter what legislators decide.
Our campus is taking strides to prevent more damage to the environment through the Blue Goes Green campaign. The campaign seeks to create a variety of opportunities for students to reduce Seton Hall’s carbon footprint.
Although the amount of damage done to our planet is alarming, any effort, no matter how extensive or small, is worthwhile.
We cannot be in the mentality that it is too late to do anything. Yes, the damage may be done, but we cannot afford to do more.
The time is now to change our reality.
Kailtyn Quinn is a junior secondary and special education and English major from Bayonne, N.J. She can be reached at kaitlyn.quinn@student.shu.edu.
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