Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Burning Generation
Burning Generation
Edafe Etuke
Mr. Ortega
ENG3UQ
12 July 2023
Burning Generation
Brian McDermott once said, “Climate change is a lot like death. We all understand it’s
inevitable, but few of us truly accept it”. What does it mean to ‘accept it’? To throw up our hands
and accept that we can do nothing about it? The boomers decided to do nothing about it.
Generation X decided to do nothing about it. But us? We do not have the luxury of choosing to
do nothing about it. Generation Z must act on climate change because it is our fault, our fight,
We like to blame the boomers for the climate crisis — and everything else, but we share
the blame as well, making us obliged to fix our faults. The US Environmental Protection Agency
said, “Increasing energy production is likely to increase emissions of certain air pollutants and
greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change” (“Climate Change Impacts on Energy”). Our
everyday habits, such as leaving lights on or charging phones for long periods, contribute to
increased electricity production and greenhouse gas emissions. We should recognize that we are
equally responsible for climate change, regardless of our individual carbon footprint. It is
essential to address our own actions before advocating for global change.
Generation Z is the ideal candidate to act on climate change, being the last generation
with this opportunity, and the first with the tools for the task. The 2023 Report from the
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said we have “seven years left to stop the climate
crisis”, while the World Economic Forum lists three different technologies rolling out this decade
that have the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change (Véronique; Torkington). In
seven years, the entirety of Gen Z will be over 18, deciding how the world is run. Do we want to
handle the task of running a world plagued with severe weather and extreme heat? Fortunately,
we don’t have to if we take the time now to use the necessary tools to fight the climate crisis,
If you think the economy looks bad now, you’d probably do everything you can not to
see how it looks when climate change gets factored in. If nothing useful is done to avert a crisis,
18% of the global GDP could be slashed away by 2050, the World Economic Forum reports
(Marchant). At its worst, a climate crisis will usher in an age of resource scarcity and supply
chain bottlenecks at a time when the world’s population will result in overflowing demand. If the
current state of the economy makes it almost impossible for our generation to afford a house,
what do you think will happen when the global economy takes a huge blow? We will be the ones
feeling the brunt of the economic repercussions, which is why we must be the ones at the
forefront of initiatives to create a liveable, comfortable future for ourselves, and those who come
after us.
Greta Thunberg said “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic … like your
house is on fire.” If my house was on fire, I’d get out of the house. But where would you go if
the whole planet was on fire? We need to avoid that scenario, at all costs. We have been given
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the chance to right our wrongs, to take a stand and to secure our future. But, the time for action is
Works Cited
Kesseler, Véronique. “We have seven years left to stop the climate crisis - IPCC Report 2023.”
https://www.taival.com/we-have-seven-years-left-to-stop-the-climate-crisis-ippc-report-2
Marchant, Natalie. “This is How Climate Change Could Impact The Global Economy | World
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/impact-climate-change-global-gdp/. Accessed
12 July 2023.
Torkington, Simon. “3 ways technology is helping the world adapt to climate change.” The
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/02/technology-climate-change-adaptation/.