At midnight on Sept. 5, 2017, my father and I watched Oregon burn from across the Columbia River. The flames spread across the horizon, pillars of fire shooting up into the sky as trees exploded from the heat, and when we walked away at 1 that morning, it was as bright as if the sun was rising behind us.
For me, personally, the Eagle Creek Fire brought the realities of climate change home in a very real way — for the first time in my life, our lovely Pacific Northwest didn’t feel safe. Many others have felt the effects far worse, as more and more devastating wildfires and other natural disasters continue to occur.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report last October, we have roughly 12 years to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, or we’re facing planetary disaster. I’m 29 years old. Our world could well take a turn for the inhabitable within the middle of my lifetime, and that terrifies me. Major changes need to happen before it’s too late, which is why I’m asking everyone reading this to actively support the Green New Deal proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
