How to Live With Climate Change

“There is no planet B,” reads a sign held by a young protester in NYC, back in 2019. The subject of the protest is a dark, shadowy figure. It has been referred to in many ways – global warming; the problem of our generation; climate change.

Climate change as a concept has existed for well over a century – says NASA. In 1896, Svante Arrhenius, a physical chemist and physicist, predicted that any changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could cause the Earth’s surface temperature to rise. Despite Arrhenius’s hypothesis being made 128 ago, his warning now rings loudly in the ears of those who read it. Greenhouse gas concentrations of carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 2 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1 degree Celsius) since the turn of the 20th century (the year 1900).

While some might scoff at such a pitifully low number, an extra 2 degrees Fahrenheit has had a devastating impact on our planet. Higher temperatures means more natural disasters, such as hurricanes or wildfires. In my Wilderness Fire class here at MHCC, we got to speak directly with wildland firefighters who all agreed: It’s getting worse.

It’s not just natural disasters that come with climate change. No, I’d argue that’s not even the worst part.

The Earth holds in greenhouse gasses, a majority of which is carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is kept at a steady level by the plants, protists, and the ocean itself. As humans have continued to pollute the atmosphere with CO2, so too has the ocean absorbed an excess amount of the gas. Because the ocean works like a sponge, the excess emissions being absorbed into it are causing it to become acidified. The Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group dedicated to protecting the environment, says marine animals that rely on “carbonate ions to grow their shells,” are especially in danger – and they make up the essential bottom of the ocean’s food chain.

Protests, laws, legislation, fights, deaths: All of these things have happened in response to what is better described as a climate crisis. The climate isn’t “changing,” it is being forcibly, legally polluted by the very companies selling us the “solution.” 

While I do find it incredibly important to buy secondhand, to take public transportation, or to use reusable shopping bags, these small acts mean very little in the face of those in control of the pollution. While ExxonMobil is loudly rebranded itself to appear as “Meeting society’s energy needs and reducing emissions,” in 2020 its greenhouse gas emissions totaled 650 million tons, similar to the output of the entire nation of Canada.

I do not think the companies, corporations, politicians, and governments that caused this climate crisis to spiral out of control are going to suddenly give up their profits for the sake of the planet. Nearly every measurement, from ocean to atmosphere, points to the inevitability of ecological collapse. Famines are already happening, such as when a drought in the Horn of Africa in 2023 caused a widespread food crisis. The increased heat caused that area to once again miss the rainy season, integral to the ecosystem.

I don’t believe there is much we can do to stop what’s coming. But I do think there is plenty that can be done in the meantime, to support each other and the planet.

Learn how to forage for plants, learn how to identify animals near you. Take up a plot in a local community garden. Do something to connect with the planet and the people around you. Learn skills to survive on your own in the wilderness, and then learn how to survive with other people, too.

Find joy in being alone in nature. Find joy in being with people in nature. We are all stewards of the land, and what little we can do is still worth it, I think.