Pacific Islands - Global change

Development happens and it happens fast; without a care of natural resources which usually cause environmental destruction. Therefore building and operating of infrastructures in ways that do not not disturb the ecological processes are required to maintain the functionality of natural systems.

I think I audibly gasped when I read the CNN update a week or so ago that discussed the severity of Cape Town's water drought and needing to close all taps in the city eventually in what would be known as 'Day Zero.' This personally sounds terrifying, and I cannot even begin to imagine what that would be like. However, I read another CNN update today (which gave me the idea for this post) that stated that Day Zero was just pushed to July due to major water conservation efforts by the people in Cape Town and surrounding areas. That's great news! It's reassuring to see that taking unified action, especially for such a sustainable goal, can have such important impacts (not that they normally don't equal something important, but this is a really great example and it happened pretty quickly). However, it makes me think-- does it have to take something as drastic as facing a day zero in order to make changes in how we interact with the environment and our daily routines?

One of the most recent New York Times headlines was this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/world/americas/peru-climate-change.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news which is about how climate change is already destroying communities in Peru among many other places around the world: "But Mr. García, the council member in Huancaquito Alto, is not taking any chances. He has refurbished an old well used by his father to hold water in the days before this area was irrigated, and he is building a new one near his asparagus fields. “'Because of this water, our children have been able to go to university,” he said. “But if there is no water from the Santa River, that all changes." Flipping on CNN for three hours, the news feed spanned from Trump to health care to education to taxes to the White House. Nothing at all on one of the largest responsibilities we have (as a planet) to deal with: climate change. And I think while everyone who cares about climate change is definitely aware of the extent of global warming, there's also a bias toward focusing on Western cultures. For example, when I googled facts about global warming, the first that came up were "New York City will be underwater in 100 years" or "Some hundred million people live within 3 feet (1 meter) of mean sea level, and Louisiana and Florida are especially at risk." While this is interesting and relevant, we're completely ignoring the fact that in countless non-Western mountainous communities, people are already trying to cope with the effects. Climate change is preventing kids who've worked hard their whole lives from going to college. It's draining entire water supplies from towns. This is really a human rights issue now, except we're not willing to address it in the news for some reason. A lot of people seem to think that climate change is a threat looming in the distance, or only affecting the planet's extremes (ice caps, polar bears, etc.) when in reality we're already behind schedule on trying to combat it. I just found this idea interesting and I think it's awesome that the New York Times is trying to create more awareness in this area. If you guys have any thoughts on how we can make climate action a priority, leave a comment!! And also read the article, it's amazing.