Celeste Longinotti. That's me. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That's where I'm from. The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. That's where I go to school. It's also where I take a brand-new class called Writing for Social Change. To say that there was no need for a class like this in the past because there was no need for social change is absurd, but understandable why it was not previously considered a priority.
I'm currently 19 years old and for as long as I can remember there were always problems with the world. There was controversy over the War on Terror, which started when I could barely walk. Then the media shifted its focus to the mass destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, and I remember my parents' relief because we weren't affected by it. Ultimately, the world moved on to the devastating effects of the Recession, when I remember my mom began to coupon a little more intently. The 2008 inauguration of Barack Obama was shown on the TV in my school's cafeteria, and I remember not understanding why so many people were shocked by the fact we had elected a black president.
After Obama's election I had always thought the American society was taking steps in the right direction. After all the progress that was made, especially on the subject of social change, how could we, as a country, ever backtrack? It seemed impossible. Once news broke Trump was a running for office, no one I knew thought it would last. "He won't make it past primaries." "He's only doing it for the press, he'll back out."
Here we are in 2019, and our sitting president, Donald Trump has been in office for almost three years. For the past two and a half years practically every social issue one could think of has been attacked or ignored by this administration. Gun violence, racism, mental health, education, and so many more. Yes, the majority of these social issues don't necessarily affect every member of the world's population, which is partially why they are sweepingly disregarded. However, the social issue which is continually ignored, yet never ceases to amaze me, is climate change. Every single creature living on every centimeter of the Earth can and will be affected by the results of climate change, but few do anything to aid the problem. So, my purpose has been stated. I hope to educate as many people as possible on the very real dangers of climate change.
There are so many social issues which call for social change, but how can we begin to fix any of those problems if humans are dying of heat stroke and diseases caused by pollution first? To idly say "I'll be dead before it's a problem for me." is to be selfish and lazy. To set low expectations for massive factories' pollution habits or even just for suburban homes who refuse to recycle is to let every living species around you down.
Now is the time to make changes. Tomorrow comes and goes too quickly to wait.
