We are on the cusp of a climate change apocalypse, and it could very well be irreversible.

Take a moment to reflect on the plethora of climate crises experienced within just this year alone. Australia, California, Oregon, and Brazil have all been burning. The Great Plains have been ravaged by droughts, while The Polar Ice has been rapidly melting. Even here in Hawaii, there was a wildfire right next to the University of Hawaii at Manoa's campus on the 24th of September. Resident dorms were evacuated as firefighters spent all day putting out the flames. Hawaii was also the home to two tornado warnings in March. These environmental disasters are NOT statistical anomalies. They are reoccurring incidents and they will not stop unless action is taken. The year 2020 can be used as a scapegoat for only so long, until we collectively take responsibility for the harm we are doing to the planet.

It will only get worse.

This is not the making of a mysterious cursed year. This is science. This is climate change. "The past five years have been the five warmest years since 1850 (Miller)." The world has warmed by an estimated 2 degrees Fahrenheit and is climbing to a projected 5 degrees by 2050.

There is only so much the general public can do when the top 1% of corporations contribute to 71% of all pollution emissions. This is why it is so painstakingly critical to vote. I cannot overemphasize the impact that this election will make on this planet and on all the future generations who will grow to inhabit it. One of the very first things the Trump administration sought to do was pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement in June 2017. This was followed by revoking restrictions on actions such as fracking, gas drilling, and air pollution. Trump even demoted climate change from the list of national security threats, when it's more imminent now than ever.

A reality where we're entirely engulfed by flames, and fighting to the death for food, is not some far-fetched dystopian future.

Greenhouse gas emission will peak, the Ozone layer will diminish, sea levels will rise, and we will miss the serenity of 2020 if climate change is continuously treated like a backseat issue. The technology to prevent this future exists, it is just not prioritized by the current government.

Biden has proposed investing $2 trillion dollars into the renewable and clean energy future. He wants to bring carbon emissions and use of fossil fuels to a 0. He also plans to restore all the environmental protections that were undone by Trump, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement.

Please vote this November.

Vote for carbon neutrality, vote for a green future.