After Hurricane Harvey hit land in on August 26, it left a trail of destruction in southeast Texas. Most of the city is under water. The current death toll is at 30 as a result of the Now Tropical Storm Harvey, the storm is making a second landfall in southwest Louisiana. The storm has been slamming the area for six days now. The pictures and video highlighting the aftermath of the storm on my social media pages are alarming and harrowing.

Hurricane Harvey is the "costliest natural disaster" in United States History, according to a prediction from Accuweather. The cost of the impact on the economy will approach a total of $160 billion, which represents a large negative impact of 8/10 of one percent of the gross national product or GDP; the GDP is currently at $19 trillion, according to Dr. Joel N. Myers, founder, president and chairman of Accuweather.

All of us are going to feel the impact of Harvey at an economic level. Gas prices are going to shoot up because Houston is the center of the nation's energy industry. So, get ready to pay more at the pump. All oil refined products are going to shoot up in price.

Sitting at home in West Michigan where the worst weather I encounter is blizzards and the occasional severe thunderstorm that takes down trees and knocks out power, I can't even begin to fathom losing my home and loved ones to a monstrous hurricane and biblical level floods.

Aside from people dying from the destruction Hurricane Harvey bestowed upon the southeast United States, the worst part is this is just the beginning of catastrophic hurricanes and storms because of climate change. Everyone needs to take climate change seriously, especially our elected leaders and officials.

According to an article from WIRED written by Eric Niller titled "How Climate Change Fueled Hurricane Harvey", climate researchers are saying that climate change is to blame for the atypical amount of destruction from Harvey.

Niller stated, "Climate change didn’t spawn Harvey, or any other hurricane, though it has made them more dangerous."

Katherine Kayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University stated in the WIRED article, "The hurricane is a naturally occurring hazard exacerbated by climate change."

Gulf ocean temperatures were 2.7 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above average on August 23, according to Climatesignals.org. The warmer water provided fuel for Hurricane Harvey's strength. Higher sea levels will make future hurricanes worse too.

Our climate is changing, which means our weather is changing and becoming more wild and unpredictable. Not only will hurricanes be stronger and more destructive, our seasons will change; we'll see stronger blizzards, stronger tornadoes, longer droughts, warm winters, cool summers, etc.

At some point, some regions in the United States will become uninhabitable, killing and displacing millions of people. Climate change cannot be ignored or taken lightly.

Unfortunately some of our politicians are owned by the big oil companies and take on the stance that climate change is nothing more than conspiracy or a fluke; this rhetoric is untrue and dangerous.

Climate change shouldn't be a political issue. It's a life or death issue and the future of all species and the planet is at risk of perishing.

It's imperative that we get out to the polls during election cycles and vote out the politicians who spread deadly rhetoric that climate change isn't real so we can elect politicians who will put policies and safeguards in place to ensure that all of us and the planet has a future.