This week the Earth's atmosphere reached carbon dioxide levels of 400ppm. Usually carbon levels reach their yearly low in September since the plants have had all summer to remove it. But this year this was not the case. This year levels stayed high and no one knows when or if they will go back down.

In case you do not know what carbon dioxide does to our environment here is a brief rundown. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning it traps the sun's rays in the atmosphere which gradually warms Earth's temperatures overtime. Humans really started producing it in mass during the Industrial Revolution, and have been increasing ever since. Eventually, this has produces not only hotter weather, which is global warming, but also more extreme weather, which we call climate change.

The impacts of climate change can already be felt. Polar ice caps are getting thinner, with smaller layers being added on each year. Animals can travel farther and farther north, wrecking havoc on foreign ecosystems. Hurricanes and typhoons are becoming more and more frequent, as well as much more intense. Blizzards will occur more. Extreme temperature differences between winter and summer will become more pronounced, especially as you go further north. But why has no one done anything?

Well people are trying. The reuse, reduce, recycle movement has been going on for decades. International leaders have gotten together and agreed to reduce carbon emissions within the next fifty years. Pope Francis has made a call to take better care of the Earth. People make cars which are more fuel efficient or run off electricity (which can be green). In the recent presidential debate Hillary Clinton mentioned switching to solar power, which would replace all the old oil jobs along with adding about 100,000 more to the US economy. More dams are being built, and built in cleaner ways. Wind farms are going up. But for some reason people do not want to change.

People say it would destroy the oil industry. Well, they should read read how it would replace all the oil jobs and potentially add more if we went solar. An added benefit is we won't have the danger to the environment which the oil industry has by it's very nature. Others say it is not real, which 97% of actual scientists disagree with that. Some people think solar panels, dams, or wind farms are eye sores. Solar panels can be tucked anywhere, dams are generally along a road which is already an eye sore, and wind farms are in the middle of nowhere. Other people are just lazy or do not care as much as they say they do. Those are the only reasons that would explain the inaction.

Against this constant onslaught of apathy, negativity, denial, and bureaucracy it seems impossible to do anything. But this is untrue. Like any other issue you can use your political power to let politicians know you want something done and you want it done now. You can support businesses that use green practices and work to reduce their carbon footprint. You can reduce your own carbon footprint. Buy local or grow your own produce. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Carpool to work. Turn off appliances when not in use. It may seem small. It may seem to take forever and a lot of damage has already been done, but that in no way means we cannot slow, if not halt, the amount of damage. Then one day we can start to actually reverse it.