Recently, I watched Leonardo DiCaprio’s National Geographic documentary “Before the Flood”, which discusses the ever-growing issue of climate change. This documentary only reaffirmed my belief that climate change is one of, if not the, biggest issues facing the Earth right now. Watching this documentary really got me thinking: “How is it that there are still people who deny global warming’s existence?” There is substantial evidence that you can physically see and touch that proves just how real and how dangerous this problem is. The ice is melting, and the fact that 2016 will be the hottest year ever recorded should serve as the wake up call that so many close-minded people desperately need.

The more time we, as humans, waste arguing over the validity of climate change, the closer we’ll get to reaching a point of no return. There are things that could be done right now to almost immediately put us on the right track towards fixing things, but these actions cannot be taken while there is still a large portion of the population that discredits the issue. Although the Earth itself will probably live on for another couple billion years, life itself will not. According to The Scientific American, the Earth could cross the climate danger threshold by as early as 2036. That would mean cities across the globe, huge cities that support massive populations like San Francisco, would merely vanish. Our children will never see polar bears, or truly understand what the Arctic regions were and why they were so fascinating. That only further proves my point that the time for debating climate change’s existence is long over. The longer we spend fighting over an argument that has been proven through physical, statistical, and scientific evidence, the harder it will be for humanity to try and reverse the effect.

According to a 2015 study by Carlton, around97% of the scientific community agree that global warming is man-made. That is appalling, and if you think you know something about the environment that 97% of the scientific community doesn’t know, well, you’d just be wrong.

Just because there are organizations and businesses with agendas that discourage a common understanding of the factuality of climate change, that doesn’t mean that humanity as a whole can’t continue to push the limits to find more and more circumstantial evidence for the proof of climate change. Many of these industries stand to lose a lot of money if mankind switched towards a way of life that takes better care of our planet. The housing industry is one, and another would be the biggest culprit: the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel industry completely relies on humanity’s inability to change; their profit is primarily attributed to the constant arguing that surrounds climate change. The longer people argue, the more time they have to continue to make a profit while destroying the planet for many generations to come.

Luckily, as man has proved time and time again over the course of our history, we are willing to adapt to survive and prosper. I have the upmost faith that people will come together eventually and truly recognize how severe the issues of global warming and climate change are. The only question is, however, just how soon will that be?