Earthbound: attached or restricted to the earth.
Mankind & Earth share an eternal connection, a connection that cannot be broken as long as we exist. The very force behind our existence is Earth. The planet that has provided us with all the resources the human race has needed to thrive. But it seems that this connection is not valued, at least as much as it needs to be. Recently scientists all over the world staged protests urging the public to take action against climate change.  These protests happened in 25 countries following the release of an IPCC report which estimated that over the next two decades we will see substantial damage to “life, biodiversity, & infrastructure" here on Earth. In simpler terms, the destruction of life as we know it. Crop failure, water & food scarcity, frequent natural disasters, and worse will happen if no measures are taken against climate change. ​
So what is the solution? Well, the answer to that question is that there’s many solutions. But, I think it’s important that I highlight the most important. The one hiding in plain sight, holding corporations accountable. We all hear about the ways we can “reduce” our carbon footprint in school, ads, on TV, etc. While doing this is beneficial, ultimately it’s counterproductive.

​You see, 90 corporations have been responsible for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions from 1880 to 2010. In fact, this little “reducing your carbon footprint” mission was originally coined by BP, an oil company. The same company responsible for the largest oil spill ever in history. To this day, large corporations still push this message on us, when the fact of the matter is they do more damage than we could ever do combined. They have used this false rhetoric to deflect the public from actually seeing where the problem is rooted for so long.

 List of the 90 Companies
Doing Your Part
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I can’t provide you with all the answers to climate change, but I can provide you with a few ways you can simply help, besides reducing your carbon footprint. Most importantly, holding corporations accountable. As consumers we can make the decision to not support these companies. While it’s not realistic to completely eliminate them from our everyday lives being that they manufacture almost everything we buy, when we make the decision to hold them accountable as a collective that's when the difference starts to be made. Whether you find your contribution on this list or not, do whatever works best for you & be mindful of whether or not it’s actually helping.
  • Contacting your congress representatives, calling out representatives accepting money from these corporations to vote against green bills/laws & supporting representatives voting for bills/laws. (https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member )
  • Buying from sustainable companies
  • Actively participating & keeping up with the conversation regarding climate change
Plot Twist
Now this is the part where you probably close the article & continue on with your day. If that’s what you want to do, cool, but before you go do that I would like to remind you again that this is life threatening. Meaning suffering & eventually death. I don’t know about you but I want to live a nice, comfortable, happy life. I don’t want to have to ration my water, or deal with the very real possibility of food shortages. Unfortunately, this is already a reality for people all over the world due to climate change. Even within our own country. But if we fail to work against it this would happen to all of us, on a global scale. Basic necessities like water & food would become luxuries. Conflict would arise as a result & unnecessary wars would be fought. This is not the path we need to go down, it is still preventable. But if we don’t act soon our home will become a living hell. With the very low chance of making it to space most would remain earthbound.

Amira Kade