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Something Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico all have in common is the devastating destruction left by hurricanes that occurred in the last few months. Something Northern California and Southern California have in common are the hundreds of acres lost and burned to ashes because of the wildfires that broke out in the last few months. Something we as a country should have paid more attention to was the reason why Hurricane Sandy had such a massive impact back in 2012.

A little under five years after Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, the United States and Puerto Rico experienced three tropical storms all within the same month. Despite mother nature’s clear cry for help, all this destruction she’s causing is still not enough to grab the attention of the hard-headed people who believe global warming is not a serious issue.

The hurricanes that happened in the past year were much larger than they should have been. According to NPR, scientists had already predicted about three large storms. Storms are growing larger and larger as the years pass and this is due to the warming of the atmosphere and the oceans.

Climate change also had an impact on the fires that erupted over different areas of California that caused 40 people to lose their lives in Northern California and spread to over 1,700 acres in Southern California. Because of climate change, there is a difference in the amount of water that evaporates from oceans and land. This causes more areas (the Southwest in this case) to be left with dry areas of land that make it easier for fires to break out.

Regardless of the various reports proving that yes, global warming is real, people of the United States pay no mind to the issue.

“The environment in which all storms form has changed owing to human activities,” said Climate & Global Dynamics distinguished senior scientist Kevin Trenberth on his website. The question to ask is why don’t Americans pay more attention to the issue?

Americans continue to fill states full of waste and don’t care for the effects this has on the environment. In Sweden, over 99 percent of household waste gets recycled and about half of that gets turned into energy for the country to use. In America, landfills cause pollution and in turn, this affects oceans and rivers. According to the LA Times, flooding is caused by garbage clogging drains and this leads to the atmosphere being poisoned by the toxic discharge.

Unlike Sweden, where government agencies and private companies join forces with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to raise awareness for recycling, the United States is in a state where it’s own president believes that global warming is a hoax. President Trump even went as far as beginning to dismantle President Obama’s plans and efforts to try and combat global warming.

In America, there are hardly any advertisements or media outlets that speak up on the issue of global warming. There is no push for finding a solution to global warming. When wanting to learn more about global warming, because it is difficult to teach in school, people gain knowledge by realizing something is wrong with our planet and scouring the internet for information on what they could do to help.

So many people look at global warming as some joke and do not believe in this issue. However, just because you cannot see something does not mean it is not real. It is time for people realize that global warming is a real issue and needs to be paid more attention to if we all want a healthy planet to live on. By researching more and investing more time to learning how we can help the environment, there will be change from what we have today.

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