Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner (Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)
A study conducted from July to November 2023 by the NYU School of Medicine, Stanford University, Utah State University, the University of Washington and George Washington University, among others, and published in the scientific journal Lancet Planetary Health, surveyed people aged 16-25 from all 50 U.S. states asking them to rate their concerns, thoughts and emotions regarding climate change. Respondents were also asked to provide their political affiliations and their opinions and ideas about who has the most responsibility for causing climate change.
Reporting by Jessica Glenza in The Guardian newspaper on the survey results summarized them this way: “An overwhelming majority of young people said they were worried about the climate crisis–85% said they were at least moderately worried, and more than half (57%) said they were ‘very or extremely’ worried. Nearly two-thirds endorsed the statement: ‘Humanity is doomed,’ and more than half of the sample (52%) endorsed: ‘I’m hesitant to have children.’”
Glenza also mentions that “Large majorities of both main political parties–92% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans–said they worried about the climate.” Glenza continues, “Respondents also said they had negative thoughts about the climate and had planned action to respond to their concerns, including voting for political candidates who would pledge to support ‘aggressive’ action.”
These young people are right to be concerned and anxious. An assessment published in the scientific journal Bioscience measured 35 of planet earth’s “vital signs” for the year 2023 and found that 25 were worse than have ever been recorded. Earth’s surface and ocean temperatures are at all-time highs driven by record levels of fossil fuel burning and populations of human beings are going up by about 200,000 a day globally, while the number of domestic animals requiring major inputs of resources like cattle and sheep are going up by about 170,000 a day. The assessment concludes with the scientist authors stating, “Only through decisive action can we safeguard the natural world, avert profound human suffering and ensure that future generations inherit the livable world they deserve. The future of humanity hangs in the balance.”
Those who still deny the existence of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming or global climate change are either extremely misguided (often by propaganda funded by industries like fossil fuels with high stakes in preventing concerted action on the climate crisis) or are willfully ignorant. A study published in the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters on Oct. 19, 2021, a survey of 88,125 climate-related studies, found that 99.9% of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is mainly caused by humans (see: “Greater than 99% Consensus on Human Caused Climate Change in Peer-Reviewed Scientific Literature” by Mark Lynas, Benjamin Z. Houlton and Simon Perry).
We have a moral and ethical responsibility not only to ourselves but our children, grandchildren and all of posterity to meaningfully act on climate change with the utmost urgency and in every way we safely and responsibly can. Part of that action requires us to be climate-motivated voters in the 2024 election cycle.
In an effort to encourage folks to be climate voters, you may have seen where we at Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action have put up Climate Voter billboards in Downtown Parkersburg across from the front of the United building, on Main Street in Belpre and on Ohio Rt. 7 in Marietta. You may also have heard our Climate Voter radio ads on 103.1, 103.5 and 95.1, and seen our Climate Voter ads here in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. We have terrific Climate voter yard signs that say on one side “Climate Voter: Make America Green Again” and on the other “Protect What’s Ours: Be a Climate Voter.” You can obtain a yard sign by emailing MOVCAGROUP@yahoo.com, as shown on the billboards and in the newspaper advertisements.
As of this month, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action has been an organization dedicated to addressing the global climate crisis in the Mid-Ohio River Valley, in both WV and OH, for nine years. Our commitment to educating, mobilizing, organizing and activating our communities to address the climate crisis and related crises (i.e. plastics and petrochemicals pollution, biodiversity loss) is unwavering.
We are committed to a cleaner, healthier, more affordable, safer and more stable future for everyone living today and for all generations of people to come. We unequivocally support working-class values and solidarity, union labor and collective bargaining rights and circular, sustainable care economies based on communal well-being and not on overconsumption and exploitation. We love, honor and respect our families, friends and other community members who have worked to earn livings for them and theirs in polluting and dangerous industries and want better for us all in every way.
Early voting in West Virginia started Wednesday, Oct. 23. and runs through Saturday, Nov. 2. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Learn the climate, environmental and public health stances and proposals of the candidates and parties in this election and cast your ballot for climate action in 2024!
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Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.