GUEST COLUMN: A student's view on climate change in the Rogue Valley - Rogue Valley Times
GUEST COLUMN: A student's view on climate change in the Rogue Valley | Opinion | rv-times.com
Hotter summers, smokier days, longer fire seasons. This is the reality of climate change in the Rogue Valley.
I have lived in Ashland for 16 years and have witnessed forest fires turn into a season and smoky summers become a regular occurrence. The smell of smoke is ingrained in my memory and reminds me of the months I have off from school, in which I should be going outside and hanging out with my friends. I don’t travel as often as I want out of fear of a fire starting close to home. Global warming is real and is affecting all of us now.
I want to take control of my future. I want to be able to breathe clean air and have a future worth living in, not one where being able to go outside is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Kiera Retiz lives is a senior at Ashland High School.
We list in a time overwhelmed by data, lists and percentages. Particularly in a presidential election year, polls seemingly quantify everything from candidate preferences to how we feel about the issues of the day. But are they a reflection of how we really think, or just a random sampling of respondents ... some of whom might not answer how they truly feel?
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.