This entry is from GCV’s own Abraham Park answering the question: Why are you a climate voter?
We would love to hear from you about why you are a climate voter as well. If you’re interested in sharing, please head here or contact GCV by emailing abraham@gcvoters.org with your story.
As a child, my parents invested in me and my sister’s childhood experiences very heavily. We often had family outings to national parks, including some of the most famous parks like Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. I can still remember my first experience with snow at a wintry wonderland in Yosemite.
What I did not know, though, was that through these experiences, my parents were unintentionally laying a foundation to develop my love of wilderness and a great appreciation for the environment. Through these opportunities, I subconsciously developed an affinity towards nature and the wondrous world that lay almost untouched by people.
In college, I served two summers as a camp counselor in the northwoods of Wisconsin. This experience was incredibly formative and valuable; I had awesome adventures trekking through areas like the North Country Trail and canoeing through the Boundary Waters that lay on the U.S. – Canadian border. It was during this time that I consciously began to understand the value of what these places, and the parks visited during my childhood, meant to me and the urgent need to protect these areas from harm.
Today, those needs have translated into something more than caring for just the National Parks and rugged wilderness left in America; it has evolved to a deep sense of care and concern for all of our environment and the need to ensure that we keep our lands, water and air safe regardless of where or who is affected.
Most importantly, though, is my concern for the world that posterity will inherit, among them my two nieces. I don’t want to leave them a world where everyday is a struggle, where they think of earlier generations and wonder: Why didn’t they do something when they still could?
The grim reality of our present world is that humanity is facing a global crisis unlike any other. Climate change is an insidious foe that works quietly, gradually, inexorably. Perhaps it is this slow but steady movement that works in its favor the most. Unlike other colossal catastrophes like famine, destruction or war, climate change seems almost tame, the effects so comparatively slow that we seldom give it a second thought or consider its changes to be easily reversible when we finally get around to fixing it. Unfortunately, by the time we find ourselves looking to reverse the effects of climate change, it will have already been too late.
We don’t have time to kill anymore. We have to take actions now if we plan on leaving a clean and equitable world for posterity to inherit. The challenge ahead is monumental and impossible for one person to face alone. But we don’t have to face this challenge alone, not if we all come together, pooling our resources, actions and minds to face this crisis.
We can still change Georgia and the world and we can do it together. That’s why I am a climate voter.