“It’s September, and we’re dying of heatstroke!” exclaims Lara Onuk, an outraged senior.

Well, she is not the only student here at Hills to acknowledge such abnormalities.

However, what many fail to accept is the reasoning behind all of these sudden climate changes. With a massive influx of natural disasters, warming and cooling periods, different types of weather patterns and much more, people need to be aware of what types of environmental problems our beloved planet is currently facing and has always been facing.

AP Biology teacher, Dr. DeFina, states, “It’s sad that people deny the environmental issues around us and that the U.S isn’t taking proper initiative right now on these issues. The people who have self interest and money interests and who think global warming is not going to happen should think twice because it’s very real. In fact, it’s happening in front of our own eyes and just looking at the intensity of the hurricanes the past month, it’s a reflection of warmer oceans which is a reflection of climate change.”

Recent research regarding Hurricanes Irma and Harvey proves that if not for rising sea levels and the increase in global warming, there wouldn’t be such deadly “super storms” in the first place.

Wayne Drash of CNN notes, “…the consensus among scientists is that the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and warmer oceans, made those storms far more destructive than they would have been in previous decades.”

According to NASA, tropical storms are like “giant engines” that use warm water and air as fuel. And, in recent years, the general temperatures for large bodies of water have steadily been increasing due to oil-drilling and occasional oil spills.

It is clear to see that though we tend to blame such “natural” disasters for the social and financial havoc caused throughout a major part of the U.S, they may not be so “natural” after all.

Maybe these disasters were our own doing: man-made disasters.

Along with rising ocean temperatures and sea levels comes the increasing of atmosphere temperatures. Due to growing trends in smoking, driving, and other everyday means of heat exhaustion, the average temperatures within the Earth’s atmosphere have nearly doubled from a century ago, thus endangering us, the people, in return. This re-instigates the long-term debates about the greenhouse effect. If the C02 and other greenhouse gasses in the air are naturally supposed to contain the oxygen on Earth from seeping into outer space, then can we really blame anybody else but ourselves for the self-ensnaring of hot air?

There is nobody else to blame for drastic climate changes.

Then, we wonder how any higher authority, how the “gods” above can release such deadly storms like Hurricane Harvey and Irma unto Earth’s people.

“If this isn’t climate change,” Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado said as Irma bore down on Florida, “I don’t know what is.”

And not even research can deny that climate change is in the hands of humans.

However, as much a part of global warming is because of mankind, it is never too late for hope. It is never too late to educate the next generation of the correct choices to make and the repercussions in not making them. It is never too late to try to make-up for all of the punches Mother Nature took on our behalf and positively contribute to the environment. It is never too late to quit old habits and replace them with new ones.

As Dr. DeFina quotes, “If not now, when? If not us, who?”

In this same way, many efforts are being made to recover from Hurricane Harvey and Irma. And perhaps, the same efforts can be made to recover from the deadly greenhouse effect.

Global warming and natural disasters are both never to be overlooked, for neither events are trivial in any way, shape, or form. The remedies to these illnesses will not come easily, but they can be dug for starting today.

As Drash says, “The data on how our warming planet specifically impacted Harvey and Irma won’t be known for quite some time. It can take months and even years to collect and analyze that information.”

Let’s just hope that by that time, the people of Earth have not fallen out of existence.