The polar ice caps are melting, the water levels are rising, and it reached the low 70s in early December. This week felt more like wintertime in southern California than in central Illinois. A few years ago, we would be hearing cries of global climate change everywhere. Today, people just seem to be enjoying the second springtime of 2012.

For the last few presidential elections, global climate change was considered a big part of the cycle. Almost with guarantee, a question would pertain to it during the debates, but this year, there was nothing. Sure, it had a brief moment in the sun early in 2012 when the Keystone Pipeline was making headlines. Other than that however, it seems to have almost entirely disappeared from American discussion.

And it is not as if Americans no longer believe in the realities of global climate change. A poll by Pew Research Center shows that a majority of Americans do believe there is solid evidence, with 42 percent of that group believing it has been caused by mostly human activity. Yet, our leaders are not doing much to help change this.

In fact, China, the European Union and Russia, along with the United States, all received “‘inadequate’ ratings for their plans to help limit global climate change to an agreed U.N. ceiling of below 2 degrees Celsius” or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit according to Reuters. And naturally these countries are causing the largest problems.

Yes, even a few degrees can make a difference. Even if the earth’s temperature increases by two degrees, we might see more intense storms, wildfires and droughts just to name a few. While day-to-day may not seem so bad, extreme events today, like Superstorm Sandy, will become even more extreme.

If the temperatures continue to rise, the permafrost layers at the poles will begin to thaw. Permafrost makes up a large fraction of our world’s released emissions. If the permafrost layer thaws, it could release carbon that is at least twice what is currently stored in the atmosphere. And if that’s true, the December days we experienced earlier this week may become more common than an oddity.

The World Meteorological Organization is calling 2012 one of the warmest on record, just as years 2001-2011 were.

And despite more and more Americans believing in global climate change, why are we not doing anything about it? Why are Americans not all up in arms about this?

It seems to be partly because it is no longer a top concern. 

Issues that we find important are generally determined by the media. If we do not constantly hear about it, we aren’t going to associate it with the utmost importance. And if politicians are not talking about it, then neither will the news. Look at the economy. The news is constantly reminding us about the high unemployment rate, so what do we end up talking about? The economy. And yes, I willingly admit that I want the economy to improve, but how do we get global climate change to be covered too?

We need to get our politicians to start speaking about it. With the amount of emissions our country releases, we may make a difference if this country starts trying to make a change. Even if by chance, it is too late to do something, if nothing else, we could slow down the irreversible. We could start here, at this University.

According to the Princeton Review, in 2010 the University of Illinois was considered the second best Big Ten school in terms of sustainability with a score of 95, following The Ohio State University, 96.

I think we could improve our rating and surge past The Ohio State by using the University’s space better. Instead of constantly building new buildings, we could improve the buildings we have. While Ikenberry Commons got an update, it does not mean we needed to build all new buildings. In my time here, I can’t remember a moment where there wasn’t construction somewhere. Becoming green does not mean we need all new buildings.                                                                                                                  

If we can turn our campus as green as possible (without increasing student fees), we could set a precedent for the entire country. Other campuses might follow suit, and we could get the green movement back on track. And even if it is too late to stop the effects of global climate change, we can at least try to slow it down.

Joanna is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].