I have known for a long time that Americans are part of the problem when it comes to global climate change. I can remember a time when my own family burned plastic, trash, tires, and gasoline. Until now, I was unaware that Americans put out nearly four times as much carbon dioxide as we would be budgeted, per the IPCC’s carbon dioxide reduction plans. We Americans are polluting our planet with our habits, and we seemingly don’t care to change, and for that I am ashamed to be an American.

When we backed out of the Paris Accord, under the Trump Administration, I was again, ashamed to be an American.

When I think of all of the damage we do to the world, I never think about who we’re really hurting. The damage feels local, the spring comes sooner every year, and hotter than the last, driving up to big cities, we can see where the smog settles in a thick brownish-gray haze. But even though we’re seeing these changes due to human activity around our own homes, we’re devastating lives for people in third world countries, who face what we refer to as the triple inequality. For that, I apologize.

Perhaps with COVID-19, and the stay at home order, more people will realize what human activity does to our environment. We’ve seen dolphins return to Italy due to the earth being able to heal in the absence of humans polluting it. We’ve seen better air quality and the lack of that haze when we drive into the city. Perhaps this turbulent time can be the final push we need to change our ways, as the link to new diseases emerging and climate change seems to be as clear as ever. Perhaps we can be hopeful that Americans will see the change we can bring, if we just modify our lives a little, and our future generations will see that the earth is worth saving through seeing the small changes that have already began happening in our absence.