In this image released on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, renowned German artist Robert Kessler presents his project "Climate Meter." It is a 70-meter-high kinetic sculpture that visualizes climate change very simply. Current international research data controls its position and shows the acceleration of global warming.
Social kinetic art/news aktuell via AP Images
Social kinetic art/news aktuell via AP Images
In this image released on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, renowned German artist Robert Kessler presents his project "Climate Meter." It is a 70-meter-high kinetic sculpture that visualizes climate change very simply. Current international research data controls its position and shows the acceleration of global warming.
This story is part of Climate Solutions, a collaboration focused on community engagement and solutions-based reporting to help Central Pennsylvania move toward climate literacy, resilience and adaptation. It originally appeared at Q’Hubo News, which is a Climate Solutions partner.
Growing up in the Dominican Republic, I rarely heard about climate change. I vaguely knew some information about the impact our world was suffering by the increased amount of natural disasters around the world, but the data I had was not enough.
I have to make clear that I do not speak for the entire Hispanic community; each experience is different among the Latinx. For me, all of that lack of information changed once I came to United States. More people were talking about how affected they had been by natural disasters. I felt the need to do more research.
My entire life changed after learning how bad of a problem this was by how people were losing everything they had, family members, etc. I felt awful. I realized how many times I had contributed to the problem of climate change every time I threw garbage in the street without any remorse or anytime I could have walked somewhere and instead chose to drive.
I read books that discussed about how we could be part of the solution, and through that became aware of little things I could do to inspire others to take action against letting our world be disrupted by the natural disasters that affect our communities.
Submitted
Amaury Abreu, founder, Q’Hubo News
That is why I started a community cleanup day in Lebanon city. That is why I wrote a column about “context matters” where I explained how and why we need to keep our communities clean. Climate change is not only a natural science problem; the sociological impact that climate change has is also evident in our society.
When people are displaced because of a natural disaster this creates a ripple effect of changes in the economy and the way that people live, and enables national security issues that become a long-term problem for our country.
As a Hispanic man, my ignorance had me blinded, and for the ignorance to go away, I needed to surround myself with people that care about climate change in order for me to become aware of why this matters and how it affects us.
We can’t let ignorance win the battle.
As a publication, Q’Hubo News has joined Climate Solutions, where we are working alongside other institutions to take us from ignorance to knowledge and from knowledge to action. If you want to be part of the solution, we want to invite you to share your experiences through the Climate Solutions landing page. There is a form below that you can fill out and share how climate change has affected you as a central Pennsylvanian.
Let’s change the future of our children by taking action today, because we can do this together.
Amaury Abreu is founder of Q’Hubo News.
