As the school year progresses and the temperatures drop, many people across the nation come together to raise awareness and advocate for change against a problem that impacts us all: climate change. 

Global climate change strikes were carried out in the past weeks in places including Canada, New York, Washington D.C. and the one here in Columbia, which was organized by a fourth-grader from Grant Elementary School. 

Even if it seems like climate change doesn’t affect you, it does. According to an article from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), climate change can range from extreme heat waves in the summer to stronger storms and hurricanes in the spring and fall. 

The recent protests are a response to governments across the world refusing to acknowledge the presence of climate change. The protests were conducted by people of all ages, but the primary focus was on having students participate, which even included a walk out to begin the strike. 

Daniella Calle, senior, said, “I think the protests have been super great in raising awareness about this problem, it continues to grow everyday.”

While Battle did not participate in the walkouts, it has led some students to question if we should start talking about it.

“I think we could make even a little difference by utilizing the bottle refilling stations we have in the halls instead of buying a million water bottles a day,” senior Sophia Fernandez said. She believes that even a simple task such as that could create a big difference in the amount of plastic that our school goes through. 

Calle also thinks that recycling should be a bigger topic of discussion in the classroom. She said, “It’s frustrating knowing that this is a big global problem and it can be helped with something as simple as recycling but not many people understand the purpose.”

BEPA or the Battle Environmental Protection Agency, is a new group this year and their goal is to bring awareness of things that students could be doing everyday. Brandon Wagner, biology teacher and sponsor of BEPA said, “We don’t recycle as much as the other two schools and people aren’t recycling their plastics and that might be one way we could improve.”  

While change on the national level may be out of our reach, changes here at Battle, is within our reach. 

Those who are interested in this topic and would like to join BEPA are encouraged to contact Brandon Wagner at [email protected]