Imagine the oceans all evaporated, not a single drop left. Imagine forests burned to the ground. Now imagine how you could keep this from happening. Unfortunately, global warming has already begun, it’s too late to stop it, but slowing it down is a different story. 

To date, the earth has already warmed  by 1.2 degrees celsius. Which seems low at first but once this temperature increase reaches 2 degrees celsius, an extra 4.9 million people will die from extreme heat each year, the coral reefs will dissolve and the habitats for most animals and plants will be extinguished. Once the temperature increase reaches around 2.5 degrees celsius the earth would be close to uninhabitable and by the time it reaches 4C, there would be an apocalypse. 

While this all sounds unstoppable, there are still ways people can help. As Joeri Roelgi, a Belgian researcher said, “We’ve run down the clock but it’s never too late,” said Rogelj. “1.7C is better than 1.9C which is better than 3C. Cutting emissions tomorrow is better than the day after, because we can always avoid worse happening. The action is far too slow at the moment, but we can still act.” 

One way people can act is to fight against the passing of the Willow Project. The Willow Project was recently passed and is set to operate oil drills in Alaska and will account for about 1.5 percent of US production of oil, it will make about 180,000 barrels a day. While this may sound good for the economy it will destroy the environment. The willow project will account for 70 million metric tons of CO2 emissions just in the US and 60 million internationally. CO2 emissions are one of the biggest threats to the health of our planet. If enough people fight this project, about 130 million metric tons of CO2 emissions will be kept out of the atmosphere. Some ways people can fight this project are by Signing petitions, writing to the white house, and getting in touch with local representatives.