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It doesn’t take a meteorologist or scientist to know that something is having a big impact on our weather. With record high winter temperatures across the globe, all signs are pointing to climate change catching up with us. 

With the earth getting warmer, it leaves our generation to wonder, can we do anything to stop it? We’ve all read enough articles about electric vehicles and reducing our carbon footprint, but can we really have an impact on saving our planet? 

Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, said in a recent interview with CTV News that global warming is in fact to blame. Our polar vortexes are destabilizing, which is causing our usual weather “extremes” to be disrupted and in this case, not be so extreme.  

So, we really have reached the point where climate change and global warming is at our doorsteps and can no longer be ignored. So, can we slow down, stop or reverse climate change? The general idea is no.  

The leading causes of climate change are the use of fossil fuels for generating power, manufacturing goods like electronics, clothes, plastics, deforestation, powering buildings, transportation and consumption. 

Most students feel like with that list and all the articles over the years saying, “Do this to save the Earth!” no matter what our generation does, it won’t be enough. 

“We need global cooperation and that includes the rich, the corporate world and scientists,” says Leia Langridge, a third-year digital media and journalism student here at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford. 

With all the known impacts to climate change, many of them are made worse by the decisions of big corporations on how they produce products, what they allow their emissions to look like.  

“Corporations have a bigger responsibility as they are the ones who affect the climate the most,” said Tusharika Tyagi, also a third-year digital media and journalism student here on campus. “We people can only do so much but if corporations don’t start becoming more climate friendly, climate change is not going to stop.”  

While making an effort to reduce our carbon footprint is an important effort and something we should all be aware of in our daily lives, if we really want to see change and save our planet, responsibility needs to be demanded of those with the biggest impact.