It was pointed out to me, after the column I wrote two weeks ago, that my comments on weather patterns failed to take global warming and climate change into account.

That is true, and I appreciate very much that its absence was noticed. I left global warming out because it deserved enough space for thorough consideration. I also wasn’t sure whether or not I could accomplish an aside without ending up too bitter and souring the tone of an otherwise light piece. So I’m taking it up this week, and I hope that I’ve had enough time to consider the writing without becoming too angry about a topic that has been alarmingly relevant and yet frequently dismissed for as long as I’ve been alive. So: global warming.

There are people who deny that climate change and global warming exist. A vanishing amount of these people are trained scientists. An uncomfortable and unfortunate amount are members of the U.S. House and Senate who actually have the power to pass bills and laws that would help to curb climate change. This is, to be precise, not good.

There are small things that anyone can do – take public transportation or bike when possible, recycle and compost, reduce showering times and other excessive water use – but it has been estimated that over 90 percent of all energy and resource consumption is the fault of big businesses. In other words, while individual conservation efforts are all to the good, the problem wouldn’t be even close to eliminated even if everyone managed to reduce their carbon footprint to zero.

Those who deny climate change will often aggressively point out that, oh, there’s still snow, or still freezing weather. Which seems comparable to declaring that, say, world hunger has been solved because you just ate a cheeseburger.

The polar ice caps are melting. Let me emphasize that, and then emphasize it again. The polar ice caps, in the coldest regions on Earth, that have endured for millions of years, are melting. Scientists have warned that an enormous prehistoric ice field in Alaska that feeds dozens of glaciers and has done for thousands of years could be gone in a century.

And while global temperatures have risen as a whole over the last several years, global warming does not nearly encompass the whole of the problem. Storms in recent years have grown to unprecedented size and caused untold damage, from Hurricane Katrina to Winter Storm Nemo. Just this past month, torrential rains in the American South have led to flooding in Louisiana that has destroyed thousands of lives so far. Just this past week, Virginia Beach received a solid 18 inches of rain.

I didn’t have to do extensive research to unearth these examples. These are vivid realities that hardly went unadvertised. We know they’re happening, that they can happen, and these disasters ruin homes and families, and lives and livelihoods. And we still haven’t stopped! Right now, in North Dakota, one of the biggest protests by Native Americans ever is ongoing to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline, which, if completed, could pollute and poison the water millions of people depend on. That will trickle down into the land, into the rainwater, into plants and animals, until another region of the planet is unsuitable for habitation. And considering 75 percent of the planet is water, we really can’t afford to ruin any more land.

But even if all of that remains insufficient evidence – fine. Say global warming isn’t happening, or that climate change is a hoax. How is that a reason not to take measures to protect the planet?

Say we convert to entirely clean energy. Say we reduce carbon emissions to zero. Say we manage to entirely stop producing acids that eat away the ozone layer. Say we throw all our efforts into taking care of the oceans and reducing garbage and create a society without any dependence on fossil fuels whatsoever – and then it turns out climate change wasn’t a problem after all.

Oh, no, how terrible! We’ll have put so much effort into creating a better, healthier, more ecologically friendly society and protecting the only planet capable of supporting life – for nothing.

— Nina Collay is a student at Thornton Academy, Class of 2017, who can frequently be found listening to music, reading, wrestling with a heavy cello case, or poking at the keyboard of an uncooperative laptop.