The Beginning of the Change

By Evelyn

 

As I was heading to bed, I could feel the anticipation about the severe weather warnings that were being reported for the following day. I had a bad feeling that I was not going to enjoy walking Nimbus tomorrow. I crossed my fingers that I was wrong as I drifted off to sleep.

It started as a normal day. Perhaps a little stormy but normal, nonetheless. Maybe the anticipation of this dreaded storm would turn out to be for nothing. I woke up early around 6:30am and opened my book. The next thing I knew mum was calling, “Sophia, breakfast.” I tucked my short black hair behind my ears and headed downstairs, my husky Nimbus following closely behind.

Me, my mum and my dad live in a small seaside village right opposite the sea. My bedroom has a window ledge seat meaning I can overlook the quiet street below me and observe the hustle and bustle. The local area provides a great walk for Nimbus as we love weaving through the colourful buildings and splashing around in the waves as they crash against the shore after digging in search of his buried balls and treats.

“It’s looking pleasant out there today,” said mum and I could hear the sarcasm roll off her tongue.

“Just lovely,” I replied.

The thing is, that day I was hoping to meet up with Neve at our favourite café. However, the huge grey storm cloud looming above us said differently.

The rest of the morning went by very slowly. After breakfast me and mum threw on as many waterproof layers as we could find and went to walk Nimbus. For whatever reason he seemed to really enjoy the hostile rain that battered our faces. That made one of us!

Later in the day the storm really picked up. The wind whipped around and the sea thrashed as if it was angry. We watched as the waves grew higher and higher. I stroked Nimbus behind the ear nervously as the crest of the waves began to reach to the top of the sea wall. Soon I saw water attempting to return to the sea however the sea wall was holding it in place. The road was beginning to flood.

As the hours went on, we saw people panicking and contemplating what could be saved without encountering danger from the rising waters. People were running around knocking on the doors of houses right opposite the sea. I guessed that people’s relatives didn’t want their families on the front lines of a battle between land and sea.

The storm ended a few hours later but not without causing immense damage.  I could just barely see the tops of the cars. As I was watching the news, I got a call from Neve telling me that our favourite cafe had flooded. We talked for ages about how terrifying it was to see the waves crash against the sea wall and the water slowly submerging our front garden. When I got off the phone, I looked up news about the café.  She was right! The RNLI was called to rescue the employees!

I asked my mum what could have caused such a horrible flood.

“Global warming could be a major factor for sure,” she replied looking out of the window at what used to be our front garden. “One of the main causes is fossil fuels getting caught in our atmosphere. It’s making our earth hotter which is melting ice caps. That then causes sea levels to rise. And that’s only one of the problems.” 

I headed to my room, opened my laptop and began researching other places affected by global warming. It turns out that there are a lot more places across the world that are impacted by climate change, just like us.

For example, Venice in Italy is a city on the water, needing boats to move around. Since sea levels started rising Venice has started sinking. And then, there’s the Amazon. It covers forty percent of South America and is home to thousands of species. However, climate change has made it a fragile habitat. I continued to research and thought about everything that I had learned late into the night. One thought kept coming back to me. Something needs to change.

The days after the storm were busy. Once the water disappeared entirely, I helped mum replant the front garden, as well as helping with the community clean up and joining the new ‘We Must Take Action’ club that was all about different ways we could help the environment and took place every week in the townhall. The storm hadn’t had very many good effects on our little seaside town. This was one of the few; people were finally realising what needed to be done in order to save our planet.

And, from that day on, my life changed.  I started to put in as much effort as I could even if it meant giving up things I would normally use or have every day like foods using palm oil.  I hadn’t realised how bad I was being to the planet until that flood. However, now I realise that I can do better.  And that’s what I’m doing. Better. I’ve convinced my school that we all need to play our part so we have started an eco-club. But in the end, that’s not enough. Everyone on earth has to play their part in any way they can, no matter how small. For example, we need to be mindful of travel to reduce our emissions, be aware of our power use and turn things off when not in use, buy locally and reduce our disposable packaging, be mindful of food waste, try recycling and reusing what we can and look into more sustainable companies to buy from.

If we don’t, life as we know it will disappear.  We need to make a change or else the earth will die and us with it.