IBGYBG

Familiar with the acronymn IBGYBG? Well the bankers who sent us into the economic crisis are. They ended their emails with IBGYBG- I'll be gone, you'll be gone. In other words, ultimately, the world problems that large industries such as oil, coal and bankers have created will be our (the youth's) problem.

And that's the short term thinking that has gotten us into almost every problem- economic, social and environmental.

Al Gore brought this acronym to our attention when he was discussing climate change. The problems that we face involving global warming are so enormous that the "IBGYBG" way of thinking, will only lead us farther into the mess. It is time we start thinking long term. It is time we stop solely thinking of money, and start thinking of the well being of society. We can no longer ignore signs of climate change- such as the droughts that swept the west or the hurricanes that are wiping out the East coast. In The Inconvienent Truth, Gore states that if we continue on this path of destruction, the city of Manhattan will become flooded. Sure enough, Hurricane Sandy proved just that. Scientists predicted to the date the flooding of New Orleans, and sure enough Hurricane Katrina was on its way.

For the people that deny climate change and say that it is still cold, if not colder than it was last year, I have a few questions for you. Why are the number of record breaking temperatures 1:115 when comparing cold temperatures to hot? Why would 97-98% of scientists agree that climate change is occuring and that it is a serious environmental problem?

This is not something we can just ignore. This is not a problem that we can afford to think short-term about. This is reality.

Gore recommended a way was by learning about the youth-lead Climate Reality Project and checking out realitydrop.org.

As for me, I want to take the next step to learn more about Climate Change by reading his most recent book, "The Future."