Bees have been added to the endangered species list, the coral reef is dying, and the earth has passed its carbon level tipping point. But with all the environmental issues facing our generation, what is the impact millennials have on our world and what can be done to reverse this atrophy?

In everyone’s daily lives, the environment plays a crucial role – from the air we breath to the millions of people who work with the environment. But these interactions also take a toll on the environment.

“You can’t get away from the environment,” sophomore, Daelyn Bassham said. “It’s in the weather, around me, and the air I breath. If we just do tiny things like recycling it would change so much.”

Even though 97% of scientists believe that the earth’s temperature has increased in these past 100 years, 30% of the population still disbelieves in the existence of global warming, including the new President-Elect, Donald Trump. Large amounts of scientific proof exists such as sea levels rising as a result of shrinking glaciers in the polar ice caps, extreme natural events, and the increase in the temperature of the oceans and earth. However, many concede the accuracy of the statistics; the planet has gone through cycles of increased and decreased temperatures, but never at the rate in which the population currently faces. Since 1880, the temperature of the planet has increased by 1.4 degrees fahrenheit which may seem like just a slightly warmer Texas summer, but among other things, this has lead to acidic poisoning in many of the oceans – killing off both a food source and an ecosystem.

“Overall the impact we have [on the environment] is negative just because of our carelessness,” Bassham stated while senior, Ashley Zimmer said, “[Our impact is] positive because of recycling to make it better.”

In North Dakota, another urgent battle is taking place: the Dakota Access oil pipeline which will expand across 1,172 miles including the cultural lands of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Violence has erupted through the once peaceful protest as celebrities, native americans, and environmentalists gather to stop not only the destruction of sacred lands but also take a stand against corporate industries who lace profit regardless of the threat of environmental pollution. Change is needed to revolutionize the way profit is earned while balancing the well-being of the planet.

“Somehow it is deemed okay to damage our environment by our nation’s government if money is involved,” sophomore, Bailee Wilson stated. “It seems profit is much more important than the very place we live.”

Even amongst the overwhelming challenges facing our generation, WHS has its own way of fighting back: The Green Team. This club, founded last year and based out of Student Council, is committed to keeping the high school environmentally friendly. In their meetings, everything from current events to upcoming plans for setting change into motion takes place.

“Green Team is an environmental group at WHS for Student Council,” Zimmer said. “We recycle and we added the water bottle refiller in last year too.”

The earth is a lifeline embedded within all living creatures. We cannot survive without our planet which as of now, is the only stable, non-hostile place for human life, biologically. We must work together to reverse the environmental decay to show that the millennial generation will not be the ones faulted for not taking action in this calamity. By small actions with strong impacts, the chance for a more efficient, greener, and enduring future is within grasp.

“We live in a day and age where we as the future generations of the world,” said Wilson, “have the ability to continue with our wrongs or change our environment for the better.”