A Changing Climate: Students and Staff Share Concerns

This story first appeared in Munster High School’s ‘The Crier,’ on April 19, 2024.

Anticipating her dive into the Florida Everglades, a trip she has been preparing for since the beginning of her Project Bio class at the start of the school year, Addy Ellis, junior, listened intently to the diving instructor. However, her eagerness shifted when the instructor told the Project Bio group that their dive would be one of the first that he would see coral restoring itself from last summer’s heat.

“That worried me,” Addy said. “I feel like I’m never just hopeful or worried about the future of our environment. When I got down there on the dive, I had the opportunity to see with my own two eyes how our ecosystems and our environment still have life. That gave me a lot of hope and inspiration, but the oceans are just going to continue to get warmer, and it’s gonna be harder for our coral reefs to bounce back at some point.”

Bleached branching coral at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef. Author: J. Roff, wikimedia.

The idea of the world becoming warmer, climate change, is an important concern for Mr. Michael Bakker, science teacher. He said he believes it is a crucial issue to be presented in the classroom to prepare and influence the future. However, learning about this concept in schools can be a challenge and, in some states, illegal.

“By law, a Florida teacher cannot say the words ‘climate change’ in class, but in ten years Miami Beach may not even be a beach anymore—it will be underwater,” Mr. Bakker said. “It’s really hard to think about things that are happening if you don’t actually witness them. Being presented with evidence and reasoning allows you to understand that if this is the way the world works, then these things are happening. I don’t actually have to go to Australia to see the coral bleaching to know.”

While environmental concerns of coral bleaching seem like an outlying problem to many, an underlying threat poses destruction to regional stability. Lily Hestjean, senior, confronts the fears that the most pressing environmental concerns a Munster resident could find in their backyard.

“The loss of green space in specific is grave because Indiana as a whole has already become so developed, as it has lost 85% of the wetlands it once had,” Lily said. “On top of this, industry pollution continues to plague our water quality and contributes to the dispersal of heavy metals and toxic pollution into our soils. In the long term, the toxic degradation of our environment by industry can etch away at all of our health.”

Covering the multitude of environmental issues, the Environmental Club has participated in many recycling drives, clean-up events, and lectures to learn and be involved in moving toward fixing these problems.

“We don’t necessarily always have a blueprint for something to do,” Cavin McNulty, junior and club president, said. “We want to make people’s lives better, but we all are not on the same page of how to do it yet. I wonder ‘what do you think it will take for people to all realize’ or ‘what do you think the future will look like if something does not change?’”

Despite their everlasting doubt in the public’s ability towards change, the Environmental Club continues their fight. They went to the Indiana Statehouse in February for Renewable Energy Day to advocate towards the implementation of renewable energy. [Disclosure, Earth Charter Indiana, parent organization for Youth Environmental Press Team, was part of a coalition of organizations that created Renewable Energy Day.]

“It was just such an amazing experience connecting with like-minded groups towards the common goal of making change.” Lily said. “We’ll continue to fight for statewide and greater change that will help achieve long-term sustainability.”