Plant your changes: MHS thoughts on climate change

This story originally appeared in Munster High School’s The Crier, on Aug. 30, 2023.

Put yourself back into 2018. An average July summer in Indiana stood at an average temperature of only 76 degrees. Climate change once seemed like such a distant thought back then.

Five years later in 2023, our July summer’s reached all new highs, averaging at 85 degrees. Our lock screens are littered with near-hazardous air quality alerts and our news channels plagued with the latest environmental disaster surrounding us from each edge of the country, from flooding in the northeast to the baking temperatures in Arizona. Last week, the temperature reached an all-new August high for Munster in the 100s. Long-awaited summers aren’t as lenient as we may remember as our climate concerns draw closer by the year.

Pemi Ogunjimi, junior, turns a new face to the rising cause of climate change.

“I’d say I’m socially aware and advocate for change regarding climate change, but I don’t exactly do as much as I can,” Pemi said. “The record heats this summer are just another catalyst to the cause. It really makes everything set in that this is happening and it’s really here.”

Mr. Keith Koszut, science teacher, relays his own methods of awareness of climate change by integrating it into his classroom — studying the current storms developing in the Atlantic on the National Hurricane Center page. As a strong advocate for environmental awareness, he shares insight on the opposite ends of the spectrum to climate change.

“There’s a whole bunch of people out there that we might call climate deniers,” Mr. Koszut said. “We’ve had problems over the summer with the wildfires and such, and it even affected us to where we’ve had that smoke smell or haze. We’ve always had the other side of this saying ‘there’s always been wildfires,’ but these things that’ve been popping up over the past few months are almost certainly attributable to climate change. It’s very real.”

In the wake of climate change, environmental awareness has become a growing topic among students. Senior Clover Sarkady, Environmental Club member, took a growing interest in the cause and looks forward to contributing in efforts later this year.

“I want to be part of something that is making more change than just one person is able to do,” Clover said. “There’s much consumer guilt that companies put on the individual, but in reality one person can’t do as much as a group can.”

The Environmental Club expresses that we are living in the midst of an environmental catastrophe fueled by commercialism and the need to have more. Fast fashion and trends are easy to fall victim to, especially when newer, more expensive products come out.

“Consumerism is the worst,” said science teacher Mr. Michael Bakker. “This idea that everyone has to have the newest and best shirts and shoes is ridiculous.”

From events like Earth Day, the textile drive and the Halloween costume drive which all promote modern sustainability, the Environmental Club has done a lot to encourage environmentally friendly opportunities in the past few years, considering COVID-19 restrictions of course. Club activities like beautifying the courtyard with native shrubs and wildflowers and bird watching increase basic student interest in the environment.

There’s a lot that students can do to individually improve and raise awareness for the environment. Whether it’s big or small, any effort makes a difference. Junior and leadership team member Cavin McNulty relays his own advice to the student body on how to contribute to the movement.

“Take some time to educate yourself on how to dispose of stuff,” Cavin said.

Taking daily responsibility for your trash, water consumption and carbon footprint are examples of basic things students can do to be more environmentally friendly. Things like batteries, paint and electronics can’t be simply thrown away. There is a drop box right outside Munster’s town hall that is dedicated to the disposing of batteries and other environmentally toxic materials.

“There are so many environmental issues right at our doorstep, like the steel mills,” said Lily Hestjean, senior and leadership team member. “If you go down south there’s agricultural runoff, or if you go to Chicago there’s E coli from all the sewage.”

Larger industries in Northwest Indiana are a huge influence on local pollution, but what about some of the smaller influences? Towns like Whiting, Schererville and Hammond are all struggling to raise awareness in their own communities.

“I’ve heard some really terrible, crazy environmental injustice,” Lily said. “There’s this little area of forest preserve in Hammond, and they are going to clear out all the nature over there to put up a bridge because of the trains and the bridge planning to be built, it’s called Briar East Dune Woodlands.”

Local destruction of the environment has caught the attention of Munster’s Environmental Club a multitude of times, including the ongoing petition to save the wetlands, and recycling slack being picked up within the school. This unjust act occurring in our community will not go unnoticed with help from the club.

“They’re clearing the little bit of nature that Hammond has left,” Lily said. “This project is happening in a very short amount of time so spreading awareness is key to helping.”

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