By Holden Baird | Observer Contributor
Photo by Ross Stone on Unsplash
Recent headlines illustrate the news media’s fractured focus between a bewildering number of immediate domestic and international concerns. The stock market hiccups as tariff negotiations stumble, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine rage on, the newly-minted DOGE initiative continues its disruption of the federal government, the executive branch issues a dizzying flurry of executive orders, controversy erupts over alterations to immigration policy, and a steady rollback of LGBTQ+ rights and protections pushes on. In general, the average American is largely preoccupied by skyrocketing living costs, which played a significant role in determining the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, energy bills are up 40% and groceries by 25% since 2020. Housing prices surged nearly 18% in 2021 alone as indicated by the Freddie Mac House Price Index. Despite this, Congress has not approved a federal minimum wage increase since 2007 and it presently sits at an astonishing $7.25 per hour. Understandably, public consciousness is dominated by day-to-day matters of survival; a few have the remaining mental real estate available to concern themselves with the more far-reaching issues detailed above. Yet the greatest threat, the wide-reaching consequences of which manifest in nearly every realm of public interest, has predominantly been pushed to the periphery.Anthropogenic climate change- that is, alterations to the world’s climate system that can be concretely traced back to human activity- threatens the present and future wellbeing of humanity on a magnitude far greater than any economic fluctuation or military conflict.