Hey, I'm 17 and I just graduated from high school and I'm going into university this fall. I'm really scared of climate change especially because I'm already experiencing the effects of it. That only makes the future more terrifying. Right now where I live we're experiencing a heat wave and we're supposed to get weather 28-32C for the next 14 days with no clouds even though our weather averages should be at 21-23C. The houses that are built where I live are not meant to keep heat out and it sends me on a crazy spiral because if it's this bad already things in the future are going to get much worse. I'm so sad and scared because when I was younger the weather during summers was always nice and we'd only get 3-4 days where it was 30C. Climate change is constantly on my mind because looking outside the window is a constant reminder. I try not to look at the news but it's hard because it's everywhere and I hate stumbling on it by accident. All the time now I see places setting record breaking heat, wildfires, droughts, floods, etc. and it's really terrifying. What I'm scared for is droughts, wildfires, people fighting over food and water, extremist ideals and values becoming more prevalent and extreme heat.

I know right now we're heading for 2.7C warming which is shit because right now we've already warmed at 1.2-1.3C but it's heaps better than the 4-5C we were heading on a decade ago. There's a general consensus from scientists that climate change won't be the end of the world but it's going to be so much harder with all the extreme weather events and conflict that it's gonna cause and that scares me so much. All I want in life is a simple one where I can take care of my siblings, make art and not worry about the planet heating up. 

If the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't happened I would've been more optimistic about the future for climate change. But seeing how people dealt with the pandemic scares me because it's definitely how people are gonna act with climate change when things start to get even worse but on an even larger scale. People were fighting about supplies, governments didn't give a shit about the pandemic and just let it spread then hastily tried to help at the last minute when things were really bad, there were people that didn't believe in the virus and wouldn't put masks, there were so many people dying and getting sick and plus all the mental toll it's taken on everyone. Then there's the ultra wealthy and powerful continuing on with their days acting like nothing is wrong with anything. 

I know there are people working on a solution for climate change, I saw in the US they passed the Inflation Reduction Act which was really big news, there's people coming up with carbon capture technology and we've probably prevented the worst case scenario but it's anxiety inducing still and I can never ever experience normal weather ever again like when I was young.