There is nothing left to dispute – the studies have been done, the data have been compiled, and the results are conclusive – the Earth is in a state of global climate change.

With this being said, why does nobody seem to care? We’re all occupants of this planet. We wouldn’t sit silently as our houses burned down around us.

The problem is that nobody hears the sirens blaring – it doesn’t feel like our planet is in the midst of an emergency.

Americans have gotten in a bad habit recently of letting the television decide on the important issues. With the war in Iraq plastered across the news, it seems that everything else has fallen by the wayside. It has been pushed to the bottom of America’s to-do list, and dismissed as liberal nonsense. We’ve been lulled into a state of denial.

In last week’s State of the Union address, the president, for example, spent mere seconds discussing possible solutions to global warming.

And it’s certainly not any warmer yet. As I make my way across the tundra that once was the quad, hooded, zipped, buttoned and irritable, I too am certain that global warming is pure fallacy.

But global warming isn’t an instantaneous thing. We will not wake up tomorrow to 85-degree weather. It is a gradual process that has already begun. Global climate change means more severe weather, which could mean anything from hurricanes like Katrina to ice storms like the one that crippled San Antonio on Jan. 16.

And it will only get worse.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that America’s youth knows very little and cares even less about it. It is easy for politicians to put in on a back burner because many of them won’t be around to pay the price.

They’re concentrating on far-away wars and handing the burden to us.

Unfortunately our generation is one that grew up watching events unfold from the safety of a couch. We expect global warming to just go away when we turn off the TV, or better yet that our parents will fix it for us.

Well that’s not the case.

The only thing I’ve ever seen college students enraged about was when Mark Zuckerburg unveiled the new version of Facebook in 2006.

Daniel Loran, a sophomore retail management major, said that global warming is such a harsh reality that it is just easier to look past than face.

‘I feel like there’s nothing I can do, like I’m up against a wall. For every person who contributes positively there are millions who do not,’ said Loran.

Syracuse University has already made a number of important steps to reduce emissions. For example, According to a 2005 press release, the floor plan of the new 160,000 square foot Whitman School of Management was designed to be energy efficient and reduce negative impacts on the environment.

As for getting involved, Linda Ivany, an associate professor of earth sciences, recommends putting pressure on the administration to make more improvements and to join campus groups like the New York Public Interest Research Group who work on addressing these issues.

There is plenty more to be done.

It is time for us to flex our political muscles (and that doesn’t mean starting a facebook group) and start defending our most valuable asset. Everything else pales in comparison. This is no longer an issue: it’s a crisis.

Meghan Overdeep is a featured columnist whose columns appear Fridays in The Daily Orange. E-mail her at meoverde@syr.edu.

Published on February 1, 2007 at 12:00 pm