issue 5// vol 46

Everyone should travel solo

» Just once, pack your bags and leave by yourself

Tania Arora
Staff Writer

 

I all started with my first trip abroad
at the age of 17. I went with a girl who I
was never friends with before to a country
Thad never been to, with the purpose of
meeting people I had never met or known
before. I landed in Russia. I was there for
two months and stayed in three different
locations during the entirety my trip.
Honestly, the experience changed my life.
I was not the same person I was before my
plane took off to Moscow. I saw the best
and worst of situations and I got through
them all—completely by myself.
Admittedly, I was over pampered
and totally spoiled when I was a kid.
But from carrying multiple heavy bags,
to doing laundry, staying at a hostel,
cooking, cleaning, and relying on my own
knowledge and senses in a foreign country
alone, I was able to learn many key life
skills—and learn a lot about myself. There
was no stopping after that. Depending on
my budget and schedule, I would travel by
myself whenever I got the chance.

Travelling alone will force you to
become more independent. Once you
have achieved this, it is the most satisfying
experience. If you have someone by your
side, good. If not, who cares?

It also gives you a chance to learn

 

about the country you are in. The best

part is that you don’t have to fix your
schedule based on what the other person
wants to do. You are out there exploring
the place, learning about its history and
culture, eating till your stomach is full, and

Illustration by Cara Seccafien

A Thunberg 1n our side

» Why Greta is a poor spokesperson for climate change

Tonya Smith
Contributor

 

ur world is changing. We've

moved past the point of awareness
campaigns; now is the time to act. Now,
more than ever, do we need strong
and knowledgeable leaders to push us
to action. We need leaders who fully
comprehend issues so that they can easily
lay any arguments to rest in short order.
We need scientists, specifically climate-
change scientists, to be the face of the
movement—not 16-year-olds.

I have nothing against Greta
Thunberg’s enthusiasm—only the position
which she’s found herself thrust into. Why
is a16-year-old giving speeches to the top
decision-makers in the world? Do we really
expect them to take a teenager’s words at
face value? If two people were to stop you
randomly on a street and criticize you—not
that you would want to listen to either—
but would you be more likely to listen to

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the juvenile or the adult?

While not a perfect parallel, it does
illustrate the logic. It’s ageist, sure, but with
good reason in this case. What perspective
does a teenager have on world issues? Is
Thunberg even aware of history enough to
put climate change in context? If she were
to be questioned on the Medieval Warm
Period or the Little Ice Age, would she even
know what they were and the specifics of
each era? Can she answer why COz levels
typically follow not lead temperature
increases? Can she answer why the
Antarctic as of 2015 was actually taking
.23mm away from sea level rise; and why
NASA's corresponding report was in direct
contradiction to the IPCC’s which claimed
that the continent was losing ice? What
would be her response to the argument
that extreme weather events (tornadoes,
hurricanes, etc.) have shown a pattern of
decline over the last few decades (e.g., 2018
recorded zero violent tornadoes according
to the Washington Post).

The answer, of course,
is that she doesn’t know.
There’s nothing wrong
with her not knowing;
after all, she’s a 16-year-old
who hasn‘ even finished
school—how could she
know? She's not a scientist.
She’s a teenage activist.

If we want lawmakers
to take notice of the cause,
we have to be putting our
best foot forward. Put our
experts at the forefront—not
our flashiest faces. Yes, a
teen advocating for change
is a powerful image, but it’s
not the strongest one. Why
do we need to use emotion
to win the debate? Why do

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Photo of Greta Thunberg via

we rely on people being impacted by the
fact it’s a youth speaking—instead of the
cold, hard facts available to us?

Why do programs constantly feature
personalities like Bill Nye (a non-scientist)
and Neil deGrasse Tyson (an astrophysicist)
to explain climate change instead of real
climate-change experts? Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau met with Thunberg on the
issue recently...but wouldn't you rather have
had someone with decades of research
calmly outlining how Trudeau is a failure
rather than a kid with passion? It’s hard to
believe Trudeau left that conversation with
anything more than a, “Well, that told me
nothing new.”

There is a growing movement that is
denouncing just how much of a role fossil
fuels play in climate change and we need
to combat that. The petition of over 31,000
scientists against the belief of human-
caused global warming may only have had
g,000 PHD names attached to it, but that’s
significant enough that we need to be more
factual in our communications. If there’s
data on the other side that suggests the
opposite of our own thoughts, we need to
fight it with facts not emotion.

We need to stop presenting easy
targets. We need to stop giving the other
side obvious holes to poke.

Garret Graves, a Louisiana
Congressman, recently questioned
Thunberg: “If you were sailing across the
ocean and your'e picking up trash along the
way, and for every one piece of trash that
you pick up there is a boat right next to you
dumping out five pieces. How would that
make you feel?”

Her response was that, “If you use
that logic, then I am also dumping a lot of
trash in the ocean. And then I would stop
dumping my trash in the ocean and tell the
other boat to stop dumping their trash in

opinions // no. 15

trying multiple delicacies all on your own
schedule. Plus, you don't have to share food
if youre by yourself.

Going to another country alone
also gives you confidence and strength.
Achieving small milestones with a new
country, language, and culture gives you
the gusto to face and solve the biggest of
messes in life. No—really.

You'll learn how to manage money.
Only you know how much money you are
holding; it’s soley your decision to either
spend it entirely on the first day in a split
second or wisely save it and let it gradually
flow out each day.

It is so liberating to be comfortable in
your own skin, and I think traveling alone
teaches you that. In our busy lives, we are
always attempting to squeeze in everything
we can. If it is possible for you, try
squeezing in some alone travelling time. I
won't say that every trip you make must be
solo for the rest of your lives, but as long as
you are alive and have the opportunity—
throw everything in your luggage, get your
passport, and get out there.

the ocean as well.”

And the world applauded her reply?
It’s not that we shouldn't stop “dumping
trash” ourselves, but she appears to have
missed the point of the question. The
US's “boat” has been continually picking
up its own trash...but the other “boat”
(China) has been making more boats to
dump more trash. Based on statistics from
the Global Carbon Project 2018, the US's
rate of change since 1992 is a 1.8 percent
increase in CO2 emissions. That’s a1.8
percent increase in CO2 emissions in the
last 27 years. China has increased by 270.3
percent. The US was the world leader in
2006 for COz emissions but has declined
every year since then...with China pushing
its “lead” simultaneously. The other major
culprit, India, has increased by 253 percent
since 1992.

It’s pretty obvious that just telling the
other boat to “stop dumping their trash
in the ocean as well” hasn't been working.
We need to be putting more pressure on
the other nations of the world to pick up
the slack—not criticizing the ones who
are making an effort and are irritated
with the inaction of China. It’s important
for everyone to chip in, but to give some
further perspective, if you took the next
10 countries after India and added them
up, you still wouldn't exceed China’s CO2
emissions. China produces almost a third
of manmade CO2z emissions, which is
almost double what the US produces... and
they’ve been in decline for the last 13 years.
Thunberg may not be aware of these facts,
but her detractors are; they berate her for it
on the daily.

Stop giving easy targets. Stop making
climate-change celebrities to be our
spokespeople. Stop climate change with
facts, not feelings.