Who will save planet if not us?

I am a Columbia College Chicago student and like many students my age I see solutions to the urgent climate crisis being pushed aside by our politicians and media in favor of inaction and the status quo.

Tim DeChristopher is a climate activist who was just sentenced to two years in federal prison by the Obama administration for standing up for future generations.

Tim, a Utah resident, took a brave stand and disrupted a huge sale of public land from the outgoing Bush administration to private oil and gas developers by bidding the highest for the land without the means to pay for it. The auction of this land was later declared illegal by the incoming Obama administration, yet Obama chose to prosecute Tim anyway as a means to intimidate other activists.

As a young person, I recognize that if I hope to have grandkids in a habitable planet, it is going to take brave and direct action like Tim’s against the oil and gas developers to save our planet from the worst effects of global climate change. I am shocked and appalled that our government would incarcerate someone for standing up for public lands, but I am renewed in my determination to organize to save our planet because I recognize the government will not do it for us.

Ryan Nanni

Algonquin