Jonathan’s Story

Title

Jonathan’s Climate Story

Name

Jonathan Mulatu

Place

Springfield, VA 22153

How are you sensing climate change?

Everytime when I am home around Christmas time its normally very cold and I am always inside. Especially as a kid growing up in Northern Virginia, it was usually very cold in December. However, last year when I returned home for Winter Break from Penn and walked outside of Union Station, the first thing I noticed was how warm it was outside. It felt like spring and I was very concerned right away because I thought about how hot it was the past summer. I was getting picked up at the station by my dad, and I asked him right away, “Has it been this warm lately?” He started to tell me how it hasn’t really gotten cold yet.

I knew something wrong was happening last year because of our away games for football at Yale and Harvard. It wasn’t freezing cold there compared to recent years where it has been freezing cold in November. It started to get a little colder as break went on over winter break.

Another time I noticed climate change was in march 2021 when it was still very cold. I feel like every year our winters get longer and I don’t know if that’s a sign of how we treat our environment.

How do these changes make you feel?

I get so frustrated when weird weather is occurring. I want it to be normal, I see how people treat our environment and it makes me worried about what our future will look like. With increased global warming and more storms in recent years should make everyone be more careful with our environment. We are in control of what our planet will look like. Although I don’t mind warm weather, I want our climate to stay the same and for the environment to be safe and intact. I also get frustrated with long winters because in the spring it shouldn’t be that cold.