Over 190 countries have been working together over the past couple of weeks to come to an agreement on climate change.

Signing the Paris Agreement on Earth Day, April 22, these countries hope to move quickly and efficiently with their plans to manage the human effect on climate change.

Although media coverage of this event has been scarce, the effect of this agreement will impact generations for decades to come. The agenda is planned through 2030 with a  cost of over $100 billion. Every country involved has to pay up—some more than others.

This is an unprecedented level of cooperation among world leaders. The fact that this agreement was signed unanimously speaks for itself: a large portion of our world’s leaders are able to work together for a common cause, one that will affect everyone.

Carrying the plan out will be a completely different story. There are a million things that could go wrong, but the act of working together speaks volumes to our leaders’ abilities.

I’m not the type of person that would find faith in our world leaders (if we had to depend on them), but after this bill was signed, that has changed. This is a major step for global relations.

Let’s look to South America to see what makes this bill so important.

Venezuela is experiencing a drought beyond what California has seen. The Guri Dam, located in the state of Bolívar, supplies nearly 60 percent of Venezuela’s power supply. Currently, the water behind the dam is at it’s lowest levels. It’s gotten to be such a problem that the government is issuing 4-hour daily blackouts because power is scarce.

See, climate change doesn’t just melt the ice caps on the poles or make it too hot in the winter. It’s a domino effect. The heat causes the water to evaporate quicker, which lowers the water behind the power-supplying dam, which causes accidental blackouts, which leads to mandatory blackouts, which leaves hospitals and schools without power for 4 hours a day.

Climate change will affect everyone if left unchecked. That’s why the Paris Agreement is crucial to saving the Earth. Venezuela is only one of the hundreds of examples of how climate change is drastically affecting humanity, but it still doesn’t phase most people. Most people will only care when it directly affects them. By then, it will be too late.

. Since climate change is measured in tenths of a degree and inches, the climate agreement is planned over decades. It’s like cleaning a row of porta-potties with a toothbrush after the county fair: it’s a long process, no one wants to take the blame for it, and countries with less money will have less resources to work with.

The longer it takes us to care, the harder it will be to change anything.
For once, I think our world leaders are on the right track… most of them, anyway.