 So just the forewarning, we are going to get a little bit doomer in this video. So if you don't want your mood to be spoiled, I would encourage you to tune out. But we have to talk about this because it's really important. And it is about climate change. Now, more than 250 scientists in 30 different countries all penned an open letter that was published in The Guardian where they warn governments that since they failed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over the last five years, we are going to see the consequences of our inaction bear out, and it's not going to be pretty. So they write, as scientists and scholars from around the world, we call on policymakers to engage with the risk of disruption and even collapse of societies. After five years failing to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Climate Accord, we must now face the consequences. While bold and fair efforts to cut emissions and naturally draw down carbon are essential, researchers in many areas consider societal collapse a credible scenario this century. Different views exist on the location, extent, timing, permanence, and cause of disruptions, but the way modern societies exploit people and nature is a common concern. Only if policymakers begin to discuss this threat of societal collapse might we begin to reduce its likelihood speed, severity, harm to the most vulnerable, and to nature. Some of us believe that a transition to a new society may be possible. That will involve bold action to reduce damage to the climate, nature, and society, including preparations for disruptions to everyday life. We are united in regarding efforts to suppress discussion of collapse as hindering the possibility of that transition. Now, Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams adds, the letter, a version of which appeared in The Guardian Sunday, comes on the heels of a pair of United Nations reports warning of the dire direction in which the planet is headed. As the UN Secretary General put it, the state of the planet is broken. Humanity is waging a war on nature. This is suicidal. So what they're warning about is a total collapse of society due to climate change. And this really struck a chord with me because now that we see the way that our government responds to a global pandemic, now we have no doubt they are completely incapable of dealing with a crisis that's much more severe, climate change. I mean, the way that we've responded is what we'd expect to see from a failed state. So if you envision a bigger catastrophe like climate change and the total collapse of civilization, our government just, they're not equipped to deal with it. And that is a really scary thought. It's scary to think about that. And when we think about climate change, we think about changing weather patterns and extreme weather conditions, more severe hurricanes, more frequent hurricanes. But we oftentimes leave out the political ramifications of climate change. I mean, sure, we've thought about this. I've thought about this quite a bit. But now that I see the way that Americans have responded to a global pandemic, all of the conspiracy theories that have proliferated and people just denying it, I can see the same thing happening with climate change. And when you envision the way that certain regions of the planet will now be uninhabitable, such as the Middle East, what we're going to see and what we should expect if we don't take action to stop this is a massive wave of immigration, which, of course, is going to lead to racism, xenophobia, and it's going to be ugly. And so, you know, what they're saying essentially is, we know that government isn't taking action to stop all of this from happening. But if you're not going to stop climate change from being a catastrophe, then at least start thinking about adaptation. We can't just focus on mitigation. Now we have to be real and focus on adaptation as well. We have to be able to adapt to this. Otherwise, societies will collapse. How will governments deal with massive social unrest? What's going to happen? We'll see new political factions form. These, you know, wars over water will become probably a common phenomenon and it's going to get ugly. So this is a warning. Like, we can't say that we weren't warned. You know, it's nobody in Congress, Dianne Feinstein, you know, Mitch McConnell, they're not going to see all of this come to fruition. We will. So rather than getting down on this, I want you to think, what do we do? What solutions are at our disposal? How can we stop this? How can we adapt in a situation where we see wars over water and civilizations crumble and regimes collapse? What do we do? Now is the time to not get down and defeat us. Now is the time to start thinking about solutions. What can we do? Because we have to think long term and if as a species, humanity is going to survive, this is the biggest challenge we've ever faced. So we were warned. Now the question is, what do we do to stop this? And if we can't stop it, how do we grapple with the reality of societal collapse? What do we do?