 So I know that whenever I talk about climate change, the video gets like five views and I get that people feel hopeless and they just choose to tune out. But this is really important and I kind of feel like people should be talking about this, but I doubt you're going to hear much about this story in spite of how huge this is. It speaks to how far we've gone and how climate change might be irreversible and how we have to take action now, but we're not. So I mean, even if people don't care, I still feel a responsibility to cover stories like this because this is just too important. So the Earth's poles are experiencing a heat wave, the likes of which it hasn't seen, and this is a very bad sign to say the least. So as Fiona Harvey of The Guardian explains, startling heat waves at both of Earth's poles are causing alarm among climate scientists who have warned the unprecedented events could signal faster and abrupt climate breakdown. Temperatures in Antarctica reached record levels at the weekend and astonishing 40 degrees Celsius above normal in places, holy shit. At the same time, weather stations near the North Pole also showed signs of melting with some temperatures 30 degrees Celsius above normal, hitting levels normally attained far later in the year. At this time of year, the Antarctic should be rapidly cooling after its summer and the Arctic only slowly emerging from its winter as days lengthen. For both poles to show such heating at once is unprecedented. The rapid rise in temperatures at the poles is a warning of disruption in Earth's climate systems. Last year in the first chapter of a comprehensive review of climate science, the intergovernmental panel on climate change warned of unprecedented warming signals already occurring, resulting in some changes such as polar melt that could rapidly become irreversible. The danger is twofold. Heat waves at the poles are a strong signal of the damage humanity is wreaking on the climate, and the melting could also trigger further cascading changes that will accelerate climate breakdown. As polar sea ice melts, particularly in the Arctic, it reveals dark sea that absorbs more heat than reflective ice, warming the planet further. Much of the Antarctic ice covers land and its melting raises sea levels. Scientists warned that the events unfolding were historic, unprecedented, and dramatic. So I really don't think that scientists could be any clearer here. They're saying the climate is changing fast. It may be irreversible. And yes, it is due to human activity. So either do something or we all die. They're not saying that. But I mean, that's that's kind of the implication, right? If our planet becomes uninhabitable due to irreversible and the Virginia climate change, that's what we can expect the planet to become uninhabitable for future generations. And Congress is doing nothing. Certainly there are, you know, climate deniers in Congress and the GOP who continuously move the goalpost. But then there's also Democrats like Joe Biden, who has power currently, but isn't doing anything. I mean, build back better failed. And there was talks at one time of standalone bills with regard to those provisions and build back better, which were crucial, one of which was climate change. Where is that? What are we doing? It's like the world is burning in front of us and there's no urgency whatsoever. Congress just pretends as if it's not happening when we get report after report after report that this is happening. And it's not like the people haven't stood up and made their voices clear. Americans care about climate change. People around the world are protesting, demanding action. And it's not happening. World governments just aren't taking it seriously. It's just the situation feels absolutely hopeless. And there was there was an old tweet from 2020 that I saw today while browsing Reddit. And it's from Caitlin. She writes, I need to get my life together. But I'm kind of waiting to see if the world's going to end before I put any real effort in. And this is really what I felt when reading this article because it truly just it feels like the situation is hopeless. Why plan for a future that isn't even there? I mean, I saw another article that talked about how fucked my generation is when it comes to retirement. But I mean, is it even worthwhile to plan for retirement when we don't know for going to have a future? I mean, we're talking about really grim things here and I don't want to catastrophize too much. But I'm trying to stress that we have to do something or we're all going to fucking die. Now, one quote from a scientist stood out to me in this article because it was really chilling. Mark Moslin, professor of Earth System Science at University College London said, quote, I and colleagues were shocked by the number and severity of the extreme weather events in 2021, which were unexpected at a warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius. Now we have record temperatures and the Arctic, which for me, show we have entered a new extreme phase of climate change much earlier than we had expected. So that's alarming to me because when we talk about what we can expect by 2030, 2050, we've had every indication that those are very conservative estimates and science is inherently conservative. So they're not going to be overly hyperbolic unnecessarily. So they're just going to give you the facts. It's incumbent on lawmakers to act responsibly and prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. But this here shows that, you know, we're entering a new phase of climate change, extreme weather because of climate change. And that's evident, right? They point to examples of the heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021. I live in Oregon and we had our roads melt literally because of the extreme heat. And it ended up being a mass death event because it was so bad and we're just OK with that. And, you know, it feels like it's going to get worse and there's going to be even more signs that the climate is changing rapidly and extreme weather is more common. But we're just going to be like, eh, you've kind of accepted this fate. And we're just we're not even going to try. It's really frustrating. And of all topics, this one has me the most blackpilled because there just is no urgency for lawmakers. It's not just in the United States. It's also, you know, the UK. It's also Europe. It's other countries. It's just it's nauseating to think about. It's sad to think about how there may not be a future for people alive today. It's sad, but that's the reality. So rather than burying our heads in the sand, I'd rather at least give you the details and you can do with this information as you as you must. But at a minimum, there has to be more pressure on government. But I feel like people are just exhausted because, you know, they're kind of fucked over by late stage capitalism. There's a lot going on in the world, covid war. And so they just feel like, what's the point? I've accepted it. So maybe I'll take the good out of the looming apocalypse. Maybe I won't have to worry about retirement or getting my life together as that tweet we talked about demonstrated. But I don't think that we should have this mentality. I think that if we're going to go down as a species, we need to go down swinging. So at least when we enter the final stages where, you know, our planet is habitable, we can tell ourselves we tried everything. But I don't think we've gotten to that point where we've tried everything. I don't think that we've exhausted all of our options. I think that we still have a chance, but we have to fight and time is running out. So I don't know, you know, people don't care about these stories and they get no views. But I care about this and I'm talking about this because it's really important and I want you to do your part also share these stories. You don't have to share the video, but share the article. I'll link to it down below. Just get the word out and don't let people forget about climate change because this is something that is a threat that is increasingly going to affect our daily lives and just pretending like it isn't a thing or it isn't happening now, isn't going to help us. So continuously talk about climate change, raise the salience of this particular issue as much as you can. And that's at least the bare minimum of what we can be expected to do as responsible citizens. But this is certainly depressing and it's hard to not get down when you see headlines, you know, about climate change and hear about things like this. So not much left to say, just. Yeah.