 So I actually want to take some time to do something a bit different in this segment I want to read a few headlines to you that I've collected over the course of the last month or so and We're not really going to go too deep into any one of these articles But if you listen to these headlines and you kind of step back They kind of paint a really really broad and grim picture For humanity all of these headlines are about climate change So the first is from the Guardian published on August 5th Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse a shutdown would have devastating global impacts and must not be allowed to happen Researchers say quote the signs of destabilization being visible already is something that I wouldn't have expected and that I find Scary said Nicholas Bowers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany who did the research It's something you just can't allow to happen from common dreams published August 25th Unprecedented Madagascar on verge of world's first climate-fueled famine quote these people have done nothing to contribute to climate change Said one UN official they don't burn fossil fuels and yet they are bearing the brunt of climate change the United Nations estimates that 30,000 people in the country are facing level five food insecurity to find as a catastrophe or famine according to the Integrated Food Security phase classification quote Some 30% of global tree species at risk of extinction report published in Reuters on September 1st according to the state of the world's trees report 17,500 tree species some 30% of the total are at risk of extinction while 440 species have fewer than 50 individuals left in the wild for outdoor workers California is becoming unbreathable as huge fires become the catastrophic new norm Vast numbers of low-wage workers are exposed to ever-higher levels of toxins published by the nation on September 3rd California has the toughest air quality and emission standards in the country yet the huge fires which experts believe are creating such Scarification that it will take the land half a century to recover are releasing more CO2 in the atmosphere than all the state's power plants and more than Tens of millions of vehicles air pollution is slashing years off the lives of billions report fines dirty air is a far greater killer than smoking car crashes or HIV and AIDS with coal burning the leading cause the average global citizen loses 2.2 years of life with today's levels of air pollution and if nothing changes that adds up to 17 billion lost years from common dreams published on September 4th Red list of threatened species a grim tally of those facing extinction of the 138,374 species assessed by the International Union for the conservation of nature for its survival watch list more than 38,000 are now at risk of extinction as the destructive impact of human activity on our planet deepens a study published in science Links the Texas Cold Wave in February to anthropogenic climate change Specifically arctic heat which is warming at twice the global average Oregon's heatwave death toll reaches 107 in mass casualty event the fatal victims of the heat wave Ranged in age from 37 to 97 published in ABC News on July 7th quote how climate change helped make hurricane Ida one of Louisiana's worst Unusually high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are like stepping on the accelerator a scientist says Published in the Washington Post on August 30th nearly one in three Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer Climate change has turbocharged severe storms fires Hurricanes coastal storms and floods threatening millions also published by the Washington Post on September 4th Nearly half the world's children at extremely high risk for facing effects of climate crisis report fines Virtually no child's life will be unaffected by the climate emergency said the director of UNICEF Published in common dreams on August 20th out of control Brazilian Amazon deforestation hits highest level in a decade quote at this rate We will not be able to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius a target defined in the Paris climate agreement Said the conservation Institute Amazon so every single one of those headlines from No more than a month or so ago It tells us a really really important story We're doomed if we don't take action, and I don't want to be overly hyperbolic. I don't want to sound alarmist But this is serious We can't keep thinking that as human beings our species is invincible because it's not these last couple of years proved that we are not invincible and we're not always going to be here and What we're allowing to happen right now is the one habitable planet that we know of is slipping out of our hands and We're just going on about our days as if We're not on the cusp of a major apocalypse that might literally drive us towards extinction We can't keep pretending That this issue is going to work itself out and eventually, you know, it's going to get so bad that human beings They're forced to take action It's already bad if that was going to happen it would have already happened over the course of the last couple of years so What I want people to understand from these headlines is that so many things are happening at once The longer that we wait the more that these issues caused by anthropogenic climate change Compounds it gets worse and worse and worse and each issue Created by anthropogenic climate change causes ripple effects Things that we don't even know will happen because of climate change are already in effect to happen we don't know the full scale of The destruction that will be caused by ocean acidification the certification we don't know How this is going to affect us? culturally and socially When areas of the world become uninhabitable The refugee crisis that that is inevitably going to catalyze is going to lead to new extremist political factions It'll you know lead to a rise in fascism most likely and At the end of the day, this is going to lead to us slowly, but surely Losing the only home that we know we can't just keep sitting oddly by hoping that the climate issue is going to work itself out We need action and this is going to be our home only so long as we fight for it So if there's ever been a time to wake up and get involved That time is right now I'd argue that that time was a decade ago or two decades ago, but right now more than ever Remaining complacent Being ambivalent is just not an option if we want to survive as a species If we want to save other species not just human beings because you know, I don't want to be overly anthropocentric We have to do something right now Remaining silent is no longer an option. It's just not