 So, I want to take some time to talk about a story that really illustrates just how dire the situation is when it comes to climate change because, collectively, as a species, we have underestimated climate change. So, the UN tweeted out temperatures reached plus 38 degrees Celsius within the Arctic Circle on Saturday, 17 degrees Celsius hotter than normal for June 20th. Global heating is accelerating and some parts of the world are heating a lot faster than others. The race to zero emissions is a race for survival. That's what the UN tweeted. The race to zero emissions is a race for survival. They're not saying the race to incrementally reduce our greenhouse gas emissions is a race for survival. They're saying the race to zero is a race for survival. Whatever we were planning to do, whatever action politicians want to take, it's just not enough. We have to be at zero. We can't have these long-term goals of reducing our CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050. That's not good enough. And at a time when we need drastic action, Democrats nominated the worst possible person who's just not up to the task. I mean, he's talking about re-entering the Paris Climate Accord. Joe Biden, I mean, I don't even know if he supports a Green New Deal, but if he does, I know it's not as comprehensive or robust as Bernie Sanders' version of the Green New Deal. I mean, we have to fundamentally transform our economy if we're going to make it dense, but we're just not up to the task, it seems. And I want to read an article from Common Dreams about this story because I think they do a really good job at putting everything into context for us. So Jake Johnson writes, a small Siberian town north of the Arctic Circle reached 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, a figure that if verified would be the highest temperature reading in the region since record keeping began in 1885. This scares me, I have to say, environmentalist and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben tweeted in response to news of the record-breaking reading in Verkhoyansk where the average high temperature in June is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Washington Post climate reporter Andrew Friedman noted Sunday that if the reading is confirmed, it would be the northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed and the highest temperature on record in the Arctic, a region that is warming at more than twice the rate of the rest of the globe. On Sunday, the same location recorded a high temperature of 95.3 degrees or 35.2 Celsius, showing the Saturday reading was not an anomaly, the newspaper reported. While some questions remain about the accuracy of the Verkhoyansk temperature measurement, data from a Saturday weather balloon launch at that location supports the 100-degree reading. Temperatures in the lower atmosphere at about 5,000 feet also were unusually warm at 70 degrees or 21 Celsius, a sign of extreme heat at the surface. The World Meteorological Organization said Sunday that it's preliminarily accepting the observation as a new extreme as it conducts a more thorough review of the Verkhoyansk reading. 100-degree Fahrenheit, about 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle today in Siberia, that's a first in all of recorded history, tweeted meteorologist Eric Hothaus. We are in a climate emergency. The reading comes as Siberia is in the midst of a prolonged heatwave that has alarmed climate scientists and activists been watching the Siberian heatwave for months and it's beyond terrifying, already suffering what was expected in 2100 in a worst case scenario, said climate activist and conservationist Charlie Gardner. Now I want to reread that last sentence because I think it really is striking. It puts it on to perspective. We're already suffering what was expected in 2100 in a worst case scenario. So in 2020 we are already experiencing what scientists predicted we'd experience in 2100 in a worst case scenario. So it's safe to say we have severely underestimated the severity of climate change and it just seems like we're not up to the challenge as a species. We're just not. I don't know what else to say. We're not willing to take swift and severe enough action to not just try to mitigate the threat of climate change, but actually arm ourselves with the capacity to adapt to the climate change that's already happening. We're not up to the challenge and we're in a political climate that couldn't be worse for this particular disaster. I mean best case scenario is we elect the Democratic Party that is just going to pay lip service. Maybe they'll make a couple of incremental tweaks to the system that puts us in a slightly better off position, but it's not nearly enough. And then at worst you have a minority party that has control of portions of government and a lot of them don't even believe that climate change is a thing or at best they'll say well we believe in climate change and we just don't think that it's manmade. So we believe in climate change so long as you know we don't accept that it's anthropogenic because if it's not anthropogenic then that means that we can't do anything about it because if man doesn't create it, man can't control it. So I mean I don't I don't know what to say. I don't mean to be a doomer, but it just seems like the human species is going to allow climate change to ravage our planet. We're already seeing you know an increased frequency in hurricanes that are destroying communities. Puerto Rico still has not fully recovered from Hurricane Maria. I mean I don't think people really realize what they're doing in standing idly by and allowing this to continue, allowing our lawmakers to not do anything about climate change. They don't realize it because they kind of visualize climate change as something that's far off in the future, but it's here. That's what this story is getting across to people. It's already here. We weren't expecting this until 2100, but in 2020 we're seeing what was envisioned as a worst case scenario that would only take place in 2100. We're just not up to the challenge. I don't know what else to say about that. It's a sad fact of reality, but it is a fact of reality. We are not up to the challenge. Climate change will devour our species, devour our species. That's going to happen because we're letting it. We're just going to allow it to happen, and it just seems like we're not going to meet the IPCC's 12-year deadline. I mean look at the political landscape. If we elect Joe Biden, that's four years of not taking substantial action. At best he makes more incremental changes that reduce our carbon footprint, but not nearly enough. We had an option to elect Bernie Sanders, who actually wanted to be a world leader, talk with other countries, and collectively come up with a strategy to get our net carbon emissions, CO2 emissions, to zero. But now we have Joe Biden, and then after that, who's going to be positioned to take his place, his VP for another four to eight years, which is almost certainly going to be another neoliberal who's going to care more about the economy than the environment in spite of what they tell you. That's four to 12 years in total, where we have some type of mealy-mouth Democrat not doing enough to fight climate change and doing it where there's, you know, this party of death and destruction that is absolutely psychopathic Republicans, we're trying to stop them, stop whatever incremental changes they're trying to make. We're just not up to the challenge. Humanity has failed. Climate change will win. That's what this story tells me. And again, don't want to get you down. Don't want to be, you know, trying to depress you, but we have to accept the reality of the situation because trying to bury our heads in the sand and pretend as if everything is going to be okay isn't going to help us in this predicament. It's not going to save lives. So we have to brace for the worst, hope for the best, but expect the worst. That's where we're at. We're not going to be able to stop the worst of what climate change has to offer. It's coming. And this sort of illustrates that that is in fact going to be the case. And it's sad, but, you know, the truth is right in front of us. We can't ignore it any longer. We failed.