There are still plenty of people that deny climate change is either happening at all, or deny that humans have anything to do with it. Sure, Earth has a CO2 cycle that is a natural part of the world order. We can see the effects of when CO2 is high in the atmosphere, and when it is low, in the geological record.  What we see now scares the hell out of those who care to listen and understand it.

We can also see and measure the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere right now. Currently CO2 is just under 400 ppm (parts per million). Methane and nitrous oxide are at record levels and increasing. Combined we are at 143% of pre-industrial levels and climbing fast.  We are approaching levels now that were last seen millions of years ago, when a good chunk of North America was a shallow sea and camels roamed Canada.

Even if you don’t believe humans have anything to do with it, the fact is we have to deal with the consequences. The speed of which this is happening is unrivaled. The natural CO2 cycle operates over millions of years, not hundreds. At a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius we will see increases in heatwaves and floods, lost glaciers and drinking water, rising sea levels, mass die offs in our oceans…if you hit 4 degrees, 6, or higher, we risk a world we can not imagine, and possibly not survive in. The natural speed that the Earth will be able to remove this CO2 from the atmosphere will not be fast enough to save us.

So if you are someone who thinks we can sit by and watch, think again. It is our civic, economic and moral duty to do whatever we can to prevent loss of life and the hardships that could come of this. If we have to switch fuels and methods of developing energy overnight, than we need to spend whatever amount is needed to get it done.  This is priority number 1–the industrialized nations should be banding together, coming to a mutual consensus on action…oh, wait, they are. Except those of us in the U.S.A., who once again are displaying an attitude that it “can’t effect us.”

We stand on the edge of an environmental cliff, standing there, watching the seas rise and the storm clouds gather.  We can either act as good stewards of the world that God and providence has granted us, or we can turn our backs on it.  It is a yes or no question, and the time to answer it has come.  If we say no, then we head inland, hoping for the best, all while Mother Nature’s fire and fury deals with us in manners not scene since the legend’s of Noah.