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The tragic irony of the climate crisis
We probably won’t be driven to action until it’s far too late
The northwestern United States and Canada are still reeling from a historic heatwave that left hundreds dead — and the worst may be yet to come. Though temperatures have dropped, a nagging unease thwarts any sense of relief that residents of this region might feel right now. There’s a palpable feeling of dread, as folks brace for a long and destructive wildfire season that could eclipse last summer’s, which turned the skies over Oregon an apocalyptic shade of blood red. We’re already off to an ominous start, with the wholesale destruction of the Canadian town of Lytton. The entire West is a tinderbox. Roughly 40 percent of the United States is facing drought conditions.
It’s no longer possible to ignore the climate crisis. While environmentalists have been sounding the alarm since the 1990s, they were often dismissed as Chicken Littles.
But now that the sky is actually falling, and the phrase “the world is on fire” is no longer a term of art, we have no choice but to confront the reality of climate change and do what it takes to stop the total destruction of life as we know it.
