I was shocked when I saw this chart (below) and put it together with the fact that temperatures have continued to rise. The past 10 months have been the hottest recorded, with the March global temperature reaching 2.4 degrees Celsius (36.3 degrees Fahrenheit).

I know people who say, “There’s always ups and downs to climate.” The chart clearly shows we are way out of the “normal” range that goes back thousands of years. The 2.4 degrees Celsius, however, is much higher than the 1.5 degrees Celsius (over the preindustrial average) agreed to in the Paris Climate Accords and was intended to be a long-term goal and not a monthly goal, I can understand why the United Nations has sounded a red alert. As NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt said, “We need answers for why 2023 turned out to be the warmest year in possibly the past 100,000 years. . . . and we need them quickly.”

According to climate scientist Michael Mann, “the hockey stick graphic emphasizes the relative stability of the global climate over the common era—and how rapidly we are leaving this era of climate stability. We now find ourselves in what I’ve termed our ‘fragile moment.’ There is still time to preserve that moment, but only if we act with the urgency the climate crisis demands.”

I urge each of you not to give up. If we believe that solving the climate crisis is futile, our thinking will be infused with despair, paralyzing our decisions. But if we believe that we can change our ways and systems, all of which we invented, then together we can make a sustainable future more likely. There are millions of individuals, communities, companies and activists problem-solving the myriad issues we are facing in practical ways. They are already shaping a regenerative future. These people have heeded the call of hope and action, and I encourage you to do the same.

I did so for myself and found a few more actions I could take that would help decrease my carbon footprint. For ideas of what you can do to calculate or reduce your carbon footprint, look through KEC’s handouts from our summer display. Or read The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions for Everyone by Heidi A. Roop, Ph.D. And remember to advocate and vote for the environment.

(Sources: Time, November 20, 2023; Time, January 22, 2024; Akron Beacon Journal, March 26, 2024; Akron Beacon Journal, April 21, 2024)