We need to talk about this heat wave

By Todd Paglia, Executive Director

It’s hot outside – really hot.

Even if you’re fortunate enough to live in a region that isn’t experiencing a heat wave with record-breaking extreme temperatures, global headlines tell a clear story. Sanbao, a small town in China, set a national record when temperatures hit 126 Fahrenheit (52.2 Celsius). In California, Death Valley reached even higher at 128 F (53 C), nearly breaking the world record for hottest temperature ever measured. In Europe, much of the continent is in the grip of heat above 104 F (40 C) with ground temperatures in Spain hitting a scorching 140 F (60 C).

Extreme heat waves aren’t the only sign of a climate in crisis. Extreme flooding has resulted in deaths, damages, and hundreds of thousands of evacuations in South Korea, China, India, and Japan. Closer to home, it has swept away cars and caused serious damage to large swathes of Vermont and Pennsylvania. Wildfires continue to devastate so-called Canada and blanket much of North America with toxic smoke.

But we are not powerless. Far from it. We may be currently living through a world that appears to be hotter than any other human being has experienced, but just how bad it gets is entirely up to us.

Every ton of carbon we keep out of the atmosphere today means lives saved in the future. Even small shifts will have massive impacts – each tenth of a degree of additional warming avoided can result in 140 million less displaced people.

Crucially, this isn’t a question of whether or not we can stop the worst impacts of climate change, it’s whether or not we will. We have concrete, proven strategies to keep carbon out of the atmosphere – we just need to make sure the people in power use them.

This isn’t about individual change. Yes, eating less meat and using public transport and avoiding single use plastics are important steps everyone of us can take. But to truly make a difference and stop future heat waves and extreme weather events we need system change. We need governments and corporations to stop investing in fossil fuels and its associated infrastructure. We need initiatives to mobilize and reshape our economy around renewables and sustainable materials at the same scale the world did during World War II.

Because if the events of the past few weeks haven’t made it abundantly clear, the climate crisis is an existential threat. But it doesn’t have to be. Not if we all come together and demand better.

I’m proud of the work we do as a part of the Stand.earth community because we are making a difference in this struggle. We’ve played a crucial role in the divestment movement that, to date, has removed $40 trillion from fossil fuel company coffers. We’ve helped dozens of local governments implement concrete policies to phase out fossil fuels and fast track clean energy in their communities. We’ve moved corporations like Staples, Starbucks, 3M, and many others onto significantly more sustainable pathways.

Yes, the situation is dire and the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. But the game isn’t close to over, and we’re not backing down.

Are you with us?