THE ZERO HOUR

There is no stopping climate change — the seas and the temperatures will rise. But how bad it gets is still up to us

- JEFF GOODELL

IT’S 69 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT in Antarctica as I write this — T-shirt weather in the coldest, most remote place on Earth. Bush fires are blazing in Australia — so far, 16 million acres have been burned, and by one count, a billion animals have been lost. There is a marine heat wave in the Pacific and devastating floods in Indonesia. You probably know this. You might be freaking out. If you are, it’s because you understand a central fact of 21st-century life: The longer we wait to get off fossil fuels, the hotter the world will get, and the faster climate chaos will accelerate.

This is not about saving the planet. For one thing, the planet itself is not at risk — in its 4.5billion-year history, the Earth has been through much worse than anything we can throw at it. It’s civilization as we know it today that’s in trouble. Second, the whole notion of “saving” anything is a flawed way to think about the crisis we are facing. Yes, it is more important than ever that we eliminate fossil fuels and reduce suffering and loss in a warming world. And, yes, the faster we get off fossil fuels, the better chance we have to make sure we don’t push the climate system past irreversible tipping points, such as the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which could raise global sea levels by 10 feet.