Humans are indeed causing us to enter a whole new Epoch – the Anthropocene.

There’s no doubt fossil fuels have boosted the development of our civilization and have given humankind so many advancements, but there’s also no doubt they also threaten life on the planet when we burn them, pumping massive quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That buildup of greenhouse gases is trapping more and more of the sun’s energy. We see the result of that in record heatwaves, longer and more destructive wildfire seasons, stronger and more powerful storms dumping unprecedented amounts of rain and warming oceans. On July 24, “the buoy in Manatee Bay, a largely enclosed body of water north of Key Largo, captured a stunning 101.1-degree Fahrenheit reading at 5 feet deep Monday night, according to preliminary data from the National Data Buoy Center. That would beat the previous record of 99.7 degrees, which was recorded in Kuwait Bay in the Persian Gulf in 2020,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Humanity is the sole species on earth causing climate change, so humankind has the sole responsibility to fix it. Enter Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan volunteer organization with over 200,000 supporters and 389 chapters nationwide, working to get the U.S. Congress to pass effective climate change solutions to address climate change at the scale needed. Our consistently respectful, nonpartisan approach to climate education builds upon shared values rather than partisan divides, and empowers our supporters to work in keeping with the concerns of their local communities. We work toward the adoption of fair, effective and sustainable climate change solutions.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is adding two new chapters in West Virginia in mid-September, in Morgantown and Shepherdstown. If you’d like to get involved, you can learn more about what we’re about, by joining one of our free introductory calls, which are held every Wednesday evening. You can sign up for the free call at www.cclusa.org/intro.

Jon Clark, Appalachia Regional Coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby.