As we enter a new decade, it’s hard to know whether we should be grateful for the good life we enjoy or fearful of the days ahead.

Most of us here in the U.S. go to bed with full stomachs each night, enjoy a standard of living that was unheard of for the masses in previous generations and have sufficient savings to tide us through the remainder of our days. Our life expectancy is far greater than any other humans have ever enjoyed and we live in relatively peaceful times. We have never experienced war and bloodshed first hand.

We have the means to travel to distant lands, instant communications with friends and relatives anywhere in the world, great entertainment in our living rooms and little fear of violence. Our cars are more dependable than ever; Our food has more variety and availability; we live in large, comfortable dwellings…and in general have it pretty good.

HOWEVER: Many of us wonder if the good times are here to stay? We don’t spend much time thinking about the possibility of a nuclear holocaust like we did back in the 1960s, but maybe we should. There are still thousands of nuclear warheads aimed our way. It would be pretty easy to stumble into World War III by accident or miscalculation. Lawrence Livermore Labs would certainly be a prime target and you know where that would leave us. Our president is currently playing “chicken” with the leaders of Iran. This could easily escalate and draw in Russia. Why do we continue to allow our president to have a finger on the nuclear button?

And then there is climate change. It isn’t going to ravish the planet in hours the way a nuclear exchange would, but the long term effects could be nearly as damaging to life here on earth. Because the changes are and will be relatively slow, we may not fully realize the gravity of the situation. Our children and grandchildren are ahead of us on this realization because they understand the science better and have more to lose. I’m not a religious person, but I pray that we wake up to the danger before it is too late. Let’s not be like the frog in the pot of slowly warming water…waiting too long to take action. What can we do?

Lots! Insulate our houses; require solar panels on all new housing; buy electric cars; push our legislators to put a large tax on carbon; develop new ideas for renewable energy (such as tidal power, deep thermal power, wave energy, etc.)

Finally, as the ultimate answer to both the climate problem and the nuclear weapons problem, we need to strengthen and democratize the United Nations so that it can effectively address these problems with enforceable world law. Our leaders promised the world in 1945 that the U.N. charter would be reviewed in 10 years. This has not happened. A volunteer organization based in San Francisco, the Democratic World Federalists, is calling for the UN General Assembly to review the outdated charter. It will take a “new U.N.” to give us a chance to avoid endless wars and prevent a climate catastrophe.