When I was asked to write this piece explaining to young women why they need to vote, a million reasons popped into my mind. I thought of the politicians who want to force their religion onto our bodies and, as a result, take away our right to determine our own fate. I thought about how the xenophobia being espoused by those same politicians goes against not only the best parts of human nature but also the ideals of this country, which is made up of almost entirely of immigrants (my family included).

These are all valid reasons to vote. But then I thought of CLIMATE CHANGE.

Let me say it again for those of you who didn’t hear me in the back of the room.

CLIMATE CHANGE.

Climate Change is such a big deal. Every second we are not freaking out about climate change, we are either living in ignorance or willful delusion. Throughout this piece, I will pepper in some SCIENTIFIC FACTS, which Donald Trump and his ilk ignore in their quests to be like on-the-nose bullies in an imaginary Nickelodeon show.

FACT #1: Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest month on record.

Am I scaring you? Good. We should all be scared. We should all be losing our minds. More heat = massive drought/fires/storms = bad. We are surrounded by warning signs of impending disaster, but many of us choose to bury our heads in the sand, which, incidentally, will become harder and harder to do as the shoreline disappears. Which brings me to:

FACT #2: In the worst-case scenario, all of the planet’s currently attainable crude oil, natural gas, and coal are burned; Antarctica melts; and ocean levels rise rapidly. So, bye-bye, New York City.

At the Democratic National Convention Hillary Clinton said, “I believe in science” and got applause. Because, yes, there are people who don’t believe in science. These people gleefully put facts aside as “liberal bias.” History will look back on them at best as idiots and at worst as selfish monsters who chose an allegiance to corporate greed over the safety and welfare of humanity, along with countless other species on earth.

FACT #3: Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree global warming is happening and 82 percent of earth scientists agree that it’s strongly linked to human behavior.

Science should not have a political bias. Science should not have a religious bias. In an ideal world in which we’re all rational people, science represents everyone’s quest for truth. But some people don’t believe in truth. Some of these people want to run to infect the American people with their personal agendas. And some of these people are already running our government.

FACT #4: As of March 2016, there were 182 climate change deniers in Congress. That’s 34 percent of Congress.

The way we can stop climate change or, more realistically, mitigate the damages that we’ve already done is through government regulation. We cannot rely on faith in the individual or private corporations. This kind of widespread regulation for the common good of the people is what government is for.

On a worldwide level, almost everyone agrees this is a problem; in December 2015, 147 global leaders met in Paris for the United Nations conference on climate change, a conference that some referred to as the “last chance” for the environment. Now it’s up to individual governments to interpret the points agreed upon at the conference; that happens through legislation.

You may be wondering why this issue is specific to young women. When I brought up this question to my good friend Becky Ferreira (a science writer for publications like Wired and Popular Science), she pointed out to me that climate change is also a gender issue; women are more vulnerable to it than men due to the unequal distribution of power, money, and roles in most societies. In about 63 percent of households in rural sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women are in charge of collecting and carrying the family’s water, a task that only becomes more dangerous and difficult in the case of declining water supplies. In addition, women are often tasked with caring for children and the elderly, making them the last people to escape in any sort of disaster scenario.

Becky also reminded me that climate science, like most STEM fields, has a crappy gender balance and is still very male-dominated. We are in desperate need of female voices on this issue. Some of you out there will cite the futility of voting, but it’s this mind-set that leads to only about 60 percent of the population voting in presidential elections, allowing the most ardent groups to hold sway.

I just finished the fabulous science fiction novel Station Eleven, about a post-pandemic America. It’s a scary book for sure, but not so far off. Climate change is our own pandemic; the consequences have the potential to be just as dire. Suddenly, apocalyptic scenarios are not just science fiction anymore.

So take 15 minutes out of your day and vote. Vote against those who take pride in being dumb, who take pride in lies. Vote. And not just in presidential elections. Local elections, everything. Take a stand in your fate. Because maybe we can still turn things around. Or, at the very least, when you’re taking a raft with your granddaughter to get from SoHo to Central Park in New York and she says, “Nana, why didn’t you help prevent this?” you won’t say, “Well, Grandma was very busy with finding the perfect Snapchat filter that day so she lost track of time.”

Vote.

Rachel Bloom is the creator and star of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She wants you to remember that Election Day is Nov. 8. If you haven’t registered to vote yet, you can do so here.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io