I don't like sounding the alarm about the incredibly dangerous situation we, as a species, have created for life in our planet. And I'm sure that Former UN climate chief Christiana Figuere doesn't like to be charged with the label of "alarmist" either. But we all need to be running around with our hair on fire:

Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but willrequire unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned. [...] ... This year’s weather has beaten high temperature records in some regions, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 were the hottest years on record. But while temperatures have risen, global carbon dioxide emissions have stayed broadly flat for the past three years. This gives hope that the worst effects of climate change – devastating droughts, floods, heatwaves and irreversible sea level rises – may be avoided, according to a letter published in the journal Nature this week. The authors, including former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argue that the next three years will be crucial. They calculate that if emissions can be brought permanently lower by 2020 then the temperature thresholds leading to runaway irreversible climate change will not be breached.

Sadly, the Paris climate agreement is insufficient to accomplish this goal, despite all the folderol around Trump's withdrawal from it. And speaking of Trump, we know our government currently under Republican rule, and our past lack of effort to seriously address this issue under the administrations of both parties, means America is incapable of facing up to this monumental challenge.

Unfortunately, I doubt anyone in the rest of the world, especially the major sources of new emissions, such as India and China, and those countries whose economies depend on burning fossil fuels (Most of the Middle East, Russia, Nigeria, Venezuela, etc.) aren't likely to destroy their economies to save the planet.

Are we all doomed then? Maybe. It certainly is discouraging to hear people so prominent in the field of climate science say we are in dire straits, but I can't blame them for trying to get the media to focus on this looming disaster for life on this planet. I fear for the future of my children and their children and everyone's children. Because we all know nothing is going to change in the next three years to stop the worst case scenarios from playing out.

A damn shame no one in the Democratic Party (I long ago gave up on the Republicans) gives a damn about this threat to all humanity, which will hurt the poor and vulnerable the hardest, though in truth no one will escape the impacts, no matter how wealthy they are. People (especially certain folks demanding more and better Democrats) mercilessly criticize the Greens every chance they get, but at least they had a plan, the Green New Deal, that would have addressed this issue, while also providing a boost to our economy as we rapidly transitioned to renewable energy and dramatically lowered emissions of greenhouse gases.

There is a lot of blame to go around, from our pathetic political leaders, the oligarchs and corporate interests that control them, the entire coterie of climate deniers funded by the fossil fuel industries, and last, but not least, traditional legacy media outlets, which in America continue to ignore this issue as if it was a rabid dog that might bite them in the ass if they even mention it in passing.

God, if he or she or it exists, help us. We sure aren't helping ourselves from fending off the train wreck headed our way.