Man watches a motel burn in Wine County, California.

Ten Californians burned alive this week. Their citizenship did nothing to prevent their deaths. Between desperate gasps, as they choked on ash, I wonder if they realized the injustice of their damnation. Without regard to the good they had done, nor the lives they had lead, they were doomed to a world of brimstone — doomed to hell on earth.

Climate change is too often discussed in terms of ice caps and atmospheres. The science, while convincing, will never inspire the radical action needed to save the earth. To the ten who died, climate change was more than carbon dioxide or dying reefs. It was a man made diety, whose vengeance was wrought in their painful and premature deaths.

And their fate should scare us all.

In my home state of Colorado, wells have run dry just as snowfall has begun to decrease. Our forests are dying of drought and infestation, and their remains will fuel the fires of apocalypse. I can only imagine the horror, the suffering, of those who live to see aquifers empty and mountains burn.

How many of my friends and neighbors, of my teachers and peers, of our brothers and sisters, of those we have hated and loved — how many will watch the world burn?

Climate change is climate disaster. It’s not a question of decades, nor parts per million, but of lives ruined, lives ended, every day.

It is not only the defining issue of our time, but of our species. If we fail, we won’t have to worry about the judgement of our children, because we will not live to face it. If we fail, we will choke on the ashes of our progress. If we fail, our legacy will be chaos.

Damnation is upon us, and we have demons to fight.