Before the boiling consumes us

By: Diego Urrejola, Executive Director of the Cosmos Foundation

Acting now is an ethical and moral imperative. We can begin with concrete measures such as integrated watershed management, where we promote responsible and coordinated water management; incorporating environmental education as a public policy; promoting the creation of protected natural areas and the restoration of degraded ecosystems;

The UN has stated that the era of global warming is over, ushering in a new era: that of global boiling, describing it as a terrifying change. If we look at the latest data, a few days ago in Vicuña, temperatures exceeded 38 degrees Celsius in the middle of winter, and for the first time globally, the average temperature of the planet surpassed 17 degrees Celsius. As conservation managers, we are concerned that we remain only informed by warnings, anecdotal cases, and even inconclusive rhetoric, normalizing a phenomenon that could lead us to collapse.

Complacency, demonstrated by linear public policy solutions to problems with exponential impact, or the misguided notion that there’s not much we can do about it, could lead us to become immobilized.

Acting now is an ethical and moral imperative. We can begin with concrete measures such as integrated watershed management, where we promote responsible and coordinated water management; incorporate environmental education as a public policy; promote the creation of protected natural areas and the restoration of degraded ecosystems; establish stricter regulations adapted to the new climate reality for the protection of coastal zones; and prioritize Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as the answer to the socio-ecological challenges we face, such as biodiversity loss, pollution, desertification, and wetland restoration.

Will we solve the problem with this? Not if we do it alone, but if the international community moves in this direction, we can confront it with better tools and push for change, where the key is collaboration to generate synergistic effects. Normalizing climate change is a trap we cannot fall into. We urgently need to act before the boiling point consumes us completely.