I’m a climate scientist. Every day, I look at how our energy sources and our consumption habits are affecting our planet. And every day, I’m frustrated by how many people consider the idea of factoring climate change into their decisions to be an unaffordable luxury at best, and an unnecessary evil at worst.

But my hope for the next decade is not that climate change will move higher up our priority lists. Instead, I hope we realise that the reason for all of us to care about a changing climate is because it has an impact on everything we already care about: political stability and a healthy economy, our own health and welfare, the well-being of those less fortunate than us and ultimately the ability of this planet to continue to support our civilisation as we know it. If climate change continues unchecked, it is our collective fate – not the planet’s – that hangs in the balance.

Read the full essay here.