This editorial was written and published by the Toronto Star on August 5, 2023.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres began a news conference last month with what sounded like good news — until he completed his thought.

“The era of global warming has ended,” Guterres said. “The era of global boiling has arrived.”

Indeed, July 2023 was the planet’s hottest month on record, each day offering fresh headlines about heat-provoked horrors.

Soaring temperatures and forest fires in Greece forced the evacuations of villages. At least 25 people have died of heat-related causes in scorching hot Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. That city just recorded the hottest month on record for a U.S. city, according to the state climatologist.

Here at home, Canada is experiencing its worst wildfire season on record, as well as devastating flooding on the east coast.

Fires raged across the country this summer, killing firefighters, blanketing cities in hazardous smoke, and forcing Canadians to wear their leftover pandemic masks outdoors. In British Colombia, a boy died of an asthma attack that his parents said was made worse by the wildfire smoke. In June, Toronto’s air quality ranked among the worst in the world.

“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Gutteres said last month. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.”

We couldn’t agree more. This summer should be a wake-up call for Canadians who see climate change as a faraway crisis. It isn’t. It is here and making its effects felt near and far, from the warming Arctic and soaring ocean temperatures to record-breaking heat waves and burning forests.

Skeptics like to argue that the underlying cause of recent extreme weather events is El Niño, a natural phenomenon associated with warming ocean temperatures. But scientists counter that the extreme weather we are seeing now and into the future can be attributed to both El Niño and human-caused climate change: a dangerous and sometimes lethal combination.

“I think it’s fair to say that with an El Niño that is occurring in a background state of global warming, that extreme weather will become more extreme,” John Gyakum, a professor in McGill University’s atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, told the CBC.

Some scientists balked at Guterres’s use of the term “global boiling” to describe the trend of dangerous heat waves, calling it over the top and unscientific.

However, it is an appropriate description of heat events that quite literally kill people. It is also an apt way to alert an easily distracted public to this urgent crisis.

Whatever one wants to call the epic problem before us, the truth remains that a status quo approach will not solve it.

What’s needed are strategies that both curtail climate change and adapt to the climate reality. On the latter point, that would include measures to better protect communities from the weather extremes — wildfires and floods, hot weather and violent storms.

The impacts of a warming planet on our daily lives are many. The adaption strategies will need to be equally ambitious.

The imperative to curb human impact on climate is well known. According to the United Nations landmark report on climate change released earlier this year, the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost half by the end of this decade if we are to have any chance at slowing a catastrophic rise in temperatures.

This means that governments and businesses must put people and planet before politics and profit.

We are optimistic about the federal government’s long-awaited, recently announced plan to phase out the fossil fuel subsidies it gives to oil and gas companies. But like many environmental groups we are concerned the plan doesn’t go far enough.

According to Climate Action Network Canada, the new policy does not apply to public financing. “With billions of domestic public financing given to the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines, this is a crucial next step.”

As well, the government’s plan is scheduled to be implemented in fall 2024, “but with the country on fire, a plan that sets deadlines further down the road is not enough,” the group states. Again, we couldn’t agree more.

Governments and corporations have the money and power to move the needle on climate change. They must use their resources to act right now, not later.

But the voting, spending public has more power than it knows. Whether it’s a call to end subsidies to environmentally unfriendly corporations or a call to fund new neighbourhood bike lanes, everyday Canadians can use their influence to help us face this monumental challenge.

This summer of floods, fires and heat has provided a sobering wake-up of how monumental and urgent that challenge is.