Climate change is living among us, and it’s time we learn to live with it
The future is in climate change adaptation, not reversal.
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It was July 15, 2026. I went on my break from work and opened my Instagram page to find stories and posts flooded with a yellow Toronto sky. When I finished work, I stepped outside to a smoke-filled atmosphere that left me and others coughing for days on end. This was due to smoke from the wildfires raging in Northern Ontario during this summer. For weeks on end, Southern Ontario was rated at having one of the worst air qualities in the world. On my weather app, there were red warnings about extremely low air quality, which I felt every time I went outside. I saw someone post, “I feel like I’m living in a dystopian movie.” And, to be honest, I did too.
What was perhaps scariest about the whole situation was knowing that this “dystopian movie” was in fact real life. And it was happening here, in a “first-world country” where environmental effects are often least felt because of the inherent inequality powering our climate crisis in the first place. Partly due to the dwindling or selective media coverage or a lack of urgency from government officials to take action, the climate crisis often gets pushed to the bench compared to other issues. But the truth is, in 2026, our degrading climate is no longer just an “issue” discussed at a conference or a news headline about natural disasters across the globe. Those in Canada—especially Indigenous, rural, and low-income communities—are feeling the severity of our erratic weather patterns everyday, from progressively warmer summers to a sky full of smoke and dystopian conditions in North Ontario, where wildfires have burned down entire communities.
We cannot deny the looming threat of climate change because that “threat” is already here. But the real question is, where do we go from here? Do we continuously aim for a net-zero emission goal by 2050? Or do we recognize that the repercussions of climate change haunt us, and it’s about time we learn to live with it?
The answer is not so simple. Climate change impacts people differently, with some communities being more vulnerable based on their location. It is already predicted that the upcoming supermassive El Niño will have unprecedented impacts on the environment, but its effects differ across state lines and continents. While Canada is likely to experience a warmer winter, the U.S. is expected to have a wetter winter. On the other hand, Peru will experience heavy rains, flooding and drought, and Indonesia will experience a prolonged wildfire season.
The disparities between first-and third-world nations are more glaring than ever, with pre-existing conflicts, wars, and other systemic inequalities worsening how families, communities, and economies will feel changes in global climate patterns. However, there is a need for precautionary measures on both sides of the spectrum. For first-world countries that struggle less with climate change’s effects, a consideration for the safety and protection of their most vulnerable communities, such as those in wildfire-active areas and Indigenous peoples, is crucial.
We also have to be mindful of how current anthropogenic activities perpetuate climate change. The proposal of building multiple AI data centres in Ontario has been met with much public concern as they pose several environmental threats to the province. These centres require extensive amounts of water and electricity in order to be powered and cooled. They also have the potential to cause a type of air pollution called PM2.5, which can cause several health risks such as lung cancer.
Even as we take measures to respond to the ways in which climate change impacts us today, we need to keep the mindset that climate change does not have one solution. Although a net-zero emissions goal may seem far out of reach, it does not necessarily mean that the goal has to be entirely abolished. As everyday energy consumers, we can find different ways to lower our own personal emissions and carbon footprint, whether that be taking shorter showers to recognizing how our screentime translates into emissions as well.
When the individual responsibility is placed on us, it can often seem overwhelming. We may be thinking, “what can I do in the grand scheme of things?” and the threats of climate change may inflict more fear and doom. Despite the real effects we see in the media and feel in our own lives, resigning to a sense of hopelessness often makes us feel more detached from the issue than working to address it.
Joy and love for the environment can be a powerful tool in combating climate change, because it gives us greater motivation and focus in protecting the planet we love. However, we must find a balance between optimism and pessimism, and approach climate change with the “critical hope” that things can improve, but partly on the condition that we change and adapt our own lifestyles to the changing environment.
Reversal is no longer an option, which net-zero emissions goals fail to acknowledge. But, we have other options with how to face the climate crisis today. Change cannot happen overnight, which may leave individuals feeling helpless in their own actions. However, those very actions can inspire others to do their part and grow into something bigger.
We do not always know what the future of the environment holds, but we have the past to reflect on and learn from, and we have the present to take our next steps. In a time where we feel torn between the misactions of the past and the threats of the future, we have now to engage with our environment and understand what we need from it, and what it needs from us. Thus, a yellow sky does not mean it’s “the end of the world.” Rather, it is a message that climate change is here, but so are we, and we do not have to face it alone.
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