So, we’re watching CBS’ “Sunday Morning” recently when a startling statistic was shared. The United Nations has released a statement that climate change may be irreversible if we can’t make significant changes in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

I found the following quote that added more context: “Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of United Nations Environment Programme. “To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly.”

The UN has released “Emissions Gap Report 2021: The Heat is On” and researchers noted that if net-zero promises are developed, implemented and kept, the worst part of climate change could be avoided.

There is hope if people do the right thing.

The raging wildfires and drought on the West Coast, the increases in tornados in the Midwest and the hurricanes on the East Coast as well as rising temperatures and changing rain and snow patterns may be discounted by some, but I think by this time most people have to acknowledge we have done this to ourselves.

Sometimes I have little hope that we as a species will admit we’ve messed up and will take steps to fix things. If people can politicize a pandemic, linking something as easy as wearing a mask and getting vaccinated as some sort of encroachment to their freedom, then are they willing to make substantial changes to their lifestyle to reverse climate change?

Sorry, but thinking climate change is just a natural cycle for the planet and it will be fine or thinking whatever benevolent divinity in which you believe will intercede is delusional.

There is proof that if we take action together we can reverse the things that we have done.

For instance, remember the hole in the ozone layer? The following is from the NASA earth Observatory website: “In the 1980s, scientists began to realize that ozone-depleting chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs), were creating a thin spot – a hole – in the ozone layer over Antarctica. Through an international effort to decrease the use of CFCs, the ozone layer is starting to mend, and scientists believe it should mostly recover by the middle of the 21st century. This series of satellite images shows the ozone hole on the day of its maximum depth from 1979 through 2018.”

By not using Freon and by changing the chemical used in aerosol cans we have actually made progress.

The decision to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone National park has helped restore a damaged eco-system, according to an article on the Yellowstone National Park website: “On a quiet spring morning, a resounding ‘Slap!’ reverberates through the air above a remote stream leading to Lake Yellowstone. Over much of the past century, it has been a rarely heard noise in the soundscape that is Yellowstone National Park, but today is growing more common – the sound of a beaver slapping its tail on the water as a warning to other beavers.

“When the grey wolf was reintroduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 1995, there was only one beaver colony in the park, said Doug Smith, a wildlife biologist in charge of the Yellowstone Wolf Project.

“Today, the park is home to nine beaver colonies, with the promise of more to come, as the reintroduction of wolves continues to astonish biologists with a ripple of direct and indirect consequences throughout the ecosystem.

“A flourishing beaver population is just one of those consequences, said Smith.”

We do have the capacity to make changes that can heal the earth. Just think about bald eagle for a moment. I never thought I would see the national mascot, the bald eagle, flying in Western Massachusetts and specifically over a population center such as Chicopee.

The removal of the bald eagle from the list came in 2007 after measures to protect the bird proved successful. Among those was the ban the use of the pesticide DDT.

Once again, we fixed a mistake.

I just hope we can come together to fix the mistakes that could cause our own demise.