She's not waiting. Neither are we.
Here's what a changing climate actually looks like: It's a widow in a rainforest village whose crops stop producing. Rainfall patterns have shifted, the land that fed her family for generations no longer works. She can't afford medical care for her children. She can't afford school fees.
Her options narrow fast. She can take whatever work she can find—often sex work, because it's one of the few ways an uneducated woman can earn money quickly. Her daughter watches this happen. Watches her mother's choices disappear. And unless something changes, that daughter is headed down the same path. No education means no options means the cycle repeats.
This isn't a story about polar bears or melting ice caps. It's about real people losing real options. The climate crisis hits hardest in places we don't see—erasing livelihoods, eliminating choices, forcing impossible decisions on people who've done the least to cause the problem.
And while we're debating culture wars and doom-scrolling through our feeds, entire communities are watching their worlds shrink.
The connection most people miss: When you destroy someone's economic options, they're forced to destroy the environment to survive. When you give them real alternatives—healthcare, income, dignity—they become the planet's most effective protectors.
That's not just feel-good theory. That's how you actually solve this.
