The last 12 months have consistently been the hottest months in recorded history; this means that this January was the hottest January of all time, and so on. This past July was the hottest of any month ever—that is, until this August broke that record.

This planet is getting warmer. No one can deny that. The earth’s temperature has been on an exponential incline for the past 45 years. The planet is at its warmest in 115,000 years thanks to climate change. The last time the planet was this warm, the sea level was 30 feet higher than it is today—by the way, that means no Manhattan, no New Orleans, no Florida. Most of the Earth’s population lives near water; these people are going to have to go somewhere.

People say “the Earth’s temperature is always changing!” Yes, but never this rapidly. The last time the planet heated up this quickly was when an asteroid hit the planet and engulfed it in flames. The Earth being this hot increases the chances of natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions and intensifies natural disasters such as what happened with the recent Hurricane Matthew.

Dr. James Hansen, the former director of NASA and one of the country’s top climate scientists, has issued a stern warning for both the United States and the rest of the world: we aren’t doing nearly enough to combat the effects of climate change. The recent international Paris Agreement to curb climate change and carbon dioxide is not enough. It is not nearly enough. “There’s a misconception that we have begun to address the issue of climate change,” he once said.

A strong way to confront climate change is decreasing dependence on fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy. Renewable energy is often portrayed as a very different and strange form of energy, while in reality, it is far more sensible than our current system. We have an endless supply of energy floating in the sky and all around us, and instead of using it, we as a species have decided to instead stick giant drills into the ground and extract a poisonous form of energy that is now destroying our planet. The U.S. and other countries’ interest in oil and the fight over it has caused countless wars and deaths in the Middle East and elsewhere, and one way of fixing that is to turn away from the dangerous current methods.

Many people claim that changing our energy program and introducing a more renewable energy system is unfeasible. According to the ExxonMobil CEO, it is an “unrealistic dream.” This however, is simply not true. In Costa Rica, the entire country ran off of only renewable energy for 75 days straight. Of course, they don’t compare to the size and energy needs of the U.S. Fortunately, Germany does, and serves as an excellent example; Germany is huge both in land mass and population. They have the fourth largest economy in the world, and are one of the top energy consumers. They are basically the economic engine powering the European Union right now.

Germany has introduced a strong renewable energy program, and at one point in March, 87 percent of all of their energy was renewable. This actually led to power prices plummeting so low they dipped into the negatives, and for a few hours, German customers were actually being paid to use electricity, proving that renewable energy is and can be highly profitable. Germany has thousands of wind energy turbines and over a million solar panels distributed across the country to power all of this. Germany has increased efficiency, while saving energy, all the while importantly cutting harmful CO₂ emissions. According to a comprehensive study by the department of energy, with its currently available technology the U.S. could reach a renewable energy goal similar to Germany’s by 2050. Of course, the only thing stopping us, is money.

Fossil fuels gained 75 times more subsidies than clean energy did in 2013. The profitability of fossil fuels (and the destruction of the planet) prohibits clean energy from succeeding in an open market. So why doesn’t the government step in and support clean energy? Well, many of them are paid in donations by lobbyists in the fossil fuel and oil industries, who are determined to maintain the status quo of continuing to use these harmful products. Oil and fossil fuel companies retain all of the dirty profits, but they socialize the costs; it is all of us who are going to have to pay for their destruction of our planet.

Our species—and quite possibly our generation—cannot survive on this planet as it is being destroyed. Climate change, and those who refuse to combat it, violate all young people’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The stakes could not be any higher, and no price tag should deter us from changing our destructive ways and saving the planet and ourselves.