We’re running out of time, and carbon neutral won’t save us.
The planet is hurtling toward catastrophe at an accelerating pace. 2025 was the third warmest year since records began in 1850, exceeded only by 2024 and 2023, with the last eleven years including all eleven of the warmest years in the instrumental record. More alarming still, the warming spike in 2023 to 2025 suggests an acceleration in the rate of Earth's warming, with scientists warning that historical trends are no longer reliable predictors of future warming. The global surface temperature in 2024 ranked highest in the 145-year record at 1.54 degrees Celsius above the early industrial baseline, marking the first time any year clearly exceeded the Paris Agreement threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. Record greenhouse gas emissions combined with reductions in planet-cooling sulfur dioxide aerosols drove the exceptional warming. The consequences are devastating and immediate: record-breaking heat waves, catastrophic floods, unprecedented wildfires, and extreme weather events that have killed thousands and displaced millions worldwide. An estimated 770 million people—8.5 percent of Earth's population—experienced a locally record warm annual average in 2025.
Yet despite this accelerating crisis, much of the climate conversation remains fixated on individual "carbon neutral" lifestyle changes—a narrative deliberately promoted by fossil fuel corporations to deflect accountability. The term "carbon footprint" was popularized through a campaign by British Petroleum in the early 2000s, shifting responsibility from industrial polluters to individual consumers. While personal choices matter, individual efforts focused solely on changing behaviors deliver only about one-tenth of their potential, with the remaining ninety percent of emissions savings locked away and dependent on governments, businesses, and collective action. The hard truth is that even perfect individual action cannot solve a systemic crisis. We must redirect our energy toward demanding transformative policy changes from those in power: mandating rapid transitions to renewable energy, ending fossil fuel subsidies, implementing meaningful carbon pricing, and holding corporations accountable for their emissions. Individual actions are often constrained by the systems in which we live—someone wanting to reduce their carbon footprint may find sustainable choices inaccessible or unaffordable. Real change requires confronting power structures, electing climate-conscious leaders, and organizing mass movements that force governments and industries to fundamentally transform our energy systems, transportation networks, and economic models. The climate crisis wasn't caused by individual failures, and it won't be solved by individual virtue—it demands systemic revolution.
Credit: UCAR Center for Science Education, WWF, WWF Arctic, NOAA, Grid-Arendal, Wikipedia
