Well, there's no getting around it now. What many of us once feared has become a reality - and by 'reality,' we mean the kind you can't ignore even if you bury your head in the sand, which, incidentally, is now probably too hot for that anyway.

The dangerous conditions climate scientists long warned of have become our common, if deeply unwelcome, experience. Season by season, our acquaintance with disorder and extremities deepens, like a bad relationship with the weather that just won't end. In both hemispheres, wildfires rage right into our cities and incinerate entire neighbourhoods - because who needs a calm, intact neighbourhood when you can have a smoldering one? Marine heatwaves are bleaching corals and cooking seagrasses on a global scale, turning the ocean into an unintentional seafood boil. This northern summer has brought temperatures most Europeans associate with the Australian desert - except now they're in Europe, which is about as fun as it sounds. Heat events in Europe have paralysed whole countries, destroyed infrastructure, and killed citizens in their thousands. Yes, thousands. That's not a typo.

Global heating is an outrage, not a tragedy. A tragedy suggests it was unavoidable, a stroke of fate. This is being done to us knowingly. We deserve the facts about the climate crisis, and we choose the Guardian because it's one of the few places left to share them honestly - and apparently, to use 'acts of support' like a pledge drive for the planet. The climate campaign 2026 is calling on you to help reach 30,000 acts of support. Because if there's one thing that will stop a wildfire, it's a good act of support. Or, you know, actual action. But we'll take what we can get.