When will the Central Coast really get going on protecting our climate? Some folks are doing everything they can. Most of us, though, are either picking at climate solutions or pretty much ignoring this catastrophic and looming problem.

We are still burning fossil fuel like it is going out of style. With our mega pickups and SUVs, we are digging our children's environmental graves. We heat and cool our houses with gas and eat tons of meat, thus ensuring a desolate and desperate future for our descendants.

Politically, some of our local governments try to push climate healthy policies such as banning oil well drilling in the Oxnard plain, limiting dangerous oil extraction projects over the Santa Maria groundwater basin, and joining safe energy cooperatives in SLO and Morro Bay cities.

Overwhelmingly, the scientific community urges us to take much more dramatic and persistent action to avoid the worst effects of the growing climate crisis. Local and national solutions abound. We just choose to dither and scoff at these remedies. The Green New Deal stagnates in our Congress as we focus on our comfort and saving money.

Can we sacrifice our current comforts for our community's future? Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teen climate activist, who initiated the school strike for climate, said it best in challenging our generation.

"Our house is on fire."

"I want you to panic."

"I want you to feel the fear I feel every day."

Larry Bishop

Buellton