Californians enjoyed cool, stormy weather over the weekend, and the Sierra Nevada was blessed with a healthy snowpack. But the truth is that even in the last few months it has been running 2 degrees above average. The planet is going through a terrifying streak of record temperatures; March marks the 10th consecutive month in which the average global temperature was the highest on record.

It would be shocking if it wasn’t so predictable. Despite everything we know about the consequences of burning fossil fuels, humanity is still heading in the wrong direction towards self-destruction. Last year, greenhouse gas pollution reached a new record, increasing by 1.1% compared to the previous year.

If 10 months of record heat isn’t enough to push world leaders into crisis, it’s hard to say what will.

This should be a flashing red warning that we have entered new danger territory and need to change course. We have renewable energy technology, but it is being implemented too slowly to protect people, animals and plants from unacceptable levels of suffering.

The concept of higher average global temperatures does not paint a true picture of the impacts that extreme heatwaves, droughts, storms, wildfires and other climate disasters are having on the world. In some communities, things are much worse than average. And examples are easy to find. Phoenix recorded 31 consecutive days of 110-degree temperatures last year. More than 600 heat-related deaths in 2023 broke the previous year’s record, Maricopa County officials confirmed.

The Texas Panhandle experienced the largest wildfire in state history this year; More than 1 million acres burned and thousands of animals died. Communities in the Horn of Africa, facing a hunger crisis after three years of drought, were affected by torrential rains and floods that killed hundreds of people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania last year.

While these disasters are consistent with scientists’ predictions of rising temperatures, some worry that the rise in global temperatures that began last summer could be a sign that warming may be accelerating. We are currently on the verge of a 2.7 degree increase in global temperatures (1.5 degrees Celsius); this is a limit that nearly every nation in the world has agreed to stay below to avoid catastrophic climate consequences.

One of the most important things Americans can do right now is to use their political power at the ballot box to demand that leaders at all levels of government take serious action on climate change or be removed from office.

The stakes are especially high this year. A former president who had perhaps the worst climate record in U.S. history and rolled back more than 100 environmental protections is facing a president who has done more to combat climate change than anyone before him, although not nearly enough. But if we are going to stop breaking records month after month and year after year, the choice needs to be clear.