“Don’t Look Up” is the film most watched on Netflix since it premiered on Dec. 24, and for good reason. A comedy based on the premise of a life-killing comet headed for earth, it is quite a feat in the art of movie-making. Viewers get a lot of laughs, along with flashes of recognition of our current dysfunctional response to the reality of climate change. Bob Couch’s Dec. 28 column denying the increasing threat of global warming fits perfectly into the film’s narrative.

We don’t have to look up to see what is happening. We just need to look around. Thanks to today’s amazing photojournalism, the real-time impact of climate change can be seen with a simple online search which will take you on a journey from pole to pole and everywhere in between.

Nor should we accept the current inadequate response our society has mustered thus far to global warming. Countless people and organizations around the world, including some government bodies, are beating the climate drum loudly and taking action as possible. But in truth, it is not enough. Greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, continue to increase and heat up our atmosphere. Climate change, the consequence of that warming, is experienced as harmful disruptions to historically normal weather patterns and local environments.

What is needed is a full retreat from an economy powered by fossil fuels to one powered by non-emitting renewable sources of energy. How to get there? While it is often said that there is no silver bullet to address climate change, there is plenty of silver buckshot. We all have some buckshot at our disposal that can be put to use by making everyday decisions through a climate lens. Those decisions can be made within our various roles in business, organizations, educational institutions, households and government at all levels. We share the responsibility of lowering human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most severe impacts of a warming world.

Perhaps the silver bullet can be found when collectively we adopt a climate perspective as we go about navigating our daily lives.

Helen Seidler

Northampton