What is actor, William Shatner looking at?

“This covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue around that we have around us.”

That’s how Shatner described the earth’s atmosphere after a 10-minute flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard space capsule.

What I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible is the jeopardy. The moment you see the vulnerability of everything; it’s so small. This air, which is keeping us alive, is thinner than your skin. It’s a sliver; it’s immeasurably small when you think in terms of the universe.”

Of course, Shatner is expressing what climate scientists have been warning about for decades; that climate change is real; that the “blanket” covering the earth is slowly being ripped apart.

He’s reminding us that we cannot afford to wait. We are accountable. We are responsible. We have to make lifestyle choices, now. We have the technology to do so, but not enough the will.

“Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a ‘code red for humanity.’

“‘It’s just guaranteed that it’s going to get worse,’ said report co-author Linda Mearns, a senior climate scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. ‘Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.’

“The authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which calls climate change clearly human-caused and ‘unequivocal’ and ‘ makes more precise and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than it did last time it was issued in 2013,” the AP reports.

“More than 100 countries have made informal pledges to achieve ‘net zero’ human-caused carbon dioxide emissions sometime around mid-century, which will be a key part of the negotiations in Scotland. The report said those commitments are essential. . ..

“‘This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying, unprecedented in thousands of years,’ said IPCC Vice Chair Ko Barrett, senior climate adviser for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It is still possible to forestall many of the most dire impacts,” he added.”

This is the most critical decision standing before the world: change now or lose what we have, what we need, forever.

Or as Captain Kirk would say, “Scotty, I need warp power in three minutes or we’re all dead!”