This December, at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, delegates from around the world are gathered to craft a treaty pledging unified global efforts to reduce the human impact on this planet’s climate. The dialogue begins in earnest.

Suddenly, people seem to be paying attention. Every night, climate change is in the headline news on television. In every weekly magazine, there are special sections on the issues. We in the United States, with our good fortune and hard work, have created a large part of the pollution problem leading to the controversy, and now China and India, whose feet are planted firmly in economic growth, are following in our footsteps.

Network broadcasters have coined a new term: the first ‘environmental refugees’ are wandering in their own country, Kenya, in search of water. The drought is in its 9th year: the land is desolate. Livestock are dying from lack of water, or starving to death. Their corpses are testimony to the crisis these people face daily. Villages that do have water are guarding it not with spears, but with assault rifles. When it does rain, the soil is washed into the flooded rivers, because there are no roots to hold it. No crops or grasses will grow on what’s left, and the cycle begins its downward spiral.

In cooler parts of the world, glaciers continue to melt, the seas are rising, and within a few decades, people in parts of our own nation will lose their homes, their communities, their cities and their farms as the oceans sweep over the land. Overall, we have been greedy and negligent, often making the easy choices for ourselves, with little regard for the balance on Earth and future generations.

Watching all this, overwhelming despair washes over me. I feel too small to help. I want to give up. And it would be easy to do so. There are lots of reasons to avoid responsibility here: I’m old, and when these pigeons come home to roost, I’m going to be long gone. I’m too busy. I’m afraid of the controversy. I don’t have time. Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da.

We can wait for more catastrophic events world-wide, and undoubtedly, they will come. Fear breeds action, and maybe then we’ll get focused and do something. But hope breeds action, too, and in many ways, it is a more powerful driver of change than fear. I continue to hope, I continue to believe, that we can act, we can make the laws, make necessary sacrifices, live the lifestyle that enables this planet to thrive, without intolerable austerity.

My parents lived through two World Wars. In my early years my classmates and I climbed under our school desks in drills that, in the event of a nuclear attack, we believed would save our lives. We lived with the dreaded clock that ticked ever closer to world-wide nuclear disaster. I promised myself that when my generation came of age, we would be wise and responsible leaders. We would fix all these problems, and make it all right. We have fallen short.

Now we are one small world. We can see people from around the world every night on television, hear what they are doing, watch their struggles. Surely, we are the fortunate ones. We have the luxury of being able to care for others, because by comparison, we live with abundance. Let us work from hope, not fear. Let’s not bludgeon each other, blame other countries, blame ourselves. It’s too late to point fingers. We didn’t get in this fix on purpose. We made some serious miscalculations. Now let’s correct our course of action for ourselves and for the rest of the world.

This morning, on my birthday, I am going out to the wild parts of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to find the joy and optimism I always feel when I am in this wilderness. I will continue to find the strength and commitment to do what I can as both an individual and family member, and encourage you to do the same. I will continue to honor the dedication of others who have gotten us out of troubled waters before, and will support efforts to do the same once again. Because this time, it matters not just to me, not just to the birds and animals I will walk among this morning, but it matters to every living person, every living thing on our entire planet. Walk with me.