Throughout the COVID pandemic our minds have been reluctant to accept that we can’t do all of the things to which we have grown accustomed. We can’t go wherever we please, eat in our favorite restaurant or even attend school. It has been even more difficult to accept that we are unable to hug the ones we love or be by their side when they take their last breath. We are slowly coming to the realization that there are so many essential things in life that we have always taken for granted.

If there is not enough burden on our pandemic-weary minds, so many of us are unable to find basic refuge in our homes. Domestic abuse and gun violence has soared since COVID forced us to seek shelter. If that is not disheartening enough, the effects of global warming are having a brutally tangible impact on our lives. This summer’s “unprecedented” tornado outbreaks, severe thunderstorms and hurricanes has left thousands homeless. Now “unprecedented” wildfires in the west are incinerating entire cities.

I am hopeful and confident that the global effort to develop a vaccine will bring this pandemic to an end relatively soon. For those of us fortunate enough not to have lost a loved one to COVID, there will be a return to normalcy. However, this will not be a time to fall back behind our lines and recover. We must waste no time remobilizing our global forces to draw up the battle plan to defeat global warming. As we are currently experiencing, scenes like this cannot be taken for granted.