The pope, a scientist, and a Maldives president walk into a bar...

What do you call it when the pope, a scientist, and the former Maldives president walk into a bar? What I call it a consensus. A consensus on something more like a hydra than a joke: climate change.

Pope Francis’ June encyclical on the environment echoed what science has for decades overwhelmingly affirmed: that global warming is a serious and, crucially, man-made problem facing every nation in the world. The weight of research and religion, united and vocal about a threat existential to island nations like the Maldives, which shouldered its way into international headlines a few years ago thanks to the efforts of Mohamed Nasheed, a firebrand who cut his teeth in democratic activism. Existential in what way? Existential in that, like a 21st century Atlantis, the island may be swallowed by the sea.

Today’s climate challenge is a fitting corollary to Plato’s lost civilization myth. Atlantis, the story goes, was victim of its own hubris. Now sea levels are rising, natural disaster hit harder, pollution and chemicals deleteriously affect the public health, and more. These are just the tip of the (melting) iceberg: heat waves last longer and burn hotter, resources grow scarcer, and species extinction rates have spiked within generations – to the extent that we may well be experiencing a mass extinction. Every one of these, and more, has been confirmed by years of detailed scientific study and described in depth by groups like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which releases annual, and increasingly dire, reports. At the root of many issues, carbon emissions have risen dangerously, with the carbon dioxide levels rocketing past 350 parts per million (safe) all the way to 400 ppm (very much not) – the most in human history. Even those roots have roots: from industry to transportation, fossil fuels and a toxic bouquet of chemicals are released into the atmosphere. That’s where the hubris is at its most pernicious – many policymakers the world over, including and perhaps especially the United States, are stubborn not just against what action to take, but whether global warming even exists at all. Unfortunately, no matter how many times significant legislation is battled in congressional chambers, the world just keeps on getting more damaged, more unpredictable, and closer and closer to irreparable.

This challenge isn’t some distant theory. I know it all too well, as a California resident watching my parched state battle the current drought. I know it all too well, as a Filipino American who has seen his family’s motherland ravaged by deadlier and deadlier storms, like Typhoon Haiyan just a couple years ago. I know it all too well, as a young man who wants to one day be a father – and would like my children to grow up in a world that looks as little like Mad Max as possible.

There is progress – from the upcoming environmental summit in Paris to international deals to cut emissions to the Obama administration’s green policies (such as the recent Clean Power Plan). Hawaii just committed to 100% renewable energy by 2045. But opposition to climate action is a potent quicksand, despite polls showing the majority of Americans actually support steps to fight climate change. It’s time for those Americans to raise their voices – raise our voices to support and call for action. Raise our voices so that presidential debates, unlike the first Republican primary debate, address climate change. Raise our voices by writing to representatives, exercising our right to vote, spreading knowledge through social media. Raise our voices so our leaders recognize the urgent need to work together in this fight. For clean energy, emissions reductions, better regulations, more eco-friendly lifestyles. For modern solutions to modern problems.

Let’s raise our voices for ourselves, for our children. Religion, science, and self-preservation are aligned. Are you?