We learned to extract it, burn it for energy and release it into the air.

And about 100 and 50 years ago, we rebuilt our entire civilization around that energy source.

We burn it to travel, we burn it to eat, we burn it to live fossil fuels.

Brought about one of the greatest increases in standard of living in human history.

We could never go back.

But by burning this incredible fuel source, we are also inexorably heating.

The earth 2015 was the hottest year since we started keeping records in 1880.

And thanks to rising ocean temperatures, average sea levels have already risen about eight inches and we're in for a lot worse.

This is Dale Jamison.

He's a professor of environmental studies at NYU Wayne.

We've already done so much damage to the atmosphere that we'll be lucky if we can hold the warming to two °C, two degrees.

That's just the difference between a jacket and a slightly lighter jacket.

Not to the earth.

It isn't just two degrees of warming could cause huge droughts, massive wildfires.

The loss of many species, the collapse of our agricultural productivity and the rising sea levels could make our coastal cities uninhabitable.

And remember, two degrees of warming is the best we can realistically hope for.

The question.

Isn't, will warming happen?

The question is, how bad will it be?

That's terrible.

Isn't there something I can do?

The sad truth is that we've already put so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that we're more than halfway towards that two °C limit.

And right now companies and countries already own enough fossil fuel and reserves to meet that limit five times over five times over to keep it in the ground.

They'd have to give up trillions of dollars and we'd have to change our entire way of life.

And what happens if we burn it?

What happens to our planet?

Then I don't know, but it won't be our planet anymore.