Climate Action Week is upon us. Posters and flyers have been set up all across campus, relaying quick facts and messages about the ongoing effects of global climate change. You might have seen the sign reading, “climate despair and climate hope are both real”—a nod to the many contrasting narratives about climate change. It can be difficult to make sense of all these messages. Is there anything we can still do? Where do we stand in the fight against climate change? Where do we go from here?

While there are many reasons to believe that we are past the point of no return, there are also many reasons to believe that there is still work we can do. The solutions to averting the climate catastrophe lie in the genuine and consistent efforts of all of us.

Take, for example, the students of South Baltimore who started their own youth-led movement to tackle pollution in their hometown. The movement, called Free Your Voice, is run by students of Benjamin Franklin High School. It has gained significant traction in South Baltimore and has seen notable success: the student activists prevented their school from purchasing electricity from a new trash incinerator. The incinerator would have released millions of toxic pollutants into the air, causing severe health issues for residents. Their efforts in using their voice to draw attention to a problem in their community made a positive impact.

And just recently on Aug. 23, over 120,000 acres of land in Idaho were reserved as a conservation area under new plans by the Bureau of Land Management. This decision helps to protect the wildlife in the area—including various bird species, mule and elk—from environmental degradation. The conservation area in Bennett Hills, Idaho is the third and largest conservation area since their introduction in 2017. The more land that we can conserve, the greater impact we can have on protecting the environment and the more promising the future looks for all of us.

Here at Case Western Reserve University and in Cleveland, leaders and climate justice advocates are bringing attention to how climate change directly affects us. In April of this year, Cleveland held its first Decarbonization Summit, which focused on strategies to reduce carbon emissions. During the conference, Mayor Justin Bibb highlighted the city’s recent actions in reducing its carbon output. A clean energy coalition called Power a Clean Future Ohio plans to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030 and to finalize a much needed move to renewable energy by 2050. These actions are not just small steps towards building a better future. They are a commitment by our own leaders in office to tackle an issue that affects every single one of us.

On campus, organizations such as Sunrise CWRU offer an outlet for us as students to make our voices heard—and that’s what we need to do. Our voices are one of the best tools we have in this fight. Calling on our government representatives to take action and shining a spotlight on community initiatives are both equally valuable.

Combating climate change is a monumental problem that won’t be solved in just a few years. It is understandable to despair about the state of the world today; increased and worsened natural disasters are not events to simply gloss over. But that despair doesn’t come from fear, but rather love for the only home we have ever known: Earth. While the road ahead may seem bumpy and uncertain, know that the fight isn’t over yet. There is still more work to be done, and we shouldn’t back down. When we stick together and campaign for common goals, there is nothing that we can’t do.