Maybe we’re not doomed, but we’re probably doomed.

Human activities have transformed the planet at a pace and scale unmatched in recorded history, causing irreversible damage to communities and ecosystems, according to one of the most definitive reports ever published about climate change. Leading scientists warned that the world’s plans to combat these changes are inadequate and that more aggressive actions must be taken to avert catastrophic warming.

The report released Monday from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found the world is likely to miss its most ambitious climate target — limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures — within a decade. Beyond that threshold, scientists have found, climate disasters will become so extreme people cannot adapt. Heat waves, famines and infectious diseases will claim millions of additional lives. Basic components of the Earth system will be fundamentally, irrevocably altered.

I don’t like it when scientists use the word “irrevocably.” It’s a nasty word. I have always considered myself a progressive because I believe in the potential for progress. The story of humanity isn’t stagnant. We don’t just live generation to generation, never improving and only changing when forced to change by external events outside of our control.

But our mastery of our environment has met a dead end because we haven’t developed morally or spiritually at a rate to match our technological prowess. We do not seem to be up to this challenge. I was raised in an era where we were always threatened by nuclear annihilation but we also had a plan for a future where catastrophes like the Great Depression didn’t necessarily lead to world war and Holocaust and radioactive bombs. For one thing, we knew we had no choice.

But that order is breaking down, most notably by United Nations Security Council member Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine. We can’t manage world conflict when one of the pillars of the system is waging aggressive war in Europe. We couldn’t be less prepared to deal with the coming cataclysms.

This puts a lot of stress on my worldview, and I think a crisis in the faith in progress will lead to its own cataclysms, including widespread nihilism, a rise in apocalyptic cults and religions, and a general breakdown in law and order.

Yet, if people are the problem, they are also the only possible solution. So, resignation isn’t an option. We must fight on.