Without immediate global action on climate change, today's teenagers will be forced to live with the consequences of our inaction. The World Bank has issued their third report of climate change, and it says that global temperatures could rise by as much as 4 degrees Celsius by the time today's teens hit their 80th birthday.

This new report, called “Turn Down The Heat,” says that 4 degrees would be on top of the 1.5 degree Celsius warming that we've already locked in to the atmosphere. A temperature increase that large would substantially impact poverty, food crops, water resources, ocean acidification, and sea level rise, all of which would make global conflict far more likely.

At the rate we're burning fossil fuels, we're damning our young people to a future of hunger, strife, and war – and that's if we leave them a future at all. Rachel Kyte, the World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change, said, “The (new) report makes crystal clear that we cannot continue down the current path of unchecked, growing emissions.”

The World Bank is calling on governments to stop subsidizing the fossil fuels that our destroying our planet and our future. Developed nations like ours can put an end to tax breaks for Big Oil and Big Coal, and even put a price on their destruction with a carbon tax. For countries that are still developing, the World Bank says that they should skip the investment in fossil fuels and move straight to clean energy.

For the sake of ourselves, our young people, and our species, we need to do everything we can to protect our environment. We only have one planet to call home, and our kids shouldn't suffer because we refused to act.