Fossil fuel use is on the rise. This, says Ali Velshi, is almost unbelievable. After all, environmentalists have been warning for years that fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change. Says Velshi, they’ve “been shouting this from the rooftops for more than a century.”

In the past decades, we’ve seen global consensus on the part of nations, industries, and citizens that we must reduce our fossil fuel use if we want to reverse the already in-progress climate catastrophes that are occurring all over the world. We know this. Yet, just a few days ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration‘s short-term energy outlook found that global consumption of liquid fuels — like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — will set new records in 2024.

So, despite the warnings, and the science, and the trillions of dollars worth of natural disasters, the world is moving in the wrong direction. It’s not shouting “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater, says Velshi. It’s like shouting “Fire!” when the theater is already ablaze — and no one inside is moving a muscle.

“The way we go about our daily lives needs to change. A lot of us would have hoped and thought that with the greater acceptance of the reality of the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change, with the global political and popular support for retreating from oil and gas and coal, we’d be moving in the right direction. We’re not,” says Velshi.

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