Dr. Peter Joseph is a retired ER physician. He says he knows an emergency when he sees one:
JOSEPH: "After seeing the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth,' I realized I've got to take some personal responsibility in this."
Joseph went to an Al Gore training that teaches lay citizens how to talk to the public about climate change. Now he volunteers his time to traveling the country and educating anyone who will listen about what he calls the terrifying realities of climate change.
JOSEPH: "I can't honestly get up and talk about how we can avoid climate change because it's already happening. We've already signed up for probably 2 degrees Centigrade increase in average surface temperature of the planet. And you see the consequences."
Joseph points to heat waves, fires and hurricanes that have struck the country this summer. He says his message isn't without hope. If we act now, there are things we can do to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Joseph is speaking in South Lake Tahoe Tuesday and in Incline Village on Wednesday.