July was the hottest month on record, and 2015 is shaping up to be the hottest calendar year. The most striking thing about this very bad news is how un-newsworthy it feels. Reports of ever higher temperatures have become the expectation as the zeitgeist adapts to—and comes to live with—the reality of a climate system barreling toward deeper peril. Given that we haven’t seen a year with an average annual temperature below the historic average in almost forty years, it is only when the data deviate from this inexorable rise that it seems noteworthy. As records keep being broken, we risk becoming inured to the existential threat of climate change. If we do not snap to attention and take action soon, we could end up like the proverbial frog who sits in a pot of gradually heating water, not realizing the peril until he’s boiled alive.