What do you love most about Vermont? Take a minute and just think about that.

I love that I can see the mountains from almost any spot in Addison County and that a hike in the national forest is only a 15-minute drive away. I love Vermont’s history of small farms, stone fences and independence — Move over, Texas! We were the first to establish ourselves as a republic! I love maple trees in every season. Bare leaves in winter, red buds unfurling in the spring, glorious tall shade trees in summer, and startling reds and oranges in the fall. I also love that crazy sound loons make and the virtuoso warble of the hermit thrush (heard once from a hiking hut on the Long Trail at sunrise).

But ideal conditions for maple trees and maple sugaring are moving north as our climate continues to warm. Scientists project they’ll have shifted about 250 miles north by the end of this century. That’s well north of Vermont. And loons? Well they and 91 other bird species, including our state bird, the hermit thrush, are expected to be gone from our lakes, forests and other landscapes within 25 years because of climate change. We will have more deer — but even fewer moose.

How can we fight to preserve the things we love? How can we take action to address climate change?

Well, that brings me to another thing I love about Vermont: its traditions not just of Yankee self-reliance, but also of neighborliness and civic duty. As we all know, New Hampshire’s state motto is “Live Free or Die.” They don’t even have to wear motorcycle helmets! Ours is “Freedom and Unity.”

Addressing climate change leans heavy on the “unity” part, on our ability and willingness to pull together.

We will reduce the fossil fuel emissions harming us and harming the beloved natural world around us — only by working together in how we choose to heat our buildings, power our cars, and conduct our industries. A case in point is a decision we are facing right now here in Middlebury: how to power the sludge dryer on our wastewater treatment plant.

Addressing climate change is a priority for Vermonters. The Yale Climate Opinion Map shows Vermont as among the states whose residents are most worried about climate change. And, according to that same map, it’s an even larger priority for Addison County, whose residents are among the five Vermont counties whose residents are even more worried about climate change than the state’s already high average. Clearly, we care and we want to act. It’s also the law. Vermont’s 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act calls on us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

Yet some of our leaders question whether we’re just too small to make a difference.

1. Sure. If I drive an EV that’s just one vehicle — who cares. But what if all of Vermont’s estimated 528,000 drivers chose EVs? Transportation is the largest driver of greenhouse gas emissions in our state. It accounts for 40% of our contribution to global warming. One decision multiplied by hundreds of thousands starts to get us somewhere.

How about heating and air conditioning? If I put solar panels on my roof and switch to heat pumps have I moved the needle? That’s just one home. But Vermont has a little over 343,000 housing units and close to 79,000 businesses, each one of which could switch to heat pumps or geothermal, drastically reducing the 32% of our emissions related to buildings, the second-largest driver of greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont (and estimated to become the largest by 2030).

Communities, I think, are a bit like families. I don’t know about you, but in the family I grew up in — hard-working, widowed mother, five children — we all did our part. That’s what was expected. As the next-to-the-youngest, I don’t remember ever getting a free pass because I was younger or smaller than my siblings. We operated on the principle of that famous Revolutionary War slogan: We’d best hang together or we’ll all hang separately.

Here in Vermont we see ourselves, and for good reason, as leaders throughout our history in many progressive and inspiring causes. We were the first to outlaw slavery, first to legalize same-sex civil unions — actions that proclaim our commitment to decency and to making a better world for all. But in terms of the fight against global warming, we are dead last amongst other New England states. Our per capita greenhouse gas emissions are 30% higher than those of Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island, and roughly 10% higher than those of Maine or New Hampshire. Yes. Even Live-Free-or-Die New Hampshire has lower per capita GHG emissions than Vermont. And elsewhere around the world? Vermont’s average annual GHG emissions per person are more than twice the global average.

Given the state of the planet, scientists tell us that every choice we make right now is critical. Our town is facing just such a critical choice over whether to go with a fossil gas or an electric sludge dryer as part of the renovation of the wastewater treatment plant. This decision will either dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions if we go with the electric option or dramatically magnify them if we go with fossil gas.

Can we count on our elected town leaders to understand that each seemingly small decision collectively determines our fate? Can we work together to take each small but critical step to protect the place we love?

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Gaen Murphree is a freelance writer and former news reporter here. When at the Independent her favorite beats included energy, agriculture and the environment. She serves on the Middlebury Energy Committee. All opinions expressed here are her own.