“Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” These words by the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm were never more apt than today.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), living on Planet Earth is a perilous privilege indeed. After eight years of research by hundreds of scientists around the globe, the IPCC’s 3,949-page report finds that human greenhouse gas emissions are “unequivocally” changing our climate in “dangerous,” “unprecedented” and “irreversible” ways.

With rising temperatures come a host of climatic extremes, from searing heat waves and droughts to devastating storms and sea level rise. Air pollution from fossil fuels is killing over 8 million people a year prematurely — one in five deaths worldwide — while floodwaters now reach 10 times as many people as previously known.

This summer alone, large swaths of the western United States are battling historic heat waves and wildfires, as predicted by climate science, costing hundreds of lives and untold property damage. Closer to home, southern New Hampshire set rainfall records in July as intense storms (also a predictable result of global warming) flooded homes and washed out roads and farms. Down south, another record-setting hurricane season is already underway.

Today’s climate crisis demands an allhands-on-deck response, not just from governments but from the people at large. While climate mitigation through massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is the first order of business, the time is long since passed when “do no harm” will suffice on its own. The responsibility falls on all of us to actively repair the damage done by helping our nation and world adapt to a destabilized climate and become resilient in the face of future heating.

America needs a national mobilization the likes of which we haven’t seen since World War II. It begins with building an army of a different kind to the one my granddad joined some 80 years ago, along with fellow members of the “Greatest Generation, who faced down the existential threat of fascism on foreign shores. Today’s army will consist of millions of young Americans in national service to help their own communities overcome the even greater threat posed by climate change while acquiring the skills and means to thrive as adults in a 21st century economy.

Modeled on the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, the Civilian Climate Corps would deliver badly needed public goods to withstand the climate crisis and help our nation transition to long-term sustainability. Corps members between the ages of 17 and 24 would embed in local communities to help maintain our ailing public lands, prevent wildfires, restore wetlands, protect biodiversity, green our cities, provide disaster response, and engage in proven efforts to reduce carbon emissions and enable the clean energy transition. They would be paid a livable wage and have the opportunity to attend college (or retire their college loans) before entering the new, sustainable economy.

Those who doubt the impact a Civilian Climate Corps would have should look no further than its CCC predecessor. During the height of the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps put some 3 million young men to work building over 100,000 miles of roads and trails, 318,000 dams and tens of thousands of bridges nationwide. They planted billions of trees to preserve the nation’s topsoil, strung telephone lines across mountain passes to connect the nation, and built or improved over 800 campgrounds and state parks to provide future generations a means of enjoying the outdoors. They even fought wildfires and assisted in hurricane relief. Their legacy is with us to this day.

Rather than focus on small towns and public lands alone, a modern CCC would also respond to the myriad climate needs facing front-line urban communities, from air pollution and extreme heat to lack of green space and healthy homes. In the process, it would unite increasingly diverse generations of Americans across social, geographic and political divides for the greater good.

But a Civilian Climate Corps cannot solve the climate crisis on its own. Instead, we should heed the urgent pleas of our youth that all Americans, especially those in power, stand up and serve however we are able, by helping neighbors harmed by climate change while cutting our greenhouse gas emissions and making sure our businesses, nonprofits and governments do the same.

For starters, we should demand that Congress serve the greater good by passing an aggressive climate-centered reconciliation package supported by President Biden that includes historic investments in the new clean energy economy as well as a Civilian Climate Corps.

Throughout our history, Americans have repeatedly risen to the challenge when faced with looming threats to our way of life. Will we rise up and serve again this time to protect our common home? There isn’t a moment to lose.

Dan Weeks of Nashua, a co-owner of ReVision Energy, completed his AmeriCorps service year with City Year Washington D.C. in 2001-02.