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Last week, a video of an Australian grandmother taking the shirt off her back and plucking a koala from a tree, as a bushfire engulfed the area around them went viral. The koala was taken to a local koala hospital where he was treated. The rescuer named him “Ellenborough Lewis” after her grandchildren. Everyone hoped the little guy would make, but the story didn’t have a fairytale ending. After it was determined that Lewis would not be able to recover from his injuries, he was euthanized.

CNN reports that koalas are likely dying by the hundreds as the bushfires destroyed their homes. Those koalas didn’t survive. We couldn’t save them. Why is the story of just one, Lewis, so important to us? Why does the video go viral and why are we so sad when little Lewis dies?

It’s obvious, you might think. We are truly compassionate at heart and when we see another human showing this kind of selfless compassion for another species we are touched. Maybe it tugs at the heart story we tell ourselves, we care. And koalas are so dang cute. It’s easy to feel for cute cuddly vulnerable Lewis and want to save him.

But despite the valiant efforts of this rescuer and of the medical professionals at the koala hospital, we did not save Lewis. Do these heroic efforts to save Lewis make his passing hurt more? Yes, probably. We are invested in his story and hope for a good ending. Reality can hurt.

If Lewis had just been a number like the other hundreds dying, his death might just cause us to shrug. Hundreds of dying koalas might be an amalgam too large for us to feel real compassion. And when the numbers are so large, the effect of witnessing one death does not seem like the same level of tragedy. But, when we’ve named him Lewis, it hurts.

In 1993 Steven Spielberg recreated the story of Oskar Schindler for the world to see. Schindler saved over a thousand Jews during World War 2. In the end, Schindler lamented if he had just sold his car, or his gold pin, or made more money, he could have saved more people; one more person.

Some numbers seem too large to wrap our brains around.

• 3057              – official death toll from Hurricane Maria
• 4.2 million      – deaths as a result of ambient air pollution each year
• 3.8 million      – deaths every year as a result of household exposure to smoke  dirty cookstoves and fuels
• 40%              – of insect populations in decline…

If we could just save one life…. But wait, we can!

Lewis is this week’s face of our climate emergency. We can’t bring him or those other koalas back. We can’t bring back the people who died from climate change intensified events like 2017’s Hurricane Maria. Nor can we bring back all those millions of people who die from ambient air pollution each year.

But, through our collective and individual actions, we can create change by transforming our lives, our communities, our workplaces, our countries (policies), and our world.

As the climate crisis intensifies, don’t ever believe the false story that you- one person- cannot make a difference or that the numbers are too big to fix. Transformational change comes from doing incremental change really well.

When you think about this, picture that Australian woman, Toni Doherty, who saw Lewis the koala running toward the fire. At that moment, she made a choice, a choice to save a life. Can you make the same choice to save a life?

Every day you have the opportunity in what you eat, how much you use and waste, how you get around, what you talk about with your friends and in your workplaces, who you vote for, and the policies you advocate for. Inaction is also a choice.

When the choice seems more distant from the threat, understanding the connection can be difficult. By looking at Project Drawdown’s solutions, we can begin to see where our actions are most effective.

Project Drawdown’s Top 10 Solutions By Total Atmospheric CO2 Equivalent Reduction

So, next time you got to the grocery store, think about Lewis and how you can save a life.