It is an honor to stand before you today.

You may not know it, but graduation ceremonies like this go all the way back to the 12th century. The pomp, circumstance, and costumes haven’t really changed much since the days of the Crusades.

So, almost 1000 years later, you are not the first to walk across a stage like this. That said, you are among the first to do so with ice bergs melting down to ice cubes. With climate change — so belatedly — at the center of the global conversation.

Unprecedented times, unprecedented circumstances. And so this is an unconventional commencement address.

Instead of the usual congratulations and “follow your dreams,” it starts with a simple message:

Save us.

Our home planet — this Earth — is in a spiral of hotter temperatures; more frequent and severe storms, droughts, famine, and wildfires; rising sea levels, increased poverty and population displacement; habitat and species loss; and expanding disease.

Save us.

You know this, of course. Climate change is woven into the very fabric of the world you have grown up in. The world you inherit. The planet’s alarm clock is already going off and Mother Nature is banging on our door, imploring us to wake up and act.

Make no mistake, though: we are already past the point of no return. But that is no reason for inaction — quite the contrary. There is a tremendous amount that we can do — big and small, individually and collectively, publicly and privately, locally and globally.

And, I am convinced, doing good that will also result in doing well. I hope to convince you today that surviving and thriving are in fact complements, not opposites. We can innovate and invest and learn to live more sustainably so that we slow its progress; we can innovate and invest and learn to live more justly and resiliently to mitigate its impacts.

Climate change is the defining human crisis and also our biggest opportunity. It’s the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.

And that where you come in. Science tells us that what we humans do and don’t do in the next few decades — your decades — will set the curve for generations to come. You won’t take “no” — or even “slow” — for an answer. Nor should you.

Like it or not, you will save us. In fact, yours may be the most important generation ever. Ever.

Let that sink in for a moment.

But you are not the first that the universe has chosen. Take a more recent, unintentionally exceptional group: the Greatest Generation. They were about your age when war came and had already experienced plenty of hardship. They were born in the horrific shadow of World War I and the last big pandemic, the Spanish Flu, only to live through the Great Depression.

Like you, their world had done them few favors. Like you, the seeds of that conflict were planted by generations past. No matter: it fell to them to save the world. As it falls to you.

Or look at Ukraine right now. An accidental president who had no idea he was going to need to save his nation from a nuclear-armed madman, avert World War 3, and bring the free world together as never before. Let alone somehow be a great leader to do it.

Ukraine has had a much longer and almost supernaturally difficult history as compared to the United States, and thus a lot of heroic generations — including this one. But I am confident that the Ukrainian people will call today’s generation one of their Greatest, just as we look back at World War 2 with the same adjectives. As it falls to you.

Make no mistake: mitigating climate change is not going to be quick or easy or cheap or painless or even certain. We must examine our most basic assumptions, our most basic definitions of what means to thrive as a species. That means placing sustainability and resilience and justice alongside economic profit in every transaction.

We must recognize that, for the first time in human history, geography is irrelevant to impact. We are all vulnerable but at the same time we are all empowered.

We must recognize that, unlike past generations, the American Dream may look quite different from that of our parents. For example, carbon costs may mean that lives are much more “local” before they can be “global” again. Today’s cheap air travel could become unaffordable, between carbon-loaded jet fuel and early investments in electric or hydrogen airliners. Both necessary; both expensive, perhaps prohibitively so, at least in the near-term.

The same is probably true of all globalized supply chains. “Made in China” may soon be expensive rather than economical. Fruits and vegetables may again be truly seasonal; no more cargo planes arriving with Brazilian strawberries during Chicago’s winter. On the other hand, cheap and abundant renewable energy may create huge new opportunities for local agriculture. Maybe you can still enjoy a bowl of strawberries after you shovel snow?

That’s where I double-down on optimism. I am confident that you can be the Greatest Generation 2.0. Because I see opportunity — not just challenge — for you everywhere in this unprecedented future. In other words, there is ample opportunity to do good while doing well.

I see this every day at Stanford as we make sustainability innovation real. I see it in the clean tech start-ups I work with around the world. From clean energy, zero-GHG transportation, and decarbonized supply chains to hyper-efficient appliances, buildings, and cities to agriculture and food systems. I see it in the compromises and unintended consequences of all that, from new lifecycle risks like the rare earth metals and recycling risks around solar panels and batteries. I see it in the policy challenges that come with world-changing tools like artificial intelligence and “new normals” around privacy to social and economic changes that come with old industries and jobs going away and being replaced by new industries and jobs.

Everything, everywhere, all at once, and right now. This is your time to dive in and do — dive in and lead. Everyone: no matter what your major, no matter what your strengths, every job is a climate job now. Not just the engineers but the English majors, the scientists and the communicators, social science just as much as hard science — perhaps even more.

In turn, every job is an opportunity to do well and do good, finding the innovation and entrepreneurship and advocacy and transformation to survive and thrive in this brave new world. No matter how you measure “well” — whether its economic, scientific, social, or even psychic. It falls to you.

Think about it: channeling the indominable spirit of your grandparents and great-grandparents to attack today’s global, existential threat. I hope some of them are here today and so excited to see you in that same spirit.

Am I looking at the Greatest Generation 2.0? For all of our sakes, I dearly hope so.

Thank you very much.