I recall an editorial cartoon about 1972 of a typical cartoon plutocrat responding to an ecological study saying that global warming would cause a crisis in 35 years, 'oh, that's OK! I thought you had said 3 to 5 years!'
Eventually short-term thinking fails... Sounds as if our 35 years (and a couple of decades of grace) are just about up.
Excellent analysis, and very worrying. I'm in the south of UK, and in my area we have not had any appreciable rainfall for a couple of months now, with very high temperatures (for here, at least, though not compared with some that I have seen mentioned in the US and in continental Europe). Lawns look like straw and crunch underfoot if walked on; even the weeds have given up the unequal struggle, and some beautiful mature trees are looking very stressed.
Rivers and canals are having to be very carefully managed, and some have become partially unnavigable; we have taken plentiful rain for granted for so long, and adaptation may take more time that we can afford. We have ignored the warnings, pushing them into the future, and the consequences are arriving, as you state, 'Gradually, and then suddenly'.
This is an outstanding essay and an excellent follow up to Mary Geddry's essay, "Carpe Momentum: The Climate Crisis Won’t Be Fixed, It Will Be Exploited" from July 20, 2025. Reality bites.
"Carpe Momentum: The Climate Crisis Won’t Be Fixed, It Will Be Exploited"
An excellent piece. We are approaching the wreckage part of a slow-motion train-wreck. as you so eloquently describe. While pursuing my degree in the natural sciences, I studied global warming and the likelihood of catastrophic consequences if we failed to act with urgency. It’s strange to look back over the last four decades and reflect on why so little was done. Scientific illiteracy, corporate misinformation campaigns, and a lack of policy making experience in the scientific community all contributed to the failure of the world to respond.
I share your concern for the future. We will soon bear witness to unimaginable disasters, both in size and scope. It will not be possible to equip ourselves for the resulting devastation, as you point out.
The nihilists and psychopaths who now hold power across the globe expect, even invite, the destruction of the planet their myopic, deranged greed is facilitating. In the meantime, they look for opportunities in the doomscape while building elaborate bunkers and planning colonies on other planets.
Somehow, we the people can’t seem to stop the madness of a few. One might conclude there is a fundamental flaw in our species that we participate in and allow the conditions on track to destroy us.
Julie, yes, just when we need wisdom, foresight, and integrity, we get monsters like death star(47) and his cabal. The going to other planets is BS. Bunkers here, yes. Great way to live. I have thought for years the our infrastructure is frail. Combine that with incredible hubris and here we are. I am 83 with no direct descendants. I have plenty of younger friends and relatives to worry about. Some of them are concerned, but not enough of them. Some of them rely on government help, but doubt they vote. I am watching severe flooding in my home state, Indiana. Gary, Indiana, mostly black, has been without power for a couple weeks after very strong winds went through. And this week on another thread, a couple of my ex-high school classmates were railing about socialism and we should vote red. i hope neither of them drive on public streets.
You are not alone! And it’s certainly discouraging when right wing propaganda finds such eager consumers. We must do what we can reasonably do. Our powers are to vote and to inspire others to vote if they care about facts, reason and the rule of law.
Non-voters were the largest eligible voter bloc in 2024. A key MAGA anti-democracy strategy is to trigger enough doubt and negative feelings about candidates who oppose MAGA that ambivalent voters don’t vote.
excellent article... generally speaking, the connections between environment (air, temperature, water, hours of light during the day) and natural systems (bugs, animals, agriculture) are not well understood by the average person. many are surprised to learn the connection between slight temperature changes and the deleterious impact on animal, vegetable or mineral. Ticks are a great example, the destruction of coral reefs due to both slight temperature changes and the increased absorption of CO2 by the ocean which makes the ocean more acidic (think carbolic acid in soda) which dissolves the shells of crustations, accelerates dissolution of calcium (i.e. coral ) etc. dark ocean water absorbs energy and thus warms.. polar caps reflect energy (a good thing) except when they melt away and are replaced by dark ocean water which does not reflect. all this stuff is known, demonstrated, old news science, much of it known from the 1800s. what we have forgotten is that the planet is finite. as we moved from the days of sailing for 3 months to get from here to England to a 5 hour flight, we begin to realize it is indeed finite and small. we do not grasp that cause and effect do not have to happen within a few minutes... the impact may take months, years or decades.. that also means that it takes months, years, decades to see any reversal of same. the good news is that the rest of the world has woken up to sustainable energy, if not for the environment, then for economic stability for the next time some dope invades a country in the middle east or attacks a country that sits on top of a major supply artery. somehow we lost that memo. Grant knew that controlling the Mississippi during the Civil War would hasten the end of the war... people have known that about the Nile, about all sorts of other choke points. the beauty of solar energy is you do not need to ship the sun... it comes to you largely free of charge. Sadly there are forces in this country who have undertaken a campaign of disinformation to protect the oil and natural gas industry, creating a concerted effort to undermine renewable energy. just to be sure, the president is taking our tax dollars to kill off this industry that will reduce our electric prices, protect remaining supplies of gas and oil, and reduce global warming. i can only guess that they do not give a shit about their own kids and grandkids... they certainly do not give a shit about the rest of us. and we are stupid enough to ignore the massive wind and solar installations doing just fine in this country and the really massive ones going on in the rest of the world...
Fabulous article - also incredibly disturbing. I was just researching a new product yesterday called plug-in solar which is a low wattage collector (300 to 800 W). The collected energy is not handed over to the local utility, it just alters where the home pulls its electricity from first. At this point, my local utility is treating it just like the traditional grid connection, and hangs on all of the traditional costs of installation that aren’t necessary with these new plug-in systems (e.g. licensed solar contractors)
Excellent! I am a retired geology professor married to a climate scientist. If I were still teaching, this would be required reading for my students at every level, from intro undergrads to advanced graduate students. As it is, I am sharing it widely.
Donald Trump, the man who suggested that bleach might be a cure for Covid, continues to assert that Climate Change is a hoax. Astonishingly, MAGA and others believe him. Corporations such as the fossil fuel and automakers know better but money makes them into liars.
Your essay would make TomDispatch applaud . Thank you.
Yes having lived in Reno for the past 10 years, I can say the summers are hotter and it doesn't cool down at night like it used to. We have had some mild winters the past few years and last year almost no snow. Climate change is real and it will affect all of us on this planet!
I don’t believe in the evangelicals’ picture of end times. I do believe in the power of Mother Nature. She always wins in the end.
Kathryn, I have been waiting to see the Rapture, so those who believe in it, just depart, hopefully to a black hole.
a wonderful - wonderfully sobering - account.
I recall an editorial cartoon about 1972 of a typical cartoon plutocrat responding to an ecological study saying that global warming would cause a crisis in 35 years, 'oh, that's OK! I thought you had said 3 to 5 years!'
Eventually short-term thinking fails... Sounds as if our 35 years (and a couple of decades of grace) are just about up.
Excellent analysis, and very worrying. I'm in the south of UK, and in my area we have not had any appreciable rainfall for a couple of months now, with very high temperatures (for here, at least, though not compared with some that I have seen mentioned in the US and in continental Europe). Lawns look like straw and crunch underfoot if walked on; even the weeds have given up the unequal struggle, and some beautiful mature trees are looking very stressed.
Rivers and canals are having to be very carefully managed, and some have become partially unnavigable; we have taken plentiful rain for granted for so long, and adaptation may take more time that we can afford. We have ignored the warnings, pushing them into the future, and the consequences are arriving, as you state, 'Gradually, and then suddenly'.
This is an outstanding essay and an excellent follow up to Mary Geddry's essay, "Carpe Momentum: The Climate Crisis Won’t Be Fixed, It Will Be Exploited" from July 20, 2025. Reality bites.
"Carpe Momentum: The Climate Crisis Won’t Be Fixed, It Will Be Exploited"
https://marygeddry.substack.com/p/carpe-momentum-the-climate-crisis?r=hc4cs&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Humans have been treating the oceans and seas as their personal garbage bin for far too long.
An excellent piece. We are approaching the wreckage part of a slow-motion train-wreck. as you so eloquently describe. While pursuing my degree in the natural sciences, I studied global warming and the likelihood of catastrophic consequences if we failed to act with urgency. It’s strange to look back over the last four decades and reflect on why so little was done. Scientific illiteracy, corporate misinformation campaigns, and a lack of policy making experience in the scientific community all contributed to the failure of the world to respond.
I share your concern for the future. We will soon bear witness to unimaginable disasters, both in size and scope. It will not be possible to equip ourselves for the resulting devastation, as you point out.
Great and insightful read. Shared. Thank you.
The nihilists and psychopaths who now hold power across the globe expect, even invite, the destruction of the planet their myopic, deranged greed is facilitating. In the meantime, they look for opportunities in the doomscape while building elaborate bunkers and planning colonies on other planets.
Somehow, we the people can’t seem to stop the madness of a few. One might conclude there is a fundamental flaw in our species that we participate in and allow the conditions on track to destroy us.
Julie, yes, just when we need wisdom, foresight, and integrity, we get monsters like death star(47) and his cabal. The going to other planets is BS. Bunkers here, yes. Great way to live. I have thought for years the our infrastructure is frail. Combine that with incredible hubris and here we are. I am 83 with no direct descendants. I have plenty of younger friends and relatives to worry about. Some of them are concerned, but not enough of them. Some of them rely on government help, but doubt they vote. I am watching severe flooding in my home state, Indiana. Gary, Indiana, mostly black, has been without power for a couple weeks after very strong winds went through. And this week on another thread, a couple of my ex-high school classmates were railing about socialism and we should vote red. i hope neither of them drive on public streets.
You are not alone! And it’s certainly discouraging when right wing propaganda finds such eager consumers. We must do what we can reasonably do. Our powers are to vote and to inspire others to vote if they care about facts, reason and the rule of law.
Non-voters were the largest eligible voter bloc in 2024. A key MAGA anti-democracy strategy is to trigger enough doubt and negative feelings about candidates who oppose MAGA that ambivalent voters don’t vote.
excellent article... generally speaking, the connections between environment (air, temperature, water, hours of light during the day) and natural systems (bugs, animals, agriculture) are not well understood by the average person. many are surprised to learn the connection between slight temperature changes and the deleterious impact on animal, vegetable or mineral. Ticks are a great example, the destruction of coral reefs due to both slight temperature changes and the increased absorption of CO2 by the ocean which makes the ocean more acidic (think carbolic acid in soda) which dissolves the shells of crustations, accelerates dissolution of calcium (i.e. coral ) etc. dark ocean water absorbs energy and thus warms.. polar caps reflect energy (a good thing) except when they melt away and are replaced by dark ocean water which does not reflect. all this stuff is known, demonstrated, old news science, much of it known from the 1800s. what we have forgotten is that the planet is finite. as we moved from the days of sailing for 3 months to get from here to England to a 5 hour flight, we begin to realize it is indeed finite and small. we do not grasp that cause and effect do not have to happen within a few minutes... the impact may take months, years or decades.. that also means that it takes months, years, decades to see any reversal of same. the good news is that the rest of the world has woken up to sustainable energy, if not for the environment, then for economic stability for the next time some dope invades a country in the middle east or attacks a country that sits on top of a major supply artery. somehow we lost that memo. Grant knew that controlling the Mississippi during the Civil War would hasten the end of the war... people have known that about the Nile, about all sorts of other choke points. the beauty of solar energy is you do not need to ship the sun... it comes to you largely free of charge. Sadly there are forces in this country who have undertaken a campaign of disinformation to protect the oil and natural gas industry, creating a concerted effort to undermine renewable energy. just to be sure, the president is taking our tax dollars to kill off this industry that will reduce our electric prices, protect remaining supplies of gas and oil, and reduce global warming. i can only guess that they do not give a shit about their own kids and grandkids... they certainly do not give a shit about the rest of us. and we are stupid enough to ignore the massive wind and solar installations doing just fine in this country and the really massive ones going on in the rest of the world...
Terrific—and terrifying—essay.
Fabulous article - also incredibly disturbing. I was just researching a new product yesterday called plug-in solar which is a low wattage collector (300 to 800 W). The collected energy is not handed over to the local utility, it just alters where the home pulls its electricity from first. At this point, my local utility is treating it just like the traditional grid connection, and hangs on all of the traditional costs of installation that aren’t necessary with these new plug-in systems (e.g. licensed solar contractors)
Thank you.
Thank you
Excellent! I am a retired geology professor married to a climate scientist. If I were still teaching, this would be required reading for my students at every level, from intro undergrads to advanced graduate students. As it is, I am sharing it widely.
Donald Trump, the man who suggested that bleach might be a cure for Covid, continues to assert that Climate Change is a hoax. Astonishingly, MAGA and others believe him. Corporations such as the fossil fuel and automakers know better but money makes them into liars.
Your essay would make TomDispatch applaud . Thank you.
Yes having lived in Reno for the past 10 years, I can say the summers are hotter and it doesn't cool down at night like it used to. We have had some mild winters the past few years and last year almost no snow. Climate change is real and it will affect all of us on this planet!