Eating Global Warming

Eating Global Warming

By Robert Hunziker

A new report by EAT-Lancet Commission (EAT 2.0) explains how we are eating global warming, and what to do about it. This is the second go around by the Commission. An earlier report in 2019 EAT 1.0 was met by fierce meat-lover opposition to EAT’s credo: “Eat less meat and more plants.”

Regardless of fierce opposition, after all EAT doesn’t completely eliminate meat from your diet, rather, the rationale behind EAT’s credo carries solid logic, and it’s superbly helpful as a control mechanism, hopefully modulating excessive global heat, which has become a systemic problem for all life on Earth, as a similar issue reigns across the globe with ocean water turning into a gigantic hot tub, disrupting, destroying marine life, as sea surface temperature in August 2025 hit 20°C, a record for the ERSST data base going back to 1854. Global warming is hitting all aspects of humanity’s easy living off nature.

Industrial agriculture and burning fossil fuel for energy are major contributors to greenhouse gases and global warming. In that regard, the “climate realism” school of thought, which has been adopted over the past two years by the fossil fuel industry and corporations across the board, claims we need to accept climate change for what it is, live with it, adapt to it… “git a life.” However, the global warming issue has grown into a monster that’s bordering on complete takedown of major ecosystems supportive of thousands of years of the foundation of civilization, no laughing matter, in which the entire climate system re-engineers into a very bad dream, a worse-than-ever nightmare come true. Senior respected climate scientists claim ecosystem tipping points are on the verge of collapse. Oops… what to do? Is SRM (Solar Radiation Mgmt.) an answer, or is it Frankenstein in a sheep’s skin?

According to the EAT 2.0 report: “Food systems account for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, driven largely by animal farming, which is a major source of methane and a drain on land and water resources. Even if the world transitions away from fossil fuels, food alone could push temperatures past the 1.5°C threshold needed to limit warming. The onus falls disproportionately on the wealthy: The richest 30% of the world’s population are responsible for more than 70% of food-related pressures.” (Agnieszka de Sousa, Dinner Without a Side of Global Warming, Bloomberg/Green, Oct 4, 2025)

EAT’s prescription is not a radical concept. It’s called “planetary health diet” and provides for a mixture of flexibility and does not push veganism as a worldly solution. Animal-sourced foods are optional and recommend moderate use guided by the 1+1 principle of one dairy serving and one other animal protein daily. One goal of the planetary health diet is cutting greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 15%.

However, pushback is almost certain to overwhelm EAT’s best intentions. As things stand, global meat consumption continues to grow, and alternative protein is weakening in popularity. Plus, a new kid on the block threatens social acceptance of EAT as the manosphere and kissing cousin MAGA lather their chops on red meat. Indisputably, veganism doesn’t score well with right-wing politics, which is experiencing a worldwide renaissance. EAT 2.0 is thus up against powerful odds even as its prescription for better personal health and a cooler planet are commendable-plus.

All of which comes full circle back to the problem of climate change. Of course it’s real; just check nightly news broadcasts for the latest in climate system destructiveness. Ask anybody who’s been around decades, never seen anything like it. Of course it’s real, an email message from a 45-year wilderness guide who has logged over 5,000 miles canoeing found a disturbing number of dead trees amongst far-reaching loss of insect life in several regions as the wild turns still. Of course it’s real; climate change chases property insurance companies out of some regions of the country. Of course it’s real; it hammers the Midwest with pounding torrential rains/instant flooding and punishing hail that spikes up property insurance rates. Of course it’s real; flash floods, e.g., Texas 2025, becoming a regular feature. Of course it’s real; within just the past two weeks the European Union declared: EU Climate Breakdown.

A crescendo of historic proportions is brewing, on one side fossil fuel interests push more oil and gas production and pooh-pooh climate mitigation measures and turn up noses at ‘sissy’ planetary health diets. On the other side, climate scientists across the globe are warning, stop CO2 and all greenhouse gases or suffer a loss of centuries of nature’s support network as oceans also rise to the occasion in high fashion. The options are to live with chaos and fossil fuels or to live with nature and green solutions. There is no time to waste; the world must choose: (a.) Steak or Beyond Meat (b) Vivid Green or Smokestack Black.

Yet, ecosystems throughout the planet, e.g., (1) Greenland (2) Arctic ice mass (3) Tibetan glaciers (4) the Amazon rainforest, have been vastly altered by the human footprint, aka: the Anthropocene (Age of Humans) to such an extreme that nature is turning lopsidedly dangerous. By all appearances, something big must be done very, very soon to stem this increasingly out-of-control climate system or simply toss in the towel on massive worldwide mitigation and bear the burden of a slashing climate system that upends every source of life support.

But the problem is even bigger than that because the costs factor to ‘right the ship of state’ is humongous at $7 trillion per year installing/building renewables to achieve Net Zero by 2050. Last year (2024) was a record year for renewable installations globally at approximately $2 trillion. That’s a shortfall of $5 trillion. Therefore, only an all-in all-world commitment can maybe solve this. But the all-in world can’t even come together to stop the utter insanity of slaughter of innocent people with the highest number of countries engaged in armed conflict since World War II according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo; where does that leave worldwide prioritizing of $7 trillion/yr for Net Zero/2050?

“Our entire infrastructure & civilization are based around climate that no longer exists.” (John Marsha, Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds)

This article was originally published on Oct. 10, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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October 12, 2025October 12, 2025

EU Climate Breakdown

Photo by Dietmar Rabich is licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

EU Climate Breakdown

By Robert Hunziker

In the sharpest possible contrast to the US approach to climate change, in a very grown-up adult fashion, the EU has publicly stated: “EU officials warn climate breakdown and wildlife loss are ruining ecosystems that underpin the economy.” (Environmental Damage is Putting European Way of Life at Risk, Says Report, The Guardian, Sept. 29, 2025)

Whew!!! The world is still sane.

Like a cool refreshing late afternoon breeze, a great sense of relief has spread across the Continent. With a remarkable pitch-perfect admission, the EU informs its citizens of the truth no matter how much it hurts. The upside to this admission is an understanding by the citizens that something horrible is wrong. Ipso facto, they must pull together to do something about it. Definitively, this pulls everybody into the mix to be aware, be prepared, make sacrifices, if necessary, to make it right.

Not only has the EU warned about environmental degradation but also warned against “… weakening green rules… as far-right parties that deny the science of climate change gain ground across the continent. The US has also put pressure on EU leaders to buy its fossil fuels and ditch pollution standards that affect imported goods,” Ibid.

It’s even worse than that: “In a speech at the UN on Wednesday, Donald Trump claimed without evidence that many European countries were on the ‘brink of destruction because of the green energy agenda’. The US president blamed a 37% drop in EU emissions since 1990 for lost jobs and factory closures,” Ibid.

Clearly, the way forward for climate change mitigation measures is truly and literally the fight of a lifetime as right-wing interests, which are rapidly gaining a foothold, adhere to anti-science conjecture sans evidence. Even Greta’s green Sweden is retreating from its commitments: “Last year, its fossil fuel emissions saw their biggest increase in 15 years. During that time period, carbon uptake by its vast forests have halved. And since the country swung to the right in its last general election, the government has slashed its investments in climate action. Researchers say Sweden’s policy shifts, and its evolving role as a frontrunner, is now contributing to the weakening of Europe’s climate agenda.” (Sweden, an Early Climate Leader, Is Retreating From Its Environmental Commitments, Part of an EU Trend, Inside Climate News, August 3, 2025)

The timing for withdrawals from climate change mitigation efforts and abandonment of national commitments to the Paris 2015 climate agreement could not possibly be worse. Evidence is ubiquitous that the climate system has morphed into the equivalent of a runaway freight train barreling down a mountainside with severely weakened brake linings.

And climate scientists are uniformly warning that disaster is right around the corner unless CO2 emissions are halted. Recent statements by climate scientists: “I am scared… Unless immediate action is taken, catastrophic sea level rise will hit during current lifetimes… We do not yet understand this abrupt 10-fold shift in global mean temperature in only one year; it’s never happened before… Global ecosystems are starting to fail… Earth is losing its resilience… This is the first time in human history we are forced to seriously consider we are destabilizing the entire planet, etc.”

The scientific community is speaking out at the highest levels like never before, warning that we are treading on dangerous levels of climate change, spewing CO2 into the atmosphere at all-time record amounts, well over +200% annualized rate since the turn of the century. Nobody in the year 2000 thought it was possible for annual CO2 emissions of 1.25 ppm in 2000 to skyrocket to 3.75 ppm in 2024, marking the largest yearly increase on record since measurements began in the 1950s. Indeed, given enough time, excessive CO2-heat-generation becomes a surefire destroyer of precious ecosystems that support life, e.g., the EU warning discussed herein.

It’s almost as if the Curse of Oblivion has overtaken sensibility. This curse erases identification of events from existence. It’s a preamble to an extinction event. But of course (wink-wink) extinction is not realistically possible, or is it? After all, in the real world, civilizations do go extinct, e.g., the Indus Valley Civilization went extinct around 1900 BCE because of environmental factors, as drought caused Saraswati River to die with widespread drought-caused agricultural failure; the Mayan Civilization Classic Period went extinct from overpopulation, environmental degradation, and prolonged drought (sounds too familiar). According to fact-based science, at least eleven (11) civilizations have gone extinct. Extinction is always in the cards; it’s just a matter of who’s dealing.

The recent European Environment Agency 7^th report, published every five years, unintentionally endorses the onset of extinction; (1) 80% of protected habitat in poor or bad condition (2) the EU’s carbon sink has declined 30% due to logging, wildfires, and pests damage (3) transport and food emissions have barely budged (4) water stress is affecting 33% of Europeans (5) the entire EU is struggling to meet 2030 emissions targets. The EU report only found two of twenty-two specific policy targets for 2030 on track. Of major concern, the state of the natural environment was judged to be extremely worrying as no biodiversity indicators are on track to meet 2030 targets.

At issue is abrupt change in policy directions by EU leaders that have clearly shifted focus “from climate action to economic competitiveness,” thus weakening green policies as part of “simplification” that campaigners claim as “deregulation.” Oh My! climate change mitigation policy is now beholden to “deregulation,” which is the soft term for “elimination.” America has taken the leading role in deregulation, as the EU, in puppy dog fashion, follows along.

In simplest of terms, right-wing anti-science policy shifts as well as EU leadership shifts of climate action to economic competitiveness are derailing climate change mitigation and undercutting any chance to meet 2030 emissions targets as Net Zero 2050 looks like a distant apparition. The Curse of Oblivion never had it so good.

This article was originally published on Oct. 3, 2025 © Counterpunch
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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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October 1, 2025

The Curse of the Blob

The Curse of the Blob

By Robert Hunziker

It’s back; it’s bigger; it’s hotter. The Blob has returned to the Pacific Ocean in style, extending all the way from Japan to the US West Coast, haunting the very essence of marine life and igniting additional global warming on land. Nobody thought it could return with so much vigor and ferocity and expansiveness so soon. But here it is in 2025, once again setting all-time heat records.

The Blob’s current record-breaking heatwave extends 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the US West Coast. In due course, this could negatively impact (kill) marine life (e.g., 2025 Western Australia, 30,000 dead fish wash ashore) and goose up the severity of global warming on land; alternatively, it could, hopefully, modulate. It’s all about climate system interconnectivity. But regardless, it keeps coming back.

This version of The Blob established a sea surface temperature record in August 2025 of 20°C, a record for the ERSST data base going back to 1854. This data is provided by NOAA/NCEI aka, National Centers for Environmental Information, which is the world’s leading authority for weather and climate data. (The 2025 Trump administration proposed budget calls for major cuts in NOAA/NCEI funding, meaning society will likely be blindfolded).

There has been a recurring presence this century of The Blob in the Pacific Ocean, for example, in 2013 a very severe heatwave occurred followed by another Blob heatstroke in 2019. This recurring behavior is cause for concern by scientists as massive die-offs of marine life litter coastlines. But in past circumstances the heatwaves eventually modulate as strong fall and winter storms track across the water and upwelling occurs, bringing cooler waters from depth to surface. However, the entire ocean complex may be entering a new state, a new threatening regime change never experienced nor expected.

Massive Ocean Regime Shift

The Blob’s record-setting heat curiously jives with a recent study claiming a fundamental shift in ocean behavior, referring to the dreaded tipping point at hand, ScienceDaily d/d July 26^th, 2025: The Oceans are Overheating – and Scientists Say a Tipping Point May be Here. In fact, this new study is accompanied by a statement showing deep concern by Zhenzhong Zeng, PhD, Earth Systems Scientist, China Southern University of Science and Technology, co-author of the study clearly stating: “I am very scared.”

Scientists are not supposed to make statements like that lest they are labeled as scaremongers. Climate scientists almost always take the conservative approach because the field of study demands rigorous supporting factual data, thus begging the question of what should be expected of a scientist confronted by actual scary data?

“I think almost all of the Earth system model projections are wrong… Record marine heatwaves may signal a permanent shift in the oceans.” (Zeng) The Zeng study, starting in 2023, identified heatwaves classified as massively extensive on a scale never registered before covering 96% of the world’s oceans consistently for 500 days. Zeng has good reason to be “scared.”

And Zeng is in good company. A US EPA (subject to Trump funding cuts) study showed ocean heat content to 2,300 feet depth increasing 5-fold since 2020. A 5-fold increase in only 5 years; that’s incredible and incomprehensibly scary and a remarkably chilling development.

The current version of The Blob is one more extension to Zeng’s study and another good reason to be concerned. Moreover, marine heatwaves this decade have lasted four times (4x) longer than the historical record. Hot oceans accelerate climate change. As water temperatures rise, oceans lose ability to absorb excessive heat and land temperatures rise accordingly.

Indeed, the bottom line to all above is “it’s scary,” as global warming’s impact has turned ubiquitous across land, ocean, and sea as a menacing threat to everything we hold dear.

The Zeng study identified peak ocean temperatures exceeding normal by 3C and hitting levels that surpass what most marine organisms can survive. Moreover, five hundred (500) days of consistent heatwaves with peak temperatures at 3C happens to be well above the level that contributing scientists of the IPCC say exceeds “ecosystem tipping points of no return,” accelerating a hell-on-wheels climate system. (World on Track for Catastrophic 3 Degrees Celsius Warming, UN Warns, Politico, October 24, 2024).

The ’hell-on-wheels’ climate: (1) Based upon climate disasters on nightly mainstream news the past 2-3 years, in real time, the world climate system has already gone bonkers (2) Leading climate scientists warn of six (6) impending major ecosystems on edge at sensitive tipping points ‘of no return’ (3) Polar scientists, claiming fossil fuel CO2 emissions must stop now, warn of a massive Antarctic catastrophic scenario within current lifetimes (4) Fossil fuel CO2 emissions, up annualized by a whopping 200% since 2000, set new records (5) Global heat sets new records (6) Ocean heat sets new records (7) Top scientists stymied by a sudden, radical 10-fold jump-shift in global mean temperature within only one year, never happened before (8) Key world players decrease or withdraw entirely from climate mitigation (95% of Countries Miss Deadline to Submit Climate Pledges, CarbonBrief, Feb. 2025)

Ergo, expectations of a bumpy road ahead are grossly understated.

This article was originally published on Sept. 28, 2025 © Counterpunch
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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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September 29, 2025October 1, 2025

China Is Greening the Global South

China Is Greening the Global South

By Robert Hunziker

But Net Zero Needs $7 Trillion/Yr

China is establishing a world leadership role via green energy as the consummate bargaining tool. Its foreign direct investment, led by its green tech industry, over the past three years, is upwards of $227 billion. According to Bloomberg (China’s Marshall Plan Is Running on Batteries d/d September 9, 2025) adjusted for inflation that figure equals the post WWII Marshall Plan. China’s green tech alone came to $138 billion in 2023-24

But, “Net Zero” is the costliest endeavor in human history.

According to an extensive study by Bloomberg NEF, it requires a staggering $7 trillion a year in renewable investments to achieve net zero by 2050, totaling $175 trillion by 2050. Hmm.

Accordingly, in 2024 the world invested a record amount, or roughly $2 trillion, which was $5 trillion short of what is necessary per annum for net zero/2050. That $5 trillion shortfall increases the bogey next year and the years after for every year below $7 trillion, until it’ll take $8 trillion in one year, then $9T, then more.

For comparison purposes: The Marshall Plan, or European Recovery Program, cost approximately $13.3 billion between 1948 and 1952. Adjusted for inflation, it would be roughly $130 billion in today’s dollars, looking very peaked next to Net Zero.

China is rapidly gaining favor to win the Green Award of the 21^st Century. Thanks to Chinese foresight, nearly 2/3rds of emerging markets now have a larger share of solar power in grids than does the US at roughly 9%. “The US is increasingly resembling a steampunk relic still dependent on 19^th century furnace and turbine technology to fuel its dreams of artificial intelligence.” (Bloomberg) This backwardness is reminiscent of the 19^th century’s final wagon train lumbering West as trains sped by.

In a direct shot at the heart of America’s archaic oil production CO2 emissions, China’s solar exports alone in 2024 were enough to cut global CO2 emissions by 4 billion metric tons. This is happening as China’s greenfield spending takes stride, e.g., COBCO, a $2B lithium-ion battery factory opened in Morocco in June with capacity of 70 gigawatt hours of batteries per year, or sizeable enough to power 1.2 million EVs annually.

Another China victory, in Jakarta, a solar panel factory has been built to produce 1.6 gigawatts of modules per year, which will accommodate Indonesia’s plans for 17.1 GW of photovoltaic power generation by 2035.

China’s foreign investments in the Global South brings in its path jobs, energy independence, economic growth, clean air, and hopefully, reprieve from the threat of disruptive climate change, although this challenge is nearly out of control after a couple hundred years of burning fossil fuel with CO2 emissions. It’ll take decades and trillions upon trillions of dollars to tame the CO2 beast.

Aside from China’s direct foreign investment in the Global South, US tariffs have been a bonanza for China’s solar panel industry as African imports increased by 60% over the past year.

The US abandonment of green energy is quickly looking like one of the greatest blunders in US history, missing out on a moonshot of rapid growth with high paying jobs, the formula for national greatness. There is evidence that the clean-energy revolution isn’t losing because of Trump policies. Rather, it is relocating by leaving the US behind coughing in clouds of dust. For example, the EU increased green investment dollars up 63% to nearly $76 billion, double the US paltry $37 billion.

Investment capital is fleeing the US renewable market to go elsewhere for razor-edge green investments, e.g., both TotalEnergies SE and German energy giant RWE AG are rerouting wind energy plans to the North Sea at the expense of US investment projects in wind. Major international green players are abandoning the US market as the president claims wind energy is “ruining our country.”

Fascinatingly, both India and China are working hard towards becoming clean energy superpowers. For example, India is installing record amounts of renewables and retiring fossil fuels but still forced to add coal power plants to meet heavy power requirements of a rapidly emerging middle class, and extraordinary demands for power to counter global warming to meet surging sales of air conditioners, 13.3 M units in 2024, up 30% over 2023, and demand is skyrocketing, as global warming leaves its mark on India.

“As the climate warms, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe across India. Indians have recently experienced extreme heat waves, floods, water shortages, and irregular monsoon patterns.” (Yale Climate Change Communication, May 22, 2025)

Meanwhile in America, according to a recent Bloomberg subtitle: “When will US citizens realize how badly they’ve been shortchanged on renewables?

It wasn’t that many years ago when the US was the world’s sole clean energy superpower, leading the world in connecting wind and solar to the grid. It was an enviable position that others sought to emulate. And they are doing just that. China added eight times (8x) more renewables than the US last year. Now, India is on the hunt, connecting 22 gigawatts of wind and solar in the first half of 2025, as America sucks up into its tailpipe.

Renewables investment dollars are universal and do not honor national borders. They honor return on investment (ROI), and international investment is rapidly shifting from US renewables to India and the EU where governmental policies actively promote development. Indeed, it is one of the major growth stories of the 21^st century.

Only a few years ago nobody would have predicted America’s world leadership role in renewables would deteriorate, stooping to a level where, finally, “the US is the big loser”.

This article was originally published on Sept. 26, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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September 25, 2025

Senator Whitehouse: “It May Be Too Late”

Climate change today is all about a massive dislocation of the climate system, not unlike the loss of ozone molecules 40 years ago. Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash — Climate change today is all about a massive dislocation of the climate system, not unlike the loss of ozone molecules 40 years ago. *Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash*

Senator Whitehouse: “It May Be Too Late”

By Robert Hunziker

Real estate has become climate change’s biggest victim. Climate change is attacking America’s most valuable, biggest asset class. For the first time in history there are regions of the country where major property insurers have dropped coverage altogether as elsewhere rates are on the climb, pricing some buyers out of the market.

America’s politicians punted on tackling climate change decades ago, except for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who has masterfully delivered more than 290 “Time to Wake Up” climate speeches to the Senate, calling out deniers and demanding bold action. If Congress had been composed of “Whitehouse intellect,” the world climate system would be in much better shape today. And not threatening the American Dream of Homeownership.

At a Senate confirmation hearing for Trump appointee Michael Faulkender as Deputy Treasury Secretary, Senator Whitehouse opened up all firing cylinders, blasting away like there’s no tomorrow, which may be where we’re headed after listening to the senator’s scolding rendition of how Congress has failed climate change impacting the financial system and US economy. In short, climate change is raising hell with the financial system as US property insurance goes up in flames.

In his opening remarks, the senator referenced “very dark economic storm clouds on the horizon,” because of climate change which the administration cannot seriously address because massive political funding has made it “an article of faith to deny climate change,” in fact, claiming “it’s a hoax.” This perverse attitude is now holding America’s homeowner’s hostage.

Interestingly, over past decades, scientists have gotten it right, even the Exxon scientists got it right, meaning, fossil fuel emissions (CO2) cause climate change. Nevertheless, Congress has failed to act because of pressure by fossil fuel interests, including the “largest campaign of disinformation that America has ever seen,” as dark money spills out all over the place. As a result, all serious bipartisan efforts on The Hill on climate change have been squelched. Poof!

Disinformation, disinformation, disinformation has been the guiding light of climate denialism. It’s a hoax; it’s a hoax; it’s a hoax; it’s fake news; it’s fake news, repetition creates fact.

As the senator and the Trump appointee discussed in a meeting beforehand in the senator’s office, the consequences of climate change are severe based upon professional risk judgement where fiduciary responsibly is considered. For example, the chief economist of Freddie Mac told committee hearings we are headed for a “property insurance collapse” that will cascade into a crash in coastal property values that will be so significant that it will cascade into the entire economy, same as 2008. That’s the warning on coastal properties. Additionally, wildfires have now added new property insurance risks that are far removed from coastal property. Climate change knows no boundaries as congressional ineptness and timidity to challenge it clobbers American homeownership.

Senator Whitehouse offered one example after another of how climate change is undermining the financial system of America. In a recent Senate banking committee hearing, the Fed Chairman said there will be “areas of the country where you can’t get a mortgage any longer” because of climate change; a very stern warning that something has to change.

Also, as related by the senator, the Financial Stability Board, the entity that warns the international banking system of impending issues gives the same warning that “property insurance has become a major risk to the survival of the economic system.”

And even closer to home base, meaning Congress itself, a recent bipartisan CBO (Congressional Budget Office) report identified fires, floods and climate change in toto, threatening to undermine our financial system. Yet, Congress ignores its own warnings.

And The Economist magazine cover story in April 2024 depicted climate damage undermining insurance markets and threatening the biggest asset class in the world, RE. predicting a 25 trillion dollar hit to RE because of climate change.

Senator Whitehouse: “The lie that climate change is a hoax is no longer just an act of political malfeasance. It is now an act of economic malfeasance.” Climate change is hitting America’s pocketbooks throughout the country like an early summer thunderstorm crackling in the sky.

The financial/Wall Street/economic impending upside down collapse due to radical climate change should be item number one on Congress’s docket to do whatever is necessary, but it’s not even given a glancing look. Yet, the insurance industry is feeling the heat; homeowners are feeling the heat. Mortgage companies are feeling the heat. And Wall Street is starting to feel the heat. Can the Trump climate hoax syndrome, “ignore it, it’s not real… it’s fake news” hold up in the face of extremely severe financial strain impacting the world’s largest asset class, real estate?

“President Trump issued an executive order aimed at dismantling many of the key actions that have been undertaken at the federal level to address climate change. The order, ‘Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth.” (Trump Issues Executive Order on Climate Change, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School)

Nobody’s Insurance Rates Are Safe From Climate Change, Yale Climate Connections, January 14, 2025.

Property Values to Crater Up to 60% Due to Climate Change, Business Insider, Aug. 9, 2024.

U.S. Department of the Treasury Report: Homeowners Insurance Costs Rising, Availability Declining as Climate-Related Events Take Their Toll, U.S. Department of the Treasury, January 16, 2025.

Next to Fall: The Climate-driven Insurance Crisis is Here – And Getting Worse, Senate Budget Committee, Dec. 18, 2024.

Climate Risk Will Take Trillion-dollar Bite Out of America’s Real Estate, Report Finds, USA Today, Feb. 7, 2025.

Homeowners Insurance Sector Slammed by Climate Impacts, Insurance Business America, May 14, 2024.

Climate Change Is Coming for U.S. Property Prices, Heatmap News, Feb. 3, 2025.

Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen, The New York Times, Dec. 18, 2024.

Climate Resiliency Flips the Housing Market Upside Down, Forbes, Feb. 20, 2025.

Climate Change Set to Lower Home Prices, Business Insider, Feb. 4, 2025.

How Climate Change Could Upend the American Dream, Propublica, Feb. 3, 2025.

Climate Change to Wipe Away $1.5 Trillion in U.S. Home Values, Study Says, The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3, 2025.

Opinion: That Giant Sucking Sound? It’s Climate Change Devouring Your Home’s Value, The New York Times, Feb. 3, 2025.

How and Where Climate Change Will Lower U.S, Home Values, Context News, Feb. 10, 2025.

Climate Change Is Driving an Insurance Crisis, The Equation – Union of Concerned Scientists, June 19, 2024.

Risky Real Estate: How Climate Risk is Changing Prices, Medium, March 3, 2025.

At Least 20% of U.S. Homes Will be De-Valued Due to Climate Change, Says DeltaTerra CEO Dave Burt, CNBC, Feb. 19, 2025.

Climate Change is Fueling the US Insurance Problem, BBC, March 18, 2024.

US Housing Market May Face Losses Due to Climate Change, Realty, Feb. 21, 2025.

Nearly Half of U.S. Homes Face Severe Threat from Climate Change, Study Finds, CBS News, March 13, 2024.

The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System, The New York Times, May 15, 2024.

The Climate Crisis Will End Home Ownership as We Know It and Eventually Crash the Economy, Splinter, Jan. 8, 2025.

Fake news?

The big question going forward is whether climate change’s real estate devaluation, which impacts every American household, will take MAGA down to its knees, drowning its lameness in a sea of turbulent financial chaos followed by a massive irrepressible political tsunami payback event that cleanses the nation of lies?

This article was originally published on Sept. 19, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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September 16, 2025

Mega-Dryness Spreads Throughout Northern Hemisphere

Photo of Drought land dry mud BouhanIfia, Algeria by Hydrosami is licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

Mega-Dryness Spreads Throughout Northern Hemisphere

By Robert Hunziker

“The continents are drying, freshwater availability is shrinking, and sea level rise is accelerating… Combined, they send perhaps the direst message on the impact of climate change to date.” (Unprecedented Continental Drying study, see below)

Human-generated climate change, the result of enormous quantities of CO2 spewing into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels (in 2024, the CO2 annual rate set a new all-time record of 3.75 ppm or an 18,600% increase over natural variability of 0.02 ppm per annum, according to paleoclimate pre-industrial data) causing widespread interconnectivity merging of dry regions of the planet. This is a new feature of global warming.

“Our entire infrastructure and civilization are based around a climate that no longer exists.” (John Marsham, professor Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds)

Dry areas of the planet are merging into massive mega-dry behemoth regions reflective of how far advanced climate change has progressed, with global warming turning hotter, and hotter, especially 2023-24 when global mean temperature increased by 0.3°C or 10-fold in one year, ushering in a full year of 1.5°C above pre-industrial. According to Johan Rockström of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact, this kind of big increase in only one year has never happened before. Scientists are still bewildered.

Recent studies show mega-drying mergers advancing at alarming rates. Huge swaths of the planet are starting to resemble the science fiction world of Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) with its desert ecosystem and water scarcity central to the plot, as actual climate change in today’s world adopts a science fiction veneer.

“We use NASA GRACE/GRACE-FO data to show that the continents have undergone unprecedented TWS (terrestrial water storage) loss since 2002. Drying areas of the planet increased by twice the size of California annually, creating ‘mega-drying regions’ across the Northern Hemisphere.” (Famiglietti, et al, Unprecedented Continental Drying, Shrinking Freshwater Availability, and Increasing Land Contributions to Sea Level Rise, ScienceAdvances, July 25, 2025)

Multi-dimensional factors are found within mega-dryness: “Since 2002, 75% of the population lives in 101 countries that have been losing freshwater. Furthermore, the continents now contribute more freshwater to sea level rise than the ice sheets, and drying regions now contribute more than land glaciers and ice caps. Urgent action is required to prepare for the major impacts of results presented,” Ibid.

Alarmingly, four continental scale mega-drying super regions have formed a new feature for the planet. These super regions are all in the Northern Hemisphere (1) northern Canada (2) northern Russia (3) a contiguous region inclusive of southwestern North America and Central America (4) the massive, tri-continental region spanning from North Africa to Europe, through the Middle East and Central Asia, to northern China and South and Southeast Asia, which owes its expansion to the recent European drought.

In short, like The Blob (1958) of film fame, mega-dryness is spreading across the Northern Hemisphere. The consequences are only too obviously a fundamental shift in the foundations of civilization. Thousands of years of foundational development are now at risk from a measly couple hundred years of burning fossil fuels.

Areas of the planet “getting wetter” and experiencing “wet extremes,” are another new feature but decreasing in size (area) while increasing intensity. This decrease in area, or size, of wetness but increase in intensity paradoxically serves to complement dryness leading to extreme mega-dry regions with serious vulnerability to wildfires. For example, the years 2023 and 2024 were record-setting for forest fires, burning more than double the annual average of the previous two decades. Last year was the first time that major fires raged across both tropical and boreal forests (NASA and World Resources Institute).

“The implications of continental drying for freshwater availability are potentially staggering. Nearly 6 billion people, roughly 75% of world’s population, live in the 101 countries that have been losing freshwater over the past 22 years,” Ibid.

Scientists say this challenges world leaders to take immediate steps to curb fossil fuel burning emissions at any and all costs. After all, it’s burning up the planet.

“The expansion of continental drying, the increase in extreme drying, and the implications for shrinking freshwater availability and sea level rise should be of paramount concern to the general public, to resource managers, and to decision-makers around the world. The robustness of the trends reported here, along with a critical shift in the behavior of TWS and continental drying following the major El Niño beginning in 2014, may well mean that reversing these trends is unlikely. Combined, they send perhaps the direst message on the impact of climate change to date. The continents are drying, freshwater availability is shrinking, and sea level rise is accelerating,” Ibid.

According to another journal, Science/Alert d/d August 18, 2025: Earth’s Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate: “This means terrestrial water is, on the whole, diminishing with devastating effects worldwide. That includes freshwater sources on the surface, like lakes and rivers, and also groundwater stored in aquifers deep below Earth’s surface. The majority of the human population, 75% of us, live in the 101 countries where fresh water is being lost at increasing rates.”

A significant part of this issue is where the water goes… mostly into the ocean, and it exceeds melt water from the world’s ice sheets. In continents without glaciers, 68% of loss of terrestrial water is attributed to human groundwater depletion. Extreme droughts in Central America and Europe have contributed considerably. Scientists believe these events will become more frequent and more severe with the ongoing climate crisis.

According to another science journal, LiveScience, December 2024: ‘An Existential Threat Affecting Billions’: Three-quarters of Earth’s Land Became Permanently Drier in Last 3 Decades: Drylands now cover 40.6% of the land on Earth. According to the study, aridity is now impacting 40% of the world’s agricultural land with intensified wildfires, and agricultural collapse in areas hard hit, including a lot of Europe, western US, Brazil, eastern Asia, and central Africa.

Scientists say fossil fuel CO2 emissions must be reduced as quickly as possible to zero to halt the continent-wide creeping devastation of the dryness peril, as well as adopting much better uses of land and water resources.

The merging of drying regions into mega-dry super regions has been largely unrecognized by society on a local level and may be the least recognized yet most damaging impact of climate change on a global scale. Scientists believe it demands the earliest attention via (1) governmental science agencies (2) mitigation policies (3) academic advice for major developed nations that most directly impact global warming, especially the US, China, Russia, India, and the EU, which are the top CO2 emitters.

The leadership of science has never been more essential than it is today.

This article was originally published on Sept. 12, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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September 11, 2025

Clean Solar Outshines Filthy Oil

Ground-mounted solar panels by Grendelkhan is licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

Clean Solar Outshines Filthy Oil

By Robert Hunziker

“We can have a world that runs on a resource that’s available to everyone everywhere.” (Bill McKibben)

There’s a renaissance of nature powering the world, and it’s happening throughout the planet hidden from public view because it’s everywhere all at once and not in one isolated location easily identified. It’s solar panel installations experiencing smashing success everywhere throughout the world. Solar panels are consuming the world faster than public media has caught up with the trend to broadcast the good news. People simply aren’t aware of this ongoing miracle.

Nobody knows this better than Bill McKibben, author, activist, educator, and leader of 350.org. He’s a brilliant environmental activist who has dedicated his life to a better world. His newest book Here Comes the Sun (W.W. Norton & Company) is all about a better world.

McKibben was recently interviewed by Chris Hayes of MSNBC fame: The Chris Hayes Podcast – Why is This Happening? McKibben’s new book and much more was discussed on Chris Hayes’ podcast on YouTube. The interview is an optimistic take on the future of planet Earth because of rapid advancement of renewable energy.

This article is based upon the McKibben interview.

Accordingly, “It’s the rest of the world outside of America that’s really catching on.” Even though the climate situation is in dire straits today, there is a ray of hope in the midst of our troubled planet, an explosion of renewable energy the past 36 months that’s truly amazing, an eyeopener, happening fast!

Renewable energy has been labeled “alternative energy” for 40 years, and as such, pigeonholed as an alternative or second fiddle. For decades now this frame of mind has downplayed its importance. That stigma is about to be lifted in the face of a big bright new world lighted and powered by the Sun. “It’s the largest nuclear reactor in the solar system, and we have immediate access to it.”

For example, amazing things are happening: This Spring 2025 China was putting up three (3) gigawatts of solar power every day. One gigawatt is equivalent to one coal-powered plant. So, they were essentially installing three coal-powered plants per day.

Equally impressive, over the past 15 months California produced renewable energy for long stretches every day and at times producing more than 100% of the power it needs with renewables. At night, California switches to batteries that spent the day soaking up sunshine. That all-important battery auxiliary power source did not exist three years ago. Overall, as of 2025 California has cut the state’s natural gas bill by 40% from two years ago.

And Texas, the headquarters for the oil and gas industry, is challenging California According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), as of early 2025, Texas has over 22 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar capacity. That’s enough to power more than 3.5 million homes with clean energy. It is now second in national solar rankings. EVs have increased by 3900% since 2014. Wind energy is up three-fold since 2014. Renewables are hot items in Texas, displacing oil and gas like hot cakes. Do Texas Republicans agree with Trump that climate change is a hoax? Ask them!

Elsewhere in the sane world, in Pakistan ordinary people have taken matters into their own hands, putting up rooftop solar power on individual homes now equal to one-half of the country’s electric grid. The biggest solar adopters are farmers, using solar to replace diesel fuel to power field generators for water irrigation. As a result, Pakistan used 35% less diesel fuel last year than the year before.

In Africa mini grids powered by solar are popping up all over the continent.

A couple of weeks ago Indonesia, the fourth most populated country, committed to build 100 gigawatts of solar power over the next decade.

In part, all of this is happening because five years ago an invisible line was passed when it became cheaper to produce energy from the Sun and wind rather than burning fossil fuels that emit CO2 by the bucketful.

According to McKibben, “All of this is happening at exactly the same time as the climate is spiraling out of control.” June 2023 is the key month, almost every month since has set a new record for heat. Coincidentally June 2023 is also when humans started installing one gigawatt of solar per day around the planet. Now, we are in a race against time to see who wins because major systems of the planet are just beginning to unravel, e.g., the jet stream has become so skewed that it’s like spaghetti. It has profound influence on weather patterns for the entire hemisphere, and it’s one reason for whacky weather that’s literally destroying property.

According to McKibben, solar is a mighty force not to be reckoned with. For example, imagine for a moment there’s a ship carrying solar panels across the ocean. Compare that ship full of solar panels to a ship carrying coal across the ocean. Over a lifetime the solar panels will produce 500 times more energy than the same ship containing coal.

Here’s another example by McKibben, regarding the muscle of solar: He met a farmer in Illinois who grows corn for ethanol. He said one acre worth of corn would power his Ford F150 for 25,000 miles for one year. But if he covers the same one acre with solar panels it’ll produce enough electrons to run his Ford F150 Lightening EV 700,000 miles.

EVs and auxiliary batteries for power grids are about to get better, more powerful, and safer. Sodium ion batteries for EVs are the new trend in China. This is one more major advancement. Sodium-ion batteries charge faster than lithium-ion and have a three times higher lifecycle

Meanwhile, archaic America is focusing on old-fashioned, awkward oil and gas drilling while denigrating and dissembling modern renewables as quickly as possible and literally decimating science and destroying important science data as well as key data sources. America is a prime example of the doing the opposite of China’s modernization campaign that embraces science along with renewables.

In July Al Gore gave a TED speech wherein he mentioned the solar miracle taking place in China: He noted positives in the alternatives space. For example, the costs for renewables have plummeted to levels making fossil fuels unproductive in comparison. Exxon’s own prediction that solar capacity would only achieve 850GW by 2040 was dead wrong; as of year-end 2024, it is already at 2,280 GW, nearly triple the Exxon projection for 2040. Solar is now the least expensive source of electricity in human history. Since the Paris Agreement, solar electricity generation has soared by 732%. And electric vehicle sales have increased 34x since 2015.

According to Gore, in April 2025 China installed 45 gigawatts of new solar capacity. This is equivalent to 45 brand new giant nuclear reactors installed in one month.

An accelerating renewables revolution is underway throughout the world. Still, both McKibben and Gore mention the fact that Earth’s systems are stressed like never before and it’ll take a herculean effort to steady-the-ship-of-state. Too much time has passed with too little work to get off fossil fuels. Thank goodness, solar is on the march in a very big way. But will it be fast enough, soon enough?
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This article was originally published on September 1, 2025 © Countercurrents.org
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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September 6, 2025

Antarctica on Alert!

Image by Cassie Matias is licensed by Unsplash.

Antarctica on Alert!

By Robert Hunziker

Over the past year, several studies about highly dangerous signals of Antarctica on the edge of major abrupt change have appeared in scholarly publications. These studies in premier publications expose rapid changes, e.g. (1) discovery of the western Antarctic Peninsula as one of the fastest warming places on Earth (2) ocean currents threaten to collapse Antarctic Ice Shelves (3) present day mass loss rates are a precursor for West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse (4) an unexpected ice collapse hints at worrying changes on the Antarctic coast. The new scientific narrative has scientists very nervous.

Abrupt changes have become more common in the climate system, but Antarctica is one region that nobody wants to hear about “abrupt change,” especially with the potential impact nearly impossible to analyze with certainty. It could be a worldwide disaster, or it could be no big deal. Nobody knows for sure. But, the crucial question remains: Will it flood the world’s coastal megacities? And if so, how soon?

A new study, Emerging Evidence of Abrupt Changes in the Antarctic Environment, Nature, August 20, 2025 serves to highlight other recent warnings. Antarctica could be experiencing a regime shift that suddenly, out of the blue, threatens some level of collapse. It could be big; it could be much less; nobody knows for sure. As a result, for precautionary purposes, as well as regular ole common sense, scientists say fossil fuel emissions should be brought to a standstill.

It was only one year ago when 450 polar scientists called an emergency session: “Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea level rise is possible within our lifetimes.” (Source: Our Science, Your Future: Next Generation of Antarctic Scientists Call for Collaborative Action, Australian Antarctic Research Conference, November 22, 2024). It’s very probable that the world is not prepared for what these polar scientists had to say… “catastrophic sea level rise is possible within our lifetimes.”

“Recent research has shown record-low sea ice, extreme heatwaves exceeding 40°C (104°F) above average temperatures, and increased instability around key ice shelves. Shifting ecosystems on land and at sea underscore this sensitive region’s rapid and unprecedented transformations. Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea-level rise is possible within our lifetimes. Whether such irreversible tipping points have already passed is unknown,” Ibid.

Polar scientists, especially 450 of them, are not studying Antarctica for the fun of it or simply to get their names into print. No, not at all, the job of a polar scientist is as close to selflessness as one can find. The rewards are few. Imagine meeting a polar scientist at a cocktail party, introduced, what to say? It is an arcane field of study. The point is polar scientist have absolutely nothing to gain by overstating findings but a lot to lose, their reputation and position. They are sticklers for facts, and they are speaking out about dangers in Antarctica. Not that many years ago, nobody worried about this frozen-solid continent the size of the United States and Mexico. Now, it’s on the frontlines of abrupt climate change, happening fast and faster, especially since 2022.

In fact, scientists are more concerned today than when a “worst case” for sea level rise was posted on MIT Climate Portal d/d June 12, 2024: “By 2100, we could see as little as 8 inches of additional sea level rise, or over 6 feet—based partly on how much we continue to pollute the climate, and partly on how the oceans respond to climate change that’s already baked in.”

Based upon the explicit nervousness of polar scientists, calling an emergency meeting in November ’24, plus new facts about abrupt change, plus extraordinary out-of-this-world increases in CO2 emissions (more on this to follow), common sense says it’ll likely be closer to 6 feet than to 8 inches. And if six feet happens to be the magical number by 2100, then what will it be in 2030 or 2040? One/two feet? One foot would be too much for some coastal cities, one foot sea level rise typically equals 100’ of shoreline underwater and high tide brings flooded streets further inland. Maybe it’s a good idea to start planning sea walls for coastal megacities Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Jakarta, Miami, New York City, and New Orleans.

A major study by C40 Cities suggests a scenario: “If the world fails to commit to the Paris Agreement’s goal of reducing carbon emissions and limit global average temperature rise to 1.5^oC, many of the world’s cities will face an extraordinary threat from rising seas and coastal flooding by mid-century.” (Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding, C40 Cities, 2018)

C40 is a global network of 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities united to confront the climate crisis. According to several articles in C40’s archives, the world’s major cities are taking positive steps to combat climate change.

Still, “as with other climate hazards, local factors mean that cities will experience sea level rise at different paces. Cities on the east coast of the U.S., including New York City and Miami, are particularly vulnerable, along with major cities in Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok and Shanghai. In the U.S., east coast cities are witnessing sea level rise that is two to three times faster than the global average while cities along China’s Yellow River Delta are experiencing sea level rise of more than 22 cm (9 inches) per year,” Ibid.

It should be noted that the Paris Agreement goal of reducing carbon emissions has effectively been tossed out the window by inaction. They’re not even close to meeting the targets agreed to by 196 signatory countries in 2015. In fact, emissions are growing faster than ever as fossil fuel production ramps up, meaning a current update of the consequences outlined in the C40 study of 2018 (referenced above) would likely stagger the imagination.

In lieu of all above, it is extremely difficult to accept United States deemphasis and destruction of climate change mitigation efforts while emphasizing, promoting more fossil fuels. According to a recent C40 poll:

More than two-thirds of Americans, 80% of Europeans, and 91% of Chinese said they are witnessing the impact of climate change in their daily lives.
87% of people surveyed in the EU, 76% in China, and 74% in the US say their governments have been too slow to act in averting climate change.
In the United States, 63% of registered voters think developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress.

Obviously, public opinion is clearly in favor of tackling climate change, but time is the enemy. It takes time: “It takes tens of thousands of years for an ice sheet to grow, but just decades to destabilize it by burning fossil fuels. Now we only have a narrow window to act,” (Scientists Say Next Few Years Vital to Securing the Future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, March 6, 2025)

The referenced Potsdam study says Antarctica’s future is dependent upon “immediate actions to reduce emissions.” Oh, well! Thirty years of broken promises by countries attending UN climate conferences does not bode well for “immediate action.”

Meanwhile carbon dioxide CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue setting new all-time records year-by-year. According to Climate. gov: “Based on the annual analysis from NOAA’s Global Monitoring Lab (while it last), global average atmospheric carbon dioxide was 422.8 ppm in 2024, a new record high. The increase during 2024 was 3.75 ppm—the largest one-year increase on record. At Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where the modern carbon dioxide record began in 1958, the annual average carbon dioxide in 2024 was 424.61 ppm, also a new record.” This is already substantially above the danger zone as described by climate scientists some years ago.

The essence of the problem is the annual rate of increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past 60 years has been many times faster than previous natural increases. The paleoclimate record shows a rate of 0.02 ppm per annum as natural variability. In 2024 the annual rate was 3.75 ppm or an 18,600% increase over natural variability.

Antarctica is global warming’s biggest target with West Antarctica the most vulnerable, and it’s challenging to fully understand with any degree of accuracy, how much, how soon? Nobody really knows for sure what’ll happen or when, but one thing’s for certain, according to polar scientists, it’s headed in the wrong direction and way too fast for comfort.

Solution: According to polar scientists, fossil fuel CO2 emissions must be stopped as soon as possible, replaced with renewables, especially solar with battery backup, currently experiencing a renaissance of enormous magnitude around the world, a virtual “race is on” to see whether this can effectively defer, in time, key ecosystems already close to unraveling. More on this fascinating development later.

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This article was originally published on August 29, 2025 © Counterpunch
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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August 22, 2025

Global Floods Beckon Noah

By Robert Hunziker

This image of a painting by Carl Bille is in the public domain.

Devastating widespread flooding and flash floods are becoming normal. Try spinning a globe and stop at any continent, other than Antarctica, blindfolded, point a finger, spot a flood. There’s nothing fake about the global warming leviathan absorbing more moisture in a warming atmosphere, much more than ever before, feeding a frenzy of powerful thunderstorms and atmospheric rivers, erupting like waterfalls from the sky. Noah is beckoned.

“Our entire infrastructure and civilization are based around a climate that no longer exists,” John Marsham, professor of atmospheric science, University of Leeds, as numerous locations throughout the world become more difficult to insure against flood damage. (Flash Floods Are a Worsening Scourge Worldwide — Here’s Why, Business Insider, October 24, 2024)

Throughout the globe, flooding has turned spectacularly powerfully biblical in scope. In 2025 it’s everywhere all at once. It’s a destroyer of property and a killer of people, and it is intensifying like never before in human history because of the climate change monster, inspired by human activity burning fossil fuels, called global warming. Since 2000, the number of recorded flood-related disasters has risen by 134% compared with the two previous decades. (Global Assessment Report 2025 Hazards: Floods, UNDRR)

In America in the month of July alone 1,434 flash flood warnings and 17 flash flood emergencies nationwide, additionally, 2,000 official preliminary flood-related storm reports with the biggest in Texas with nearly two feet of rain in a couple of days. This data is provided by the National Centers for Environmental Information. However, forewarned, future reports will be difficult to find. The Trump administration has already significantly reduced NOAA’s staff, research capacity, and data-sharing capability, including weather forecasts. (The Lasting Threat of Trump’s Cuts to NOAA and NWS on American Communities, Center for American Progress, July 16, 2025).

Moreover, “the Trump administration’s 2026 budget appears to be actively working to eliminate the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) along with all NOAA weather laboratories and cooperative institutes and laboratories, which provide weather forecasting data and research from 80 universities and work to improve NOAA’s warning and forecast capabilities,” Ibid.

Along those lines, similarly, it’s common knowledge that Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (publ. 1949) depicts science as a tool manipulated by the Party and not a tool of independent pursuit of knowledge. In fact, 1984’s Newspeak does not have an official word for “science.” Manipulation of truth has no room for objective, empirical science. Trump is honoring the Orwellian tradition. But so what? Who really cares and who really does anything to oppose it tells a despicable story of acquiescence within the confines of a weakened subservient infection-like plague crushing human spirit.

Nevertheless, worldwide flooding carries on, ignoring small minds, powering ahead. So far in 2025, a small sampling of real events: Five entire villages washed away in Baghlan Province Afghanistan; Queensland State 12 inches/24 hours; Kentucky 9 inches few hours; Nepal catastrophic flash flooding; Pakistan deathly relentless flash floods: East Cape Province, huge flood; Texas Hill Country, killer flash flood; Niger State, deadly flash flood; Kenya catastrophic flooding; Columbia widespread flooding; Venezuela enormous flooding; Brazil 127 municipalities displaced; China flood kills 30 in city of Beijing; fatal storms flood south of France, killer torrential rains Buidoso, New Mexico, 1,000-year rainfall Chicago, deadly pounding rain North Carolina, NYC subways under water, Kansas City flooded, etc.

This type of legendary flood destruction in the contemporary world is mysteriously reflected in precious holy writings by several cultures, forewarnings of what happens when the planet is out of kilter, like now: “The Bible (Genesis 6–9) describes a worldwide flood (the Noachian Flood) covering even the highest mountains of the earth and the construction of a huge boat (a rectangular box-like craft) that transported animals, at least two of a kind of all land animals on the earth. The Qur’an (Suras 11 and 71) has almost a duplicate story with a similar huge boat that transported animals and a worldwide flood. In addition, two older stories exist in ancient Babylonian epics that describe a huge flood. One is the Epic of Gilgamesh, describing a flood on the Euphrates River (Academy of Ancient Texts nd). The other is the Epic of Atrahasis, which has a huge flood on the Tigris River (Byers nd).” (Yes, Noah’s Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth, National Center for Science Education, vol. 29, 2009)

What is the signal behind unprecedented flooding, which some claim as god’s message for human wickedness, other than enormous overpowering destructiveness? It’s climate change but not regular ole climate change. This is brand new stuff: Global warming from whacky climate change means more evaporation and more moisture in the atmosphere, which means rainfall intensified sparked by human-driven greenhouse gases. This is basic science 101, and as global warming increases thanks to excessive levels of fossil fuel burning CO2, Noah will be needed more than anybody can possibly imagine. Flooding has become a pop star on TV news.

Property insurance has become the world’s most conclusive barometer of how climate change affects society, turning into a big nuisance, threatening the basic structure of capitalism: “Insurers are responding to heightened losses by reducing coverage, exiting high-risk markets, and dramatically raising premiums. For many, insurance coverage is unavailable or unaffordable, leaving them unprotected from disaster. As former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has warned, ‘We’re marching steadily toward an uninsurable future.” (Managing the Climate Change-Fueled Property Insurance Crisis, Center for American Progress, April 2, 2025)

Radical climate change, that’s well beyond human experience, has become prevalent on the face of the planet with massive storms disrupting nations throughout the world broadcast on TV evening news, making climate deniers appear foolish and childishly ignorant driven by sophomoric thinking. Climate denialism, which has spread across the world on the shoulders of right-wingers, is suffocated by actual events broadcast on nightly news. Now, the Orwellian crowd is challenged.

There is strong evidence that the public is fed up, pissed-off with climate denialism and baseless destruction of science as television broadcasts the harsh reality of major never-seen-before floods throughout the world, opening public eyes to a climate-change-world they’ve been told is fake. It’s not!

A sweeping nationwide study: “American Attitudes Toward Government Interventions in Science” survey of 31,062 Americans across 50 states is the most comprehensive study in 2025 of public opinion of recent federal efforts to suppress science, as conducted by the University of Rochester, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers: “Across all demographics and political affiliations, disapproval of the administration’s actions outpaces approval by more than two to one.” Only 21% of Americans approve. (Study; Widespread Disapproval of Federal Interventions in Science, Public Health, University of Rochester, News Center, July 8, 2025) \

Based upon the “polling trend” and highly probable future public exposure to more insane flooding on TV, thereby making climate change appear so very real as to really be real, not fake, it’ll bring disappointment and disapproval at the polls, likely worse than two-to-one against MAGA hollowness by midterm 2026. No science, no vote!
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This article was originally published on August 22, 2025 © Counterpunch
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Facing Future Now! https://www.facebook.com/groups/530755592068234

August 19, 2025

Global Warming in Vogue, Deal With It!

Image by Riffsyphon1024 is in the public domain.

Global Warming in Vogue, Deal With It!

By Robert Hunziker

Global Warming (“GW”) is winning, and it is gaining. Obstacles to hotter temperatures are falling to the wayside, allowing GW to go for more intense heatwaves along with much, much higher sea levels. Alas, the greenest of green countries are turning tail and de-emphasizing commitments to fight climate change. Several of the 196 countries subject to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at the Paris Agreement (2015) are behaving like they’re “okay with global warming”. Trump’s smiling.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Extreme Heat is Breaking Records Worldwide.” (UN News August 7, 2025). But this current trend of killer heatwaves is likely only an early preview of much more to come.

Greta Thunberg’s “Sweden is falling back from its environmental progress. Last year, its fossil fuel emissions saw their biggest increase in 15 years.” (Sweden, an Early Climate Leader, is Retreating from Its Environmental Commitments, Part of an EU Trend, Inside Climate News, August 3, 2025).

Indeed, part of the reason for Sweden’s increasing emissions is global warming’s inexorable drought sequences and clearcutting and wildfires destroying forests, thus reducing carbon uptake, measurably, cut in half. Fifteen years ago, Sweden’s 87 billion trees, soils and wetlands stored almost 62 million tons of carbon each year, which was more than the country’s total fossil fuel emissions. In 2024, it fell by half to 31 million tons. Such a steep drop indicates increased clearcutting and years of severe drought, due to severe global warming, with wildfires, beetle infections and weak soil nutrition.

Additionally, Sweden’s political swing to the right has slashed investments in climate actionable projects. “Researchers say Sweden’s policy shifts, and its evolving role as a frontrunner indeed is now contributing to the weakening of Europe’s climate agenda,” Ibid.

Sweden’s EPA claims it will miss all national climate targets for the next 20 years.

The EU’s trumpeted “Green Sextet” nations driving climate action for the EU in a positive direction is collapsing. Five of the six nations are reducing their climate policy objectives: “Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, and Austria — all appear to reduce their climate policy objectives. All of these countries have also shifted to the political right. Only Denmark, a leader in offshore wind, is mostly maintaining its aspirations to cut emissions and fight climate change.” Funding for climate action is plummeting. (Sweden, Once A Climate Action Leader, Now Lags Behind Its Peers in Europe, CleanTechnica, August 4, 2025).

Right wing populist policy wonks favor global warming over diminishment of carbon emissions’ fossil fuels. This counterintuitive policy behavior is concurrent with a sudden uplift of global temperatures circa 2023-24 with a jaw-dropping surprising 0.30°C increase, sustaining 1.5C above preindustrial for the full year. Climate scientists were, and still are, shocked as global warming took a 10-fold jump, in only one year: Egads! Climate normalizing hasn’t occurred to reduce this shocking uplift, meaning the climate system is adopting a new higher plateau for successive excessive heatwaves. This is bad, bad news… period!

Since the general elections in 2022 in Sweden, a conservative coalition, headed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, have focused on promoting cheaper fossil fuels (increasing subsidies) and public safety and of course (it goes without saying) anti-immigrant policies, while halting investment in high-speed rail, cancellation of subsidies for electric vehicles, increasing taxes on solar electricity, and cutting investments in green innovation funds. Along the way, Sweden’s carbon emissions rose by 7% last year.

Overall, it appears the EU may be tossing in the towel on climate change mitigation policies, like US policy under its ultra-right-wing fascists-inspired administration. They bathe in hot weather, the hotter, the better, but nobody explains why in plain language. Whispers, insider scoops, say they overconfidently believe that technology will bail us out of a global warming disaster, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Sorrowfully, carbon capture is ridiculously immature and as weak as a peashooter and nuclear (iffy) has issues beyond the scope of this short article, none meeting the timelines of a climate system just starting to run hot, and hotter. The best shot, based upon actual events, is renewables across the board worldwide, replacing fossil fuels. But is there enough time?

Global Heat Outlook to 2029

According to the WMO, average global mean temperatures between 2025 and 2029 could average up to 1.9°C higher than preindustrial. That’ll be one more ridiculously hard to believe plateau higher than the 2023 uplift to 1.5°C. In other words, if extreme heat levels are breaking all-time world records this year in 2025, records will be crushed in following years, guaranteeing new record higher sea levels (ouch! Miami Beach) and enhancing the record of +60% increase in worldwide droughts of the past couple of decades, whilst whacking forests with more intense wildfires than ever, following in the footsteps of hard-to-believe doubling of extreme wildfire events the past two decades. Will it double again as climate change’s hotter, drier conditions promote extreme wildfires, with ease. All mentions herein should put the 196 NDCs on sharp alert to fight climate change with everything they’ve got, but no!

Meanwhile, capitalism has a new voice in the debate as insurance companies now speak out about the dangers of climate change and its threat to the essence of capitalism, and as climate change severely undercuts the American dream with insurance rates and coverage a new wildcard inhibiting homeownership. Some regions in America becoming nearly uninsurable.

Data from researchers at the University of Maryland for the period 2001-2024 shows forest fires now burn more than twice as much tree cover as two decades ago. Nothing could be worse, absolutely nothing! As trees are one of the planet’s biggest storehouses of carbon. (The Latest Data Confirm Forest Fires Are Getting Worse, World Resources Institute, July 21, 2o25). So far, nobody has claimed this is fake news.

The Big Scary Monster Wildfire/Climate Feedback Loop

The stunning increase in forest wildfires, especially across the entire upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, has bred a gigantic feedback loop that turbo-charges global warming. The warming climate enhances forests wildfires, in turn, losing one of the planet’s significant offsets to CO2 as trees burn, emitting more CO2 and absorbing that much less CO2 in a vicious circle that feeds on itself. Severe Wildfires in Russia’s Siberia Region Rage Through 600,000 Hectares (1,500,000 acres) of Forests, CNN, May 14, 2025.

The overriding issue, for example, a UCLA-led study showed that California’s 2020 wildfires released double the amount of greenhouse gases the state had reduced in the previous 18 years through various initiatives. This horrifying statistic should shake world leadership to its core.

“The haunting orange skies over San Francisco in 2020. The devastating Black Summer of Australia in 2019-2020. The record-breaking Los Angeles wildfires of 2025. These aren’t isolated incidents, but rather stark indicators of a growing global crisis where climate change and wildfires form a devastating feedback loop.” (Climate Change Institute, The University of Maine, July 31, 2025)

Just imagine outrageously enormous out-of-control Canadian wildfires contributing to global warming! As of August 3, 2025, more than 16.3 million acres burned versus a 25-year normalized average of 5.4 million acres per fire season. (NASA Earth Observatory). Thankfully, NASA climate observatory satellites have not been decommissioned and destroyed, yet!

Oops! Why a NASA Satellite That Scientists and Farmers Rely on May be Destroyed on Purpose, NPR, August 4, 2025, per White House directions. This is why NPR must go.

Global warming, like fashion statements that change over time, has finally won over its strongest combatants in favor of mitigation measures but now unceremoniously promoting policies to increase global warming, to increase global heatwaves, to increase rising sea levels, to enhance massive wildfires that internally accelerate CO2 emissions, to expanding global droughts, to ensure bigger, faster, more intense flash flooding, especially China, and glacial lake outbursts that literally bury villages. These global events, exciting for nightly TV news coverage, are now assured of increasing in magnitude and scope as the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce greenhouse gases flutter midair, torn to shreds, drifting above Le Bourget superb of Paris where, 10 years ago, 196 nations shook hands, smiling and agreeing to tackle climate change amidst congratulatory backslapping and champagne toasts, now turned to vinegar!
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This article was originally published on August 15, 2025 © Counterpunch
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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