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The Arctic-Greenland-Florida Conga

Photo by henrique setim is licensed by Unsplash.
Photo by henrique setim is licensed by Unsplash.

The Arctic-Greenland-Florida Conga

By Robert Hunziker

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (an agency that is subject to drastic cuts in Trump’s FY2026 budget) from October 2024 to September 2025 temperatures across the entire Arctic region were the hottest in 125 years of modern record keeping,

As of year-end, the status of the Arctic and Greenland present the world with a nerve-racking knuckle-biting dilemma, as apparently, according to climate scientists, they’re coming apart at the seams. Meanwhile, the United States issues policy-after-policy guaranteed to make it much, much worse. Will residents in states like Florida protest policies that promote fossil fuel usage over renewables, as it’s starting to look like higher sea levels on the distant horizon.

In sharp contrast to scientific reports about threats of climate change, a recent U.S. Department of Energy report A Critical Review,,, d/d July 23, 2025 downplays these concerns about climate change, global warming, rising sea levels, and excessive greenhouse emissions such as CO2.. This has prompted sharp criticism by numerous non-governmental sources, as explained further herein.

Bill McGuire professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London is one of the most outspoken scientists in the field, not afraid to “tell it like it is.” His recent comments about the Arctic and Greenland are chilling.

Bill McGuire X posting (Dec. 16, 2025):

“The huge polar amplification of heating continues Tipping of the Greenland Ice Sheet all but certain now, locking-in an eventual ~7m rise Say goodbye to much of Florida, and coastal towns and cities across the planet.”

Dr. McGuire is likely responding to an article in The Guardian, Arctic Endured Year of Record Heat as Climate Scientists Warn of ‘Winter Being Redefined’ d/d Dec. 16, 2025. According to one interview: “We are seeing cascading impacts from a warming Arctic,’ said Zack Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central. ‘Coastal cities aren’t ready for the rising sea levels; we have completely changed the fisheries in the Arctic which leads to rising food bills for sea food. We can point to the Arctic as a faraway place but the changes there affect the rest of the world.”

Dr. Labe says “we are seeing cascading impacts…” something that innocent bystanders do not want to see happening in the rugged Arctic. Cascading impacts are chain reactions where the starting event triggers a series of follow-up events, which are amplified to a degree worse than the starting event. As it happens, “cascading impacts” are the worst possible news out of the Arctic for obvious reasons. For starters, it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Moreover, when the Arctic region is massively diminished by global warming, it indirectly and in some cases directly causes adverse whacko weather systems across the Northern Hemisphere, or put another way, out-of-the-ordinary severe weather systems which have been slamming the hemisphere these past few years.

Furthermore, of utmost concern, the Arctic contains oodles of trapped frozen methane CH4 that, once unfrozen and released into the atmosphere, powers up global warming like ‘there’s no tomorrow’ and it is much more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than is CO2.

Plus, Greenland is a big-time concern for residents of Florida because it’s one of the world’s largest blocks of ice in direct line of fire of Arctic warming amplification. Thus, the world’s major coastal megacities, like NYC, and major low-lying coastal states, like Florida, are indirectly exposed as Arctic warming amplification quickens the meltdown of Greenland. Hello rising sea levels! The last thing residents of Florida and the Outer Banks want to hear is “cascading impacts in the Arctic.” Well, according to Dr. Labe, it’s happening!

A recent study from the University of Zurich published in ScienceDaily is cause for additional concern: Here’s the headline: Massive Hidden Waves are Rapidly Melting Greenland’s Glaciers: “Calving icebergs unleash hidden wave forces that supercharge Greenland’s melt and push the ice sheet closer to collapse… Our entire Earth system depends, at least in part, on these ice sheets. It’s a fragile system that could collapse if temperatures rise too high,’ warns Dominik Gräff.”

MIT Climate Portal: “Despite the enormous stakes for the future of humanity, it remains frustratingly difficult to know how much sea level rise is in store for us. All we know for sure is that taking strong and immediate action to control our greenhouse gas emissions gives us the best chance to avoid meters of sea level rise.”

MIT acknowledges one of the biggest mysteries in climate science which is the levels and timing of sea level rise because of global warming. Nobody really knows for sure, and this is what makes it so necessary to pay attention to early warning signs so coastal communities can prepare for what might hit them. Once it’s too high too quickly, it’s too late to do much other than move to higher ground.

Unfortunately, the failure of almost all of the voluntary commitments made at the Paris 2015 climate accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions like CO2 by 2030 has been a farce and a fatal weakness for the world as fossil fuel usage continues unabated. Even worse yet, the United States has dropped out of the Paris agreement altogether, becoming the world’s biggest promoter of oil and gas and coal and greenhouse gases like CO2.

This has given several other right-leaning countries license to ease up or abandon altogether mitigation policies. For example: “Sweden, an Early Climate Leader, Is Retreating from Its Environmental Commitments, Part of an EU Trend,” Inside Climate News, August 3, 2025.

DOE Report on Climate Change– No Sweat, No Worries, Plants Love It

The Department of Energy July 150-pg report supports the administration’s fossil fuel policies by downplaying concerns. For example: “U.S. tide gauge measurements reveal no obvious acceleration beyond the historical average rate of sea level rise,” pg 85)

However, “New research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution finds sea level rise is accelerating across the contiguous United States, contradicting a federal report from July that downplayed the risks from climate change.” (New Study Finds Sea Level Rise is Speeding Up, Contradicting Federal Report, WBUR – Boston NPR, December 19, 2025)

When the DOE report was released, more than 85 scientists issued a rebuttal that called many of the assertions “misleading or fundamentally incorrect.” To wit: “Our review reveals that the DOE report’s key assertions—including claims of no trends in extreme weather and the supposed broad benefits of carbon dioxide—are either misleading or fundamentally incorrect. The authors reached these flawed conclusions through selective filtering of evidence (‘cherry picking’), overemphasis of uncertainties, misquoting peer-reviewed research, and a general dismissal of the vast majority of decades of peer-reviewed research.”

Accordingly, Christopher Piecuch, a physical oceanographer at WHOI and author of the study, said the report from the U.S. Department of Energy released this summer referenced only a select few tidal gauge locations in its analysis, which may not properly represent nationwide sea level rise. The DOE report found “no obvious acceleration in sea level rise.” In contrast, Piecuch said his study included all available long-term records from U.S. tidal gauges, 70 in all. “You can’t really just look at a record here and a record there and expect to have representative results for the entire U.S.,” he said. “ There’s a very large disconnect between the data that they show and the conclusions that they draw.”

Nearly one-half of Americans live in coastal counties. Sea level has a direct bearing on them, requiring adequate notice of changes to allow for either mitigation policies, plans for building sea walls, moving out of the area, etc., or conversely, taking no preventative measures if the DOE report is correct, “not to worry.” Which-will-it-be impacts over 130 million American households. In general, and almost universally, scientists believe aggressive mitigation measures are prudent.

Andrew Kemp, a professor of earth and climate sciences at Tufts University who was not part of the research, called the new analysis robust and sound: “The Piecuch study is repeatable, supported by other evidence, and reflects the understanding of the overwhelming majority of sea-level scientists. It was written to address the DOE report that is not robust, lacks sound reasoning, is contradicted by an abundance of other evidence that was ignored, and represents fringe science.”

Citizens depend upon the government for proper guidance. Hopefully, the DOE will issue a response to criticism by scientists that many of the report’s assertions are “misleading or fundamentally incorrect.” Citizens of the country need to know whether a major factcheck of the Trump DOE report is true: Factcheck: Trump’s Climate Report Includes More Than 100 False or Misleading Claims, Carbon Brief, August 15, 2025. If DOE cannot properly address 100 alleged false or misleading statements, the report should be officially censured and removed.

The citizens of Florida deserve it!

This article was originally publshed on Jan. 5, 2026 © Counterpunch

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

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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America’s Loss of Science and Loss of Virtue

Photo by Vlad Tchompalov is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Vlad Tchompalov is licensed by Unsplash

America’s Loss of Science and Loss of Virtue

By Robert Hunziker

The Trump administration has issued a death warrant for science. This kills one of America’s greatest most productive avenues to GDP growth. Simple-minded people are determining the future course of the country. After all, science is foundational to America’s economy.

This legacy for America is destined to be the antithesis of what’s found in the writings of Marcus Aurelius’ world-famous notebooks, filled with words of wisdom about leading an honorable life, Meditations, one of the world’s great pieces of literature by one of the wisest minds of the ancient world Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 CE) the 16th emperor of Rome collected thoughts in notebooks, now considered one of the most important Stoic texts of all time and common text for America’s universities today. Marcus is now stronger than ever as one of the most widely read works of philosophy in the world. Will this administration leave a “notebook” like Marcus’s for history to judge… virtue, honor, respectfulness, pursuit of the common good? Hmm.

Marcus Aurelius was the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world. “More recent leaders such as Bill Clinton have admired Marcus not so much as a philosopher-king but simply as a man who recognized that he had to do his duty as emperor without letting it go this his head and without becoming a tyrant.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditation, The Annotated Edition by Robin Waterfield, Basic Books, 2021).

Marcus’s notebooks are filled with praise for a virtuous lifestyle. He describes the most important virtue as “acting fairly, honestly, and with kindness towards others, thus recognizing one’s duty to the community and the common good.” ICE?

Yet, America is experiencing a feast of political retribution and destruction of value-oriented policies created for the common good. This is destruction via a wrecking ball of indeterminate size because it is so large that it’s difficult to fully comprehend. For example, Trump underlings are halting construction of major offshore wind farms, based upon a squirrely excuse of “threats to national security” (classified reports) creating radar interference. Why does this sound phony? Come on now, seriously, years ago, Trump claimed windmills cause cancer, said he hates them, before anybody dreamed up a national security issue. They’re suspending five major projects that were slated to go into full operation in 2026 and early 2027. Wind is free, no CO2 emissions, suspending work is prima facie evidence of insanity at work.

The Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts’ coast is one of the targeted projects. One-half of its turbines are already generating power and sending it to the grid while the remainder of the massive 62-turbine-farm remains under construction, aiming to serve 400,000 homes with electricity when fully operational. However, as of December 22, 2025, it is now officially halted by a federal order from the DOI. Meanwhile, the operating turbines have exceeded all pro forma expectations for electricity generation. Standing tall!

In pitch-perfect Newspeak, Trump officials say cuts in science are made in “the interest of better science” that benefits all Americans. That has a very bad odor to it. Nearly 2,000 doctors, scientists, and researchers, including dozens of Nobel Prize winners, signed an open letter warning that the U.S. lead in science is being “decimated” and that a “climate of fear” has descended on the research community. More than 90 NIH researchers publicly signed a separate letter, aka: the “Bethesda Declaration” criticizing deep cuts in public health research. That doesn’t sound like better science.

Plans to Breakup “The Mother of Climate Research”

“White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, in a post Tuesday on X, announced the plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, calling it ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.’ NCAR was founded more than six decades ago to provide universities with expertise and resources for collaborative research on global weather, water, and climate challenges… Antonio Busalacchi, who heads the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of 129 U.S. universities that oversees the Boulder facility, told NPR he received no prior notice before the announcement and believes the decision ‘is entirely political.” (Scientists Push Back on Trump Plan to Break Up a Critical Climate and Weather Center, NPR, Texas Public Radio, Dec. 20, 2025)

NCAR impressively impacts every American, e.g., among NCAR’s many contributions, it developed dropsondes — tube-shaped instruments released from aircraft…Antonio Busalacchi says these efforts have contributed to decades without passenger plane crashes caused by wind shear or downbursts. “We’ve had zero loss of life from these weather events that can be directly attributed to our research. And that’s what we’re talking about losing, if NCAR shuts down,” Ibid.

The threat to NCAR is far-reaching: “Jason Furtado, an associate professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, calls NCAR ‘a world-envied research center for atmospheric science’ and ‘a beating heart for the atmospheric science community.’ He says his research and that of many other scientists would simply not be possible without the Boulder center. ‘In some way every atmospheric scientist has a connection to NCAR, whether they’ve directly been to the building or they have not,” Ibid.

Negatively clobbering atmospheric scientists does not make science better. It makes it much, much worse and threatening a society that is increasingly harmed by climate change’s insane whiplashing weather systems that, if not forewarned, kill and destroy, sending a clear message that fossil fuel CO2 emissions heat up the planet beyond sustainability of a 10,000-year-old climate system, not too hot, not too cold. Why have the insurance industry and commercial banks figured this one out, yet the White House seems lost in the weeds?

“Insured losses from natural disasters in the U.S. now routinely approach $100 billion a year, compared to $4.6 billion in 2000,’ according to a recent Senate Budget Committee report…  Costs to insure many homes are higher today, and in some cases, insurance is harder—in certain areas even seemingly impossible—to find.” (How Climate Risk — and losses — Are Creating High Prices for Home Insurance, JP Morgan, May 16, 2025)

The world’s largest insurance company: Allianz: How Climate Change is Unravelling Insurance Markets, Sustainability Magazine, April 7, 2025. This is no hoax.

Ipso facto, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder has never been needed more than today. Major insurance companies and major commercial banks have already identified the issue of a whacky climate system supercharged by burning too much fossil fuels as a threat to America’s economic system. But now, with the Trump cuts, everybody’s flying blind in the face of torrential climate behavior seen on nightly news programs throughout the country.

Statement by Allianz Senior Executive

“The way forward, according to Allianz and others, is unequivocal – reduce emissions at speed and scale. The technologies already exist – solar, wind, battery storage, green hydrogen, grid upgrades – but deployment remains sluggish. This is not just a moral imperative, they argue. It is a financial one. This is not about saving the planet. This is about saving the conditions under which markets, finance and civilization itself can continue to operate. Manufacturers, particularly those dependent on insurance, finance and cross-border capital flows, must see decarbonization as not just a regulatory or ethical requirement—but as a precondition for business continuity,” Ibid.

Those wind farms could save tons of CO2 emissions that heat up the planet, disrupting thousands of years of a Goldilocks’ climate system. It’s nearly gone!

Meanwhile, scientists are looking overseas for work.

What a mess!

This article was originally publshed on Dec. 30, 2025 © Counterpunch
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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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The Doomsday Glacier Flunks 2025 Checkup

 

Photo by Amar Adestiempo is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Amar Adestiempo is licensed by Unsplash

The Doomsday Glacier Flunks 2025 Checkup

By Robert Hunziker

Thwaites, the most studied glacier in the world, commands attention because it is not only the widest in the world at 80 miles but also the shakiest. And its nickname “The Doomsday Glacier” certainly sets it apart from the 500 other named glaciers in Antarctica. Based upon new research of 2024-25, polar scientists have been speaking out like never before, making public predictions about a rapidly deteriorating situation and insisting upon an end to burning fossil fuels, or else!

The new studies identify new concerns: (1) undersea storms that deteriorate/melt from below (2) hundreds of ice earthquakes, fracturing the glacier (3) Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf, a major portion of the glacier, seriously losing stability.

And finally, a final goodbye to the iconic International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) as it goes dark by year-end 2026. The Trump administration’s FY2026 budget request includes severe cuts to polar science, aiming to end support for the research icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP).

Going forward, Thwaites cascading ice shelves will be unanticipated by polar researchers, as the Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker, a veteran of 30 years, is no longer available. It’s been canceled by budget cuts, and the only way to study sea ice is with a vessel. From this point forward, Thwaites abstruse behavior will come as an unwelcomed surprise to coastal megacities of the world.

Nevertheless, as of today, Thwaites followers can exhale because ITGC concluded that the monster glacier will continue to retreat but most likely will not completely collapse this century. However, its impact on sea levels is indeterminate and could be challenging. This conclusion is confusing as several recent studies outside of the purview of ITGC are issuing alarm signals of imminent danger and catastrophic sea level rise for today’s generation, which comes as a real shocker, explained herein. This troubling difference of opinion amongst polar scientists likely points to the difficulties in analyses of an ice continent the size of Antarctica, or the US and Mexico combined; thus, subjective opinions become more prominent and can easily radically disagree. Of special note, the disagreement by scientists over future sea level rise is wide enough to drive a Mack truck through.

Thwaites is so over-the-top controversial that it has its own international study group: International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration involving 100 scientists from world-leading research institutes, but going dark soon. Interestingly, the ITGC web site states: “Thwaites Glacier’s retreat has accelerated considerably…, our findings indicate it is set to retreat further, and faster, through the 21st and 22nd centuries, and general collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet over this timeframe cannot be ruled out.” The date of this general statement on the web site is not provided, but ITGC was established in 2018. Additionally, a solution is offered: “Immediate and sustained climate change mitigation (decarbonization) offers the best hope of delaying this ice loss and avoiding initiation of similar unstable retreat in marine-based sectors of East Antarctica.”

In stark contrast to ITCG’s assessment of sea level rise, other studies reported over the past 24 months by polar scientists, who are not necessarily with the ITCG, are bone rattling, e.g. an August 2024 meeting of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, 1,500 scientists: “Antarctica’s glacial melt is advancing faster than ever before in recorded history.” Gino Casassa, glaciologist and head of the Chilean Antarctic Institute, one of the attendees: “Based upon current trends, sea levels will be up 13’ by 2100,” which begs the question of how high by 2035, one decade from now, and furthermore, this projection by Dr. Casassa is wide of the mark of the ITCG. In fact, this is the first known public statement of such an aggressive prediction. Additionally, in general support of Dr. Casassa’s 13-feet, in November 2024, 450 polar scientists held an emergency summit in Australia, stating: “If we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea level rise around the globe within our lifetimes.” It is believed this is the first time such a shocking statement, specifically about Antarctica, has been issued by a major gathering of scientists. “Catastrophic, within our lifetimes” is a real punch to the gut.

Both instances go well beyond expectations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and ITCG and published research in general. Both call for immediate halt to greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning as well as decarbonization. Nevertheless, in the face of scientists’ warnings of deep, deep trouble, the United States is taking a path of climate change ignorance. This puts the world at risks which most of today’s American politicians will not have to face because of indeterminate timing, making it easier to “go for the money” and “screw the environment.” As such, sorrowfully, money becomes the new Golden Calf (Book of Exodus). How’d that biblical story work out?

A chilling new study in Science News, University of Manitoba, with a telling headline: Satellites Spot Rapid ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Collapse, Summary: “Two decades of satellite and GPS data show the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf slowly losing its grip on a crucial stabilizing point as fractures multiply and ice speeds up. Scientists warn this pattern could spread to other vulnerable Antarctic shelves… The study notes that the pinning point, once a key factor holding the TEIS in place, has slowly shifted into a feature that now contributes to its instability. This four-stage pattern of structural decline may be a signal for other Antarctic ice shelves that appear to be entering similar phases of weakness.” (Debangshu Banerjee, et al, Evolution of Shear‐Zone Fractures Presages the Disintegration of Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 2025)

Another new study, as of December 2025, published in Nature Geosciences is the first to systematically analyze how the ocean is melting ice shelves over just hours and days, rather than seasons or years, another real shocker. Swirling underwater storms are the protagonists that aggressively melt from down below. The study is listed in CNN Climate, Underwater ‘Storms’ are Eating Away at the Doomsday Glacier. It Could Have a Big Impact on Sea Level Rise d/d Dec. 10, 2025.

Another new study of Thwaites discusses glacial earthquakes, which weaken the gigantic glacier. About two-thirds of the events detected, 245 out of 362, were located near the marine end of Thwaites. Most of these glacial earthquakes are due to capsizing icebergs. A glacial earthquake is created when tall, thin icebergs fall off a glacier into the ocean. When icebergs capsize, they clash violently with the “mother glacier.” This generates strong mechanical ground vibrations, seismic waves, that propagate thousands of kilometers from origin. (Hundreds of Iceberg Earthquakes Detected at the Crumbling End of Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’, Phys.org, December 14, 2025).

Whether the Doomsday Glacier craters with a big splash today, tomorrow, or next century, the fact remains that polar scientists agree it is ultra-high risk surrounded by uncertainty. The dimensions are well known, timing of sea level rise is guesswork. But because it is huge and known to be extremely unstable, someday it’ll disrupt civilization beyond the comprehension of today’s stubborn ill-informed climate deniers. And, assuming the 450 polar scientists are close to correct; they’ll see it during their lifetimes. Then what?

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

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

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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George Carlin’s Obedient America

Photo by Little David Records is in the public domain.
Photo by Little David Records is in the public domain.

George Carlin’s Obedient America

By Robert Hunziker

“They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money.” (George Carlin, American stand-up comedian, 1937-2008)

According to Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), the controversial social psychologist who conducted experiments on obedience in the 1960s at Yale: “Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to.” (more on this study to follow)

Currently in America, a very dark brand of obedience serves to confirm the sarcasm George Carlin leveled at America’s socio/economic system which takes advantage of a complaisant public, and when this obedient public does not exert sufficient pressure on political leaders, it grants “silent permission” to avoid or radicalize crucial issues such as climate change, uniform tax policy, proper medical treatment, and fair societal policies.

This darkness transfers control by allowing extreme divisive rhetoric to become normalized, in power, in control. Then political dialogue easily shifts to extremism, a very effective tool of control, marginalizing minority groups, intensifying social divisions. This is how societies and ecosystems go “extinct from politeness,” a term coined by Caitlin Johnstone. journalist, essayist, painter and poet: Faces Of The Empire: The Battle For Humanity’s Soul (November 2025)

Caitlin Johnstone recently posted an article: On Becoming The First Species To Go Extinct From Politeness, which goes straight to the heart of today’s nonsensicalness getting away with murder of every type and stripe while clobbering life-sourcing ecosystems without a care in the world. The simple explanation for mean-spiritedness getting away with mountains of ridiculousness is “American Obedience.” People seem to embrace being led around by their noses to the end of the Earth, to a certain demise, to utter destruction, to cold-bloodied murder, to Wile E Coyote’s edge of the cliff. This type of human tragedy is found in Jesus’ teachings, Matthew 15:14 and Luke 6:39: “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Caitlin’s article captures the essence of Jesus’ teachings by pointing the guitar strumming finger of the famous poet, folk-songster and celebrated labor advocate Utah Phillips (1935-2008) who exclaimed: “The Earth is not dying, it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.” The relevance of Phillips in today’s world could not be more apropos.

Caitlin quotes Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States): “As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem…. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”

According to Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) the controversial social psychologist who conducted experiments on obedience in the 1960s at Yale: “Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to… The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous import, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.” (Stanley Milgram, The Perils of Obedience, physics.utah.edu, The University of Utah)

Lying Creates a Kind of Trickle-Down Corruption

This infestation of dark obedience prevails even as nearly seventy-five percent (75%) of people in a Gallup poll that identify with either of America’s political parties agree that moral values are getting worse. This is a strong signal that something is deeply wrong. “The problem begins with the government and the media. The problem is not that we feel like morality is in decline by our fellow citizens but by our government and media. When the government and the media lie to us or share information that doesn’t align with our experience, it feels like honesty and integrity for America as a whole are eroding. Perhaps President Herbert Hoover said it best back in the 1930s when he observed, ‘When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.’ Lying creates a kind of trickle-down corruption and the average citizen’s reasoning can quickly become: “If the government can, then why can’t I?”” (Is Morality in Decline or Is It Being Manipulated? Psychology Today)

The question remains: Why are today’s descendants of the original disobedient American revolutionaries of the late 18th century so obedient, especially in the face of misdeeds, theft, graft, con artists, swindlers, and crooks at an all-time high? Do they idolize the original American Revolutionaries, the Founders who were wealthy landowners/slaveowners disobedient to monarchial rights while ignoring true democratic spirits. The early American Revolutionary era (1765-1783) established an extraordinarily narrow focus, only extending rights to white property-owning men, excluding women, slaves and non-property owners or pretty much everybody else. Democracy? “That’s our history. We were founded on a very basic double standard: This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free!” (George Carlin)

The Founders did not trust democracy. They reveled in oligarchical democracy, creating government structures designed to limit direct democracy, e.g., the Electoral College. It was a narrow interpretation of democracy, e.g., as for “religious freedom,” Catholics were denied rights like holding public office, voting, owning land and freely practicing their faith, some laws banned priests. Based upon the morality and ideals of the Founding Fathers, the DNA of American democracy is fragile and vulnerable to returning to oligarchical democracy. The 2000 and 2024 presidential elections demonstrated a fatal weakness inherent with mindless public obedience. All of which is only possible in the context of an “obedient society,” both then and now.

America has returned to its origins, with oligarchical democracy anxiously waiting in the wings, with taxes once again a pivot point, recalling the Boston Tea Party of 1773 led by some of the richest men in the colonies like John Hancock and Joseh Warren opposed to any form of taxation like today’s Big Beautiful Bill roundly accepted by smiling billionaires with clandestine tipping, accepted by obedient millionaire members of Congress and an obedient unwitting public from coast-to-coast, nobody stood up against it, nobody stood up, even as it buries America in a mountain of $3.4 trillion in new decadal debt. Moreover, with obedience so pervasive, all of Project2025 is easily enacted, smooth as silk, in a heady return to oligarchical democracy, as warned by Milgram: “The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority.” Project2025 proved to be that authority, nobody questioned, nobody challenged it, nobody!

Like a mindless drunkard wobbling down the street, American Obedience has given free rein to Project2025’s massive quiver filled with poisoned arrows aimed at complete destruction of a tenuous democracy and wholesale avoidance of enormously destructive climate systems directly caused by burning fossil fuels that are, in fact, encouraged; consequently, targeting the last remaining hope, i.e., a fair democratic system, of easily led obedient adults that have reduced themselves to sittin’ ducks. Who’s proud of this?

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

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

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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UK National Emergency Briefing Wakes Up World

Photo by Valentin Antonucci is licensed by Pexels
Photo by Valentin Antonucci is licensed by Pexels

UK National Emergency Briefing Wakes Up World

By Robert Hunziker

An impressive display of world class scientists recently (Nov. 27th) held a UK National Emergency Briefing, informing the world of impending climate change disaster scenarios that can no longer be ignored. A war-time footing is necessary. Ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed politicians, business leaders, faith, sport, and the media in a marathon session.

The British are dead serious about the deleterious impact of climate change and intend to alert the public to this existential threat to civilization. Eighty-one (81) Members of Parliament and fifty-two (52) Peers attended the session headed by the UK’s chief scientific advisor, explaining why the UK must take emergency-level action like a war-time scenario. There were 1,200 invite-only attendees at the session. A 45-minutte documentary of the event is in the production stage.

Opening remarks by Professor Mike Berners Lee, Lancaster University, Sustainability Expert, Chair of the session: “For an understanding of the root causes of the most serious crisis that will ever impact our species we need people. We need to trust them because they are telling us the truth…. The information that we’re going to be looking at is extremely serious, urgent, and it affects us all here in the UK. That is why we’re calling this a National Emergency Briefing…. In the words of James Baldwin: ‘Nothing can be changed until it is faced.’ COP30 recently ended without any progress on fossil fuel emissions, in fact, the words ‘fossil fuel’ were stripped from the proceedings. We desperately need to reset the narrative on climate change and wipe out misinformation.”

The original video of the event d/d November 27th runs 3:05. Herein a sampling of excerpts of the first five speakers suffices to emphasize the critical nature of the subject prompting this emergency briefing. These excerpts are a combination of direct quotes as well as summaries of statements.

Excerpts of First Four Speakers:

Chris Packham, UK Naturalist: We are the only known life forms in the universe, and we’ve got nowhere else to go. This little blue planet is where we will either live in harmony with the environment or we will destroy ourselves and much of other life too… Do we want it on our conscience that we waste everything? Why are we unbelievably pulling back from addressing the greatest crises to ever threaten our species, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss… climate denialism is a mainstream thing again thanks to well-oiled machines of the rich, powerful, and influential lobbyists from the fossil fuel and other industries. A dangerous wave of misinformation and lies fills our lives. But worse, it fills the lives of our decision-makers… the people who shape policy. For example, the petro states said “no” and thrashed COP30 because of the crazed consensus requirement that allows oil to say “no” and abort any movement against CO2 emissions. Fossil fuel companies are some of the biggest contributors to our politicians, especially the less scrupulous. And the media is failing to explain to the public “the gravity of our predicament.” We must listen to the science… if politicians ignore science, billions of lives are at risk. Politicians in the audience today must listen to the scientists and act accordingly.

Nathalie Seddon, Professor of Biodiversity, Oxford Martin School: Nature is not simply nice to have. It’s not a luxury. It’s critical national infrastructure. When we destroy and degrade it, we expose this country to escalating risks, e.g. floods, fires, heat waves, insecurity and economic instability. When we protect and restore it, we can build resilience. The living creatures that support our entire life system are breaking down. We are facing a national emergency not only because the climate is changing but because the living systems that regulate that climate, protect homes and feed our people are breaking down here in one of the most nature depleted nations on Earth. The facts are sobering. Only about ½ of UK biodiversity remains. Only 14% of rivers in England are in good ecological health as the result of chemical pollution, sewage discharge and erosion, and agricultural runoff choking the arteries of the landscape. When rivers fail, so does resilience to droughts, etc.. Only 7% of our woodlands are healthy, only 3% of our lands, and 8% of our waters are effectively protected for nature. Over 5 million properties in England are at risk of flooding. Additional national concerns due to degradation, misuse, and abuse of nature are itemized in this speech skillfully transitioning the errors of society and government to the need to follow public opinion, which strongly supports protecting nature and redirecting public funds from inadvertent harmfulness to positive embracing of nature within government policymaking.

Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change: Let me start by framing the problem as I see it. And it’s very much that CO2 concentrations in the environment in the atmosphere that are rising at unprecedented rates… across the last 800,000 years, CO2 varied by 100 parts per million but over the past 10,000 years it only varied by 20 parts per million. This gave civilization a very stable climate. Now, in a blink of geologic time we’ve increased, since 1850 from 280 to 424 ppm or +134 ppm in less than 200 years, burying 9,800 years of the perfect climate system, not too hot, not too cold. That is gone. Therefore, we must eliminate, not cut, fossil fuels or temperatures will continue to go up. We are headed for 2C by midcentury and 3C to 4C by 2100. The planet system cannot handle it. We are looking at systemic collapse of economies within a collapsing climate system. 1.5C is no longer a viable target because of failure to cut emissions, which is a very depressing admission. There is new evidence that we are warming up much faster than science expected, which adds to the urgency of taking action now.

The world needs to cut carbon emission by 13% per year to hold temps down to 2C. We need a profound shift in our social norms to accomplish that, and you can forget carbon capture and storage. After 30 years of promises to do the job, according to the CCS Institute, it’s managed to store less than 0.03% of all fossil fuel emissions after 30 years of promises by the ‘delay technology” groupies, like the oil and gas industry. These are false solutions designed to avoid meaningful legislation to cut back emissions. Timely technologies are required, e.g. retrofitting homes, more public transport, EV charging stations, zero carbon electricity.

It is now too late for nonradical solutions. There is no way other than revolutionary rates of change, and the rich, luxury class of living must give up its overallocation of resources. Remarkably, the top 1% of the population of high income/high emissions people give rise to twice the level of emissions as the bottom half of the world’s population. This statistic makes the case for revolutionary change. Put another way, the top 1% generate twice the greenhouse gas emissions as 4,000,000,000 people.

According to an article in Oxfam (not provided by Anderson but this is a fact-check of his !% statement; the Stockholm Environment Institute also participated in Oxfam’s study, and several other independent studies show variations of the Oxfam study; all similar, some showing less some more but all show vast inequity in carbon polluting by class status) Oxfam (est. 1942) Richest 1% Use Their Entire Annual Carbon Limit in Just 10 Days d/d January 10, 2025: “The richest 1% are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution than half of humanity, with devastating consequences… To meet the 1.5°C goal, the richest 1% need to cut their emissions by 97% by 2030… Governments need to stop pandering to the richest. Rich polluters must be made to pay for the havoc they’re wreaking on our planet… Tax them, curb their emissions, and ban their excessive indulgences —private jets, superyachts, and the like. Leaders who fail to act are effectively choosing complicity in a crisis that threatens the lives of billions.”

Kevin Anderson (cont.) We need urgent legislation to drive down energy use within that 1% group. And I would argue that the second prerequisite of Paris is that fair and deep reductions in energy use… This will deliver immediate and substantial cuts in emissions; it gives us critical time to put in place zero carbon technologies that are very important, and it releases the labor, the materials, the finance, and even the political capital we need to drive the clean revolution… affordable low carbon homes, high quality public transport, etc., we need to move the resources and labor that furnish the private luxury of a relative few of us like me and many of us here to the public well-being for all.

Tim Lenten, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter: Tipping Points.

If we carry on with current trajectory to three or maybe four degrees centigrade, then we will definitely be in a national emergency. We’ll likely be at a tipping point with a climate that’ll make this country a very different uninhabitable place. There is plenty of evidence that we are headed toward several tipping points, which interact, causing widespread climate disruption. We’ve already crossed a tipping point with the world’s coral reefs that support the livelihoods of ½ billion people and protects coastlines from rising sea levels and storm surges.

An upcoming example of the most dangerous tipping point is AMOC, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is already showing signs of slowing. Paleoclimate research shows us that AMOC has turned off and on several times over the last ice age.

If we lose the deep-water formation of AMOC, a state-of-the-art scientific model using 2°C of global warming shows what’ll happen with the decadal winter climate extremes, assuming we cross this tipping point, thereby losing the enduring circulation of tropical warm water to the North Atlantic, heretofore warming Europe.

Here are the theoretical consequences of losing AMOC because of a 2°C warming cycle:

(1) Remarkable comeback of Arctic sea ice reaches down to covering most of the North Sea by February each winter

(2) In London it is minus 20°C (-4°F) with three frozen months of the year

(3) Edinburgh minus 30°C (-22°F) with five and a half frozen months per year

(4) But the summers will still be hotter than today because of a 2°C warmer world, well beyond today’s 1.4-1.5C.

(5) The UK will be nearly 100% dependent upon import of food crops and suffer a shortage of potable water.

(6) On a global scale, regions where staple crops are grown will be reduced by 50%.

In closing, a radical acceleration of action towards zero emissions is required. And the only way to convince ourselves that that’s credible is to show positive tipping points achieved via transition from fossil fuels to renewables that can become self-accelerating, and we’ve successfully done that in the UK but only in the power sector. At the peak in 2012, 40% of UK electricity came from black coal. Today it is zero from coal. This was accomplished by a climate change act with cross-party consensus to gradually put a floor price on carbon levied just on the power sector, stepped up over time, enough to incentivize switching to renewables, which, with ever-larger economies of scale, serve as a tipping point to lesser costs and enhanced proficiency. Importantly, in the final analysis, mandates on a global scale are needed to take out fossil fuels, transitioning as soon as possible out of fossil fuels.

The full 3:05 session UK National Emergency Briefing is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/2-PFKT1SNc4

This article was originally published on Dec. 5, 2025 © Counterpunch

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

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Pay to Pollute

 

Photo by Chris LeBoutillier is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier is licensed by Unsplash

Pay to Pollute, Starting in 2026

By Robert Hunziker

The United States of America was unofficially represented at COP30, the annual UN climate conference (November 10-21) in Belem, Brazil by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). He was not granted the privilege of officially representing the U.S. The State Department refused to facilitate his trip, refused to acknowledge the senator as a representative of a congressional delegation, refusing to acknowledge COP30, refusing to acknowledge global warming. This is the first time in Senator Whitehouse’s career that the executive branch of government has dictated a congressional member’s CODEL (Congressional Delegation paid trip for members).

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

In meetings with country representatives outside of COP30 official proceedings, Senator Whitehouse learned what’s happening to hopefully limit global warming, concluding that one way to climate safety is by imposing a fee on polluters. According to studies by Potsdam Institute, “a price on carbon” is one of the ways not yet implemented to tackle global warming.

The senator met with the Europeans, the Brits, and the Australians. The EU is instituting a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which is a global price on carbon that comes via tariffs. It is already law and set to go into effect in 2026. The conservative UK government is also in the process of figuring out how they’ll handle a carbon tariff. Australia is also looking into it.

Whitehouse: “This is sending a global price signal that if your goods are more carbon intensive than ours, we are going to charge you for that. You cannot pollute and export for free any longer.” However, a fee on carbon pollution is no guarantee of climate safety; on the other hand, not instituting a carbon fee is a pathway for climate failure, likely taking down civilization at some unexpected juncture. It’s gotten that serious.

In that regard, the value of oil and gas subsidies in the U.S. are $700 billion per year. That’s the value of polluting for free that the fossil fuel industry receives. It’s no surprise they were willing to “grease” the president with several hundred million dollars to do whatever they want to do.

American Opinion Polls on Carbon Pollution

According to the senator, Trump does not represent American interests. He only represents fossil fuel interests, not the American public. Proof is found in recent polls, as expressed in Senator Whitehouse’s speech, stating that a proposal to “limit carbon pollution by big corporations” is supported by 72% of Americans. Whereas Trump’s Mar-a-Lago commitment to fossil fuel interests has been sealed with several hundred million dollars of grease following his open offer to do whatever they want for a one-billion-dollar quid pro quo. This is simply one more weird oddball difficult to rationalize stance against America’s best interests. Nearly 2/3rds of the American public want “limits to carbon pollution.”

According to the senator’s speech, when ask if a “fee should be imposed for polluting,” Americans polled said ‘Yes’ by a resounding 74%. Once again, Trump would certainly oppose such a fee since he has already sold his soul to the polluters. American citizens diametrically oppose Trump on carbon pollution. Two-thirds of Americans favor a fee on carbon polluters. Significantly, the EU is instituting such a fee; the UK is considering it; Australia is considering it. This may become a global movement now that all past approaches over the past 30 years by nations of the world, demonstrating concern about climate change at annual COPs, have so little to show for 30 years of meetings.

An updated poll Climate Change in the American Mind d/d June 17, 2025 conducted by Yale Climate Change Communications and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communications d/d May 1-25, 2025 can be accessed.

COP30 Results- Global Warming Wins Once Again

According to Reuters d/d November 22, 2025: “World secures compromise deal at COP30 that sidesteps fossil fuels.” This is one more COP failure to properly address the key reason behind starting UN climate conferences 30 years ago. The first UN climate conference, COP1, held in Berlin in 1995 started a process of negotiations to create “legally binding emission reduction targets” for the developed countries of the world. That initial “statement of purpose” remains fluttering in midair directionless, heartless, meaningless, out of reach with each annual meeting. Next year Antalya, Turkey will host the staging arena for COP31’s chatter, wine, caviar, nearly guaranteed disappointing results, and photo ops for state leaders.

The Ultimate Impact of Failure to Challenge Climate Change

Senator Whitehouse’s Senate speech (Nov. 21) discusses the outcome of failure to address climate change. Accordingly, big trouble is on the docket by avoiding the climate change issue. This threat of upcoming trouble is voiced by leading figureheads in finance. Senator Whitehouse refers to it as the Great Climate Insurance Collapse, warned by finance authorities, claiming climate change alone could reduce global GDP by 10-20%.

“In 10 or 15 years, there are going to be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage” (Federal Reserve Board Chair Powell) because people will not be able to get home insurance. This, in turn, eliminates home mortgages. “Whole regions of the U.S. are going to become so climate risky that they’re uninsurable.” (Whitehouse)

According to the senator, Florida is on a fast-track: “In Florida the insurance market is already trembling, propped up, perhaps even fake.” The likely scenario is a cascade: “It goes from climate risk-to un-insurability-to mortgage failure-to property value collapse-to recession.” Still, a typical Florida family home is $407,830 in 2025 versus $410,000 in 2023, not too much of a decrease in value in two years but still a decrease as sources say typical Florida buyers experience “climate change denialism” to an extreme despite several obvious risks. Meanwhile, Florida is the most expensive state for home insurance in the country and likely going higher, pricing many buyers out of the market.

Extreme Climate Change Shows Up in the Damnedest Places, Clobbering a Town in Nebraska

“In Cozad, Neb., a hailstorm last year caused an estimated $100 million in damage, according to local insurance agent Brian Messersmith, in a town of just 4,000 people. After the storm, many homeowners and business owners in town say they were dropped by their insurers and forced to scramble to find new, generally more expensive, policies. Others saw the price of their existing policies go up significantly. The average cost of homeowners insurance in Nebraska this year is nearly $6,400, according to Bankrate. That’s the highest in the country, and almost $4,000 above the national average.” (It’s Harder to Get Home Insurance. That’s Changing Communities Across the U.S., NPR, November 12, 2025)

A cascading climate change situation is what the chief economist of Freddie Mac told a Senate committee could happen. Freddie Mac is not a green organization. Freddie Mac is a mortgage company warning the country of climate change negatively impacting the real estate market.

The finance community is warning of big economic trouble because of climate change. These are not green NGOs. The Economist magazine featured an article entitled The Next Housing Disaster, predicting a $25 trillion hit to global real estate because of climate change’s home insurance meltdown.

The president of Aon Insurance, one of the biggest in the country, testified before the Senate budget committee, saying climate risk is a “systemic risk,” which means the issue is not confined to where it originates, it spreads. For example, the 2008 recession was systemic with the mortgage meltdown hurting everybody throughout the economic system. But now we are confronted with global systemic risks that could be globally cataclysmic after years of ignoring climate change.

Two Million Canceled Home Insurance Policies

The climate-engineered home insurance crisis is already happening and threatens to get much worse as the Trump administration officially ignores climate change, labeling it a “hoax”: “In one five-year period, 2018-2023, insurers canceled nearly 2 million homeowner’s policies in the face of rising climate risks.” (How Climate Risks Are Putting Home Insurance Out of Reach, YaleEnvironment360, September 15, 2025) Why would major insurance companies cancel 2,000,000 home insurance policies if climate change is a hoax?

Gunther Thallinger of Allianz SE, the world’s largest insurance company warned about the prospect of hitting 3C, which Senator Whitehouse believes is coming: “The financial system as we know it ceases to exist and capitalism ceases to be viable.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association says the fiscal risk associated with climate change may exceed the capacity of insurance and governmental assistance in some regions of the country.

Climate Deniers Threaten Entire Financial System

If major finance executives, including the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and leading finance entities like Aon Insurance and Allianz SE believe climate change is a systemic risk to the financial system, what more is needed to reverse the administration’s anti-science, anti-climate change campaign that will harm every American and take down the entire financial system. There are no winners under this scenario, only losers, including climate deniers.

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

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

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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Antarctica’s Red Flag Warning

Photo by Torsten Dederichs is licensed by Unsplash.
Photo by Torsten Dederichs is licensed by Unsplash.

Antarctica’s Red Flag Warning

By Robert Hunziker

Antarctica has moved to “the front of the line” as a global warming threat that’s already well beyond expectations, and it’s happening fast. Based upon statements by polar scientists over the past 18 months, it warrants a Red Flag Warning, meaning higher than expected risks of catastrophic meltdown within current lifetimes.

This meets criteria for the latest international concern surrounding climate change: “When is enough, enough” for world leaders to take to heart the risks of ecosystem failures and take extraordinary, drastic, unprecedented measures in unison to hopefully head off the onset of a maniacal worldwide climate system. There are people of stature who believe it (climate change) is already over the top, meaning “it’s too late.” But this is not universal belief.

Antarctica may be the catalyst that tips the scales enough to scare the daylights out of world leaders, but will this be recognized early enough for extreme mitigation measures to hopefully take hold well before EVs, with electron sparks flying, are left floating on city streets throughout the world?

Antarctica has been commanding more public attention as the principal ogre of global warming’s impact on sea levels simply because it is the biggest monster in the room, and it’s starting to move, a lot. Increasingly, the science that once, not so long ago, thought of Antarctica as an issue for the distant future, has turned tail as the rapidity of global warming has changed the entire complexity of the continent’s future. Its future is now, not a hundred years from now.

The risk of massive sea level rise flooding coastal megacities has jump-started from a distant hundred years hence, or more, to today’s generation, right now. This new unanticipated risk has been hammered home by statements from scientific meetings over the past 18 months with explicit warnings of Antarctica’s meltdown advancing much faster than ever expected:

The 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research meeting d/d August 2024 attended by 1,500 scientists: “Antarctica’s glacial melt is advancing faster than ever before in recorded history.” Quote by Gino Casassa, glaciologist head of Chilean Antarctic Institute: “Based upon current trends, sea levels will be up 13 feet by 2100.” If this happens, sea levels by 2035-40 will shock the world. After all, 13 feet doesn’t suddenly happen in the year 2099. And this is the first time such a projection (13’) has gone public.

A couple of months after that scientific meeting, 450 polar scientists held an emergency meeting in Australia d/d November 2024 issuing a press release to the public: “If we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea level rise around the globe within our lifetimes.” The 450 polar scientists claim: “Drastic action is necessary regarding CO2 emissions as soon as possible.” Immense global warming-induced shifts were found in Antarctica. And this is the first time a group of polar scientists has stated “catastrophic sea level rise within our lifetimes.”

Now, a new study has discovered evidence of Antarctica mimicking Greenland’s meltdown dynamics, which are pervasive: Ruth Mottram, et al, The Greenlandification of Antarctica, Nature Geoscience, October 2025. Indeed, this study adds a new layer to outcries by scientists that a very big problem is about to burst loose with Antarctica’s meltdown phase.

Disturbingly, the Mottram, et al study exposes new dimensions of meltdown risks in Antarctica that should shatter any opposition to confronting global warming with every available resource guided by top notch scientists: “Both satellite data and field observations in Antarctica reveal alarming signs of a Greenland-like meltdown, with increased surface melting of the ice fields, faster-moving glaciers and dwindling sea ice. Some scientists are sounding the alarm, warning that the rapid ‘Greenlandification’ of Antarctica will have serious consequences, including an accelerated rise in sea levels and significant shifts in rainfall and drought patterns.” (Bob Berwyn, Scientists Warn About the ‘Greenlandification’ of Antarctica, Inside Climate News, October 16, 2025)

The immediate risk for today’s generation could be West Antarctica coming apart at the seams with enough ice melt alone to raise sea levels by 10 feet due to its uniquely vulnerable geographic setting. Overall, the entire Antarctic continent contains approximately 200 feet of sea level rise, which would take hundreds of years for complete meltdown, keeping in mind that every foot of sea level rise on the way to 200 feet equates to 100 feet of flooded shoreline; this puts every coastal megacity in the world at risk, within today’s generation.

The Ocean Mega-Heat Threat, since 2023

It’s entirely possible that current projections of sea level rise should be tossed out the window as ocean heat content exceeds all expectations. Indeed, this new risk is already a measurable factor that’s truly “scary” in the words of the co-author of a recent ocean dynamic study: “Record-Breaking 2023 Marine Heatwaves,” which observed 500 days with 96% of the ocean in consistent extreme heatwaves (hard to imagine but true) in a continual pattern 2023-24-25 well above all expectations, a Red Flag Warning for Antarctica.

Uninhabitable Ocean Environments

A comparable heatwave of 500 days on land would cause immeasurable death and destruction. Already, western Australia in 2025 witnessed 30,000 dead fish washed ashore as ocean temps registered 5C above normal, and the LA Times reported unprecedented numbers of dead marine mammals on California shorelines: Marine Mammals are Dying in Record Numbers Along the California Coast, Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2025, which, according to the article: “Raises questions about whether some ocean environments are becoming uninhabitable.”

This supports the finding of a dangerous “regime shift” in the ocean, a staggering new development. The co-lead scientist of “Record-Breaking 2023 Marine Heatwaves,” Zeng Zhenzhong, PhD, Earth Systems Scientist, China Southern University of Science & Technology commented on the study results: “I am scared,” which scientists never admit, but they are saying it now.

According to crucial data (used worldwide by scientists) provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, which is on Trump’s chopping block) the top 2,300 feet of the ocean has experienced a stunning 5-fold increase in heat content in only five years. This type of horrible news serves to destroy the climate denialism narrative.

Of special concern, if Greenland-type pervasive meltdown hits West Antarctica’s notorious Doomsday Glacier, Thwaites, the world’s largest most unstable glacier at 80 miles wide, then the world may be about to change beyond anybody’s worst nightmare. For the record, Antarctica’s sudden unruly behavior exposes the utter failure and downright stupidity of climate denialism and avoidance of the issue. Ocean heat not only turns regions of the ocean uninhabitable; it’s also the primary cause of Antarctic ice sheet/glacial meltdown.

Of additional concern, a new 20-year study by 35 international teams found worldwide glaciers, excluding Greenland and Antarctica, melting down with “staggering volumes of ice loss,” more than Greenland and Antarctica combined and accelerating by nearly 40% over the past decade, extraordinarily fast for massive ice glaciers. This throws a whole new ingredient into sea level rise as cascading terrestrial glaciers create havoc for surrounding villages and cities and major river systems while accelerating sea level along with Greenland and Antarctica.

All of which prompts serious questions: Is this new direction in worldwide glacier meltdown included in current scientific models for sea level rise? Probably not, which means nobody is sure which end is up.

“What can be done about it” is by far the most provocative question of the 21st century.

But more importantly, massive glacial meltdown throughout the world hasn’t been formally recognized as a major threat to the world’s coastal megacities by the world at large, meaning, a “world approach” to some kind of solution is not even on the table. And thinking out loud: Is there really a solution? Maybe sea walls?

This article was originally published on Nov. 14, 2025 © Counterpunch

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

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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Krill Defender Arrested by Moscow

Antarctic krill by Uwe Kils is licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0
Antarctic krill by Uwe Kils is licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0

Krill Defender Arrested by Moscow

By Robert Hunziker

Leonid Pshenichov, a 70-year-old biologist, has been arrested by the Kremlin for “undermining Russia’s industrial trawling for krill in Antarctica.” He’s been accused of High Treason. He was arrested while preparing to travel to Australia to attend a conference for protecting Antarctic marine life.

According to Russian authorities, Leonid is a citizen of the Russian Federation who defected by joining Ukraine’s delegation to an Antarctic conference, known as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The accusation claims Leonid is using his position to undermine Russia’s fishing of krill in Antarctica by supporting a Ukrainian proposal to “restrict krill harvesting.”

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, consisting of 27 member states since 1982, proposes creation of a protected area around the Antarctic Peninsula specifically to protect krill, the prime ingredient in the marine food chain in the Southern Ocean. “This year, for the first time, the number of krill fished in Antarctic waters reached what scientists believe is an unsustainable level.” (Russia Arrests Ukrainian Biologist for Backing Curbs on Antarctic Krill Fishing, The Guardian, Oct. 26, 2025)

Russia and China have blocked proposals for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the region for decades. Members of the Commission have called for member states Australia, the US (really?) Japan, and others to condemn Moscow’s actions. Of note: Leonid has conducted research for the Commission since 1983 and as a Ukrainian scientist since 1994. He and family reside in Kerch, Crimea. According to several scientists familiar with his work: His contribution t0 the Commission is “difficult to overestimate.”

Dan Crockett, executive director of the conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation, claims Pschenichnov has been imprisoned for “nothing more than providing scientific evidence about the impact of krill fishing on the Antarctic ecosystem,” Ibid.

Krill Superheroes: According to the National Science Foundation, Antarctic krill are the “Superheroes of the Southern Ocean.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, which is on Trump’s chopping block) refers to krill as: “Tiny Krill: Giants in the Ocean Marine Life Food Chain.”

Nature Communications describes krill as marine animals that create “the largest monospecific aggregations (swarms) in the animal kingdom,” which means they are easy prey for hungry whales as well as gigantic fishing trawlers.

Moreover, climate change has a position in the life cycle of krill: The Importance of Antarctic Krill in Biogeochemical Cycles, Nature Communications, October 2019, explains the significance of krill as a significant carbon sink: “The role of phytoplankton in atmospheric CO2 drawdown and fish production has been the central focus of many biogeochemical studies,” Ibid.

Industrial Scale Krill Fishing

“The huge trawlers move forward, slowly. Just a short distance from one another, each brand their nets – hundreds of metres in length – before submerging them in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean.” (Licensed to Krill: The Industry Pressures on the Southern Ocean, Oceanographic, September 4, 2025).

As of 2025, Alistar Allan remembers: “Recounting his experience of the fishing effort documented back in 2022 and 2023, Alistair Allan, Antarctic Director at the Bob Brown Foundation admits that he was “blown away” by what he saw, “amazed by the concentration of fishing effort in this small patch of ocean,” Ibid.

Krill fishing by gargantuan trawlers has steadily grown from 106,00o tons in 2006 to 518,000 tons in 2025. Krill is used in salmonid fish farming and as pet food and by humans for its remarkable omega3 content.

At this year’s United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice, France, personalities such as renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle and actor Benedict Cumberbatch called for a complete ban on krill fishing, claiming the industry is a “non-essential activity.” And making matters even worse, industrial fishing not only negatively impacts one of the most fragile ecosystems of the planet but also directly worsens the climate crisis by eliminating a significant carbon sink.

“If you look at where krill goes, it’s into things that we really do not need,” says Alistair Allan. “It’s not providing an essential foundation for global food security; it’s not feeding the world. It’s been put into pet food, it’s put into salmon aquaculture to feed farmed fish, and it goes into supposed health supplements,” Ibid.

As it happens, human-oriented bizarre nature scenarios keep showing up in the oddest circumstances, for example, the Southern Ocean experiences a surrealistic battle scene of sea mammals, like whales, and human craving for health perfection and abrupt climate change and gigantic metallic trawlers at sea all simultaneously attacking tiny, very small, shrimp-like crustaceans typically 1-2 cm long found at the base, literally the foundation, of the marine food chain. Under normal circumstances the often-transparent creatures use quick backward swimming to escape predators. But trawler nets with total stretch length of 133 m (440 feet) and a mouth perimeter of 300 m (990 feet) wide are a bit too much for quickie escape techniques that have been perfected for centuries. The modern world may be too much for krill that miraculously withstood the aging of time with two lineages of krill surviving the mass extinction event 65 million years ago. Well now, give humans only maybe 200 hundred years to nearly wipeout 65 million years of rugged evolution. Something doesn’t seem right.

The average krill fishing trawler catches roughly 100 tons of krill per day, which is equivalent to 100,000,000 krill per day per ship, so it takes an average trawler about 10 days to catch one billion (1,000,000,000). Krill fishing trawlers can stay at sea for several weeks to months at a time, and sometimes for an entire season (up to 8 months), by using transshipment to offload their catch onto refrigerated cargo vessels (reefers) at sea.

This article is proof positive that civilization is in deep, deep trouble, as it scavenges for the last remaining, most fundamental to life, creatures on the planet. Nothing else compares to such a perfect metaphor for a dying civilization as “harvesting krill.” Welcome to the world of insanity and some strange level of stupidity.

As a footnote to this story and as an alternative to industrial fishing of krill: Ashlan Cousteau, award-winning environmental journalist, producer, and co-founder of EarthEcho International is tackling the krill crisis with a simple but transformative solution. Through her new company, SeaVoir, she’s launched an algae-based omega-3 that delivers the same nutrition as fish and krill oil at the same cost — without harming marine ecosystems.

This article was originally published on Nov.7, 2025 © Counterpunch
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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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The Great Barrier Reef, Collapsing?

The Great Barrier Reef photo by NASA is in the public domain.
The Great Barrier Reef photo by NASA is in the public domain.

The Great Barrier Reef, Collapsing?

By Robert Hunziker

It’s the largest living structure on Earth, 3,000 individual reefs, 900 islands, 1,430 miles, and it may be collapsing. Alas, The Great Barrier Reef Annual Summary Report of Coral Reef Conditions, 2024-2025 presents a dire picture, the poorest condition ever, the worst report in recorded history. Moreover, mass bleaching of coral has been confirmed in 83 countries. Something is seriously wrong with the oceans; this is too anomalous, too massive to ignore as a passing one-off event.

Coral reefs have experienced bleaching events over the years because of ocean heatwaves and recovered, but nothing in the past compares to this onslaught. A new all-time record of ocean heatwaves was set in 2023-24-25 with 500 days of continuous excessive heatwaves, suggesting a dreaded ocean regime shift. The Oceans are Overheating – and Scientists Say a Climate Tipping Point May be Here, ScienceDaily d/d July 26, 2025.

Alarm bells should be ringing throughout the world, waking up the world’s leadership to an omen that nobody in their right mind wants to hear; Anthropogenic (human) generated greenhouse gas emissions, like CO2, have already heated up the oceans enough to threaten the survival of the world’s most iconic natural treasure, considered one of the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World.” Too much ocean heat is more than warm-water coral can handle. After all, over 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed by the ocean.

The world of coral is on life support. Coral reefs, aka; the rainforests of the sea are crucial to marine life and importantly serve as an early warning signal of worldwide climate system trouble turning deadly serious. This new risk comes through loud and clear in the newest edition of the Global Tipping Report 2025 just released, a compilation of 160 authors from 23 countries and 87 institutions.

“Even under the most optimistic future warming scenario — one in which global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times — all warm-water coral reefs are virtually certain to pass a point of no return. That makes this ‘one of the most pressing ecological losses humanity confronts.” (Coral Collapse Signals Earth’s First Climate Tipping Point, ScienceNews, October 12, 2025)

But humanity does not satisfactorily “confront pressing ecological losses.” It holds huge world conferences to talk about troubles and chit chats about this and that, but no major coordinated solutions ever play out. For example, at the Paris 2015 climate conference, the most significant climate meeting in history, the nations of the world committed to cutting CO2 emissions, taking mitigation measures, etc. to halt global warming.

Alas, 10 years later, it is universal knowledge that they are not even close to meeting Paris ’15 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to stop global heat. Not even close. In fact, CO2 emissions are up more than 200% since 2000, up from an annual rate of 1.25 ppm in 2000 to a soaring 3.75 ppm in 2024. As a result, all kinds of bells and whistles and alarms are going off with red lights flashing danger ahead on several global overheating fronts.

Indeed, coral reefs are the most sensitive natural ecosystems on the planet. Across the globe they are in deep trouble because of record ocean heat. And oceans do not generate heat, they absorb it. Now, it’s kicking back into the face of humanity. Enough is enough.

“A marine heat wave across much of Australia’s northwest reached unprecedented levels from December 2024 through to April 2025. In January and February, there were extremely high levels of heat stress (+3 to 4°C) off the Kimberley coast.” (Coral Bleaching Events, Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2025)

“NOAA (in partnership with the International Coral Reef Initiative) confirmed the world is in the midst of its 4th global coral bleaching event. From 1 January 2023 to 11 September 2025, bleaching-level heat stress has impacted 84.4% of the world’s coral reef area and mass coral bleaching has been documented in at least 83 countries and territories.” (Current Coral Bleaching: Status Update & Data Submission, Updated Sept. 12, 2025, NOAA National Environment Satellite Data and Information Service)

“The ongoing global coral bleaching event is the biggest to date. The previous record was during the 3rd global coral bleaching event, which occurred from 2014-2017, when 68.2% of the world’s reef area experienced bleaching-level heat stress. The 1st and 2nd global coral bleaching events occurred in 1998 and 2010, respectively,” Ibid.

When nearly 85% of the globe’s coral reef area is hit by “bleaching-level heat stress” something is terribly wrong. Of course, this does not mean that all coral immediately dies, as prior heat stress events have seen some recovery at later dates, But, that may be the rub, will the ocean’s heat waves and ocean temperatures moderate, or not?

“Global sea surface temperatures have remained at near-record levels in 2025, following a record-shattering jump in 2023 and 2024.” (Rapid Ocean Warming, Climate Central, July 30, 2025) Furthermore, September Sees Persistently High Land and Sea Surface Temperatures Globally, Earth.org, October 9th, 2025.

According to EcoFlow, there is a La Niña watch for winter 2025-2026, which hopefully brings a cooling trend in the Pacific. This is a natural occurrence that can provide some temporary relief; however, the major trend of heatwaves persisting in the ocean may be a new shift in the ocean regime that has scientists nervous. The Oceans are Overheating – and Scientists Say a Climate Tipping Point May be Here, ScienceDaily d/d July 26, 2025)

Because of the alarming sudden jump shift, since 2023, in global heat on land and in the ocean, several climate scientists are calling for not only a halt to CO2 emissions but also a commitment to SRM or solar radiation management via geoengineering the climate system to block solar radiation. This is a “yes or no” issue, “no maybes,” that raises the shackles of advocates and opponents alike as compromise seems a distance away. Nevertheless, as global heat continues to deteriorate major ecosystems, like coral reefs, and continues to accelerate meltdowns, West Antarctica and Greenland, with rising sea levels encroaching upon coastal megacities around the world, it grows increasingly likely that SRM becomes a World Panic Button of last resort.

But there are several unknowns.

Will it be soon enough fast enough?

Will it work as advertised?

Will it damage the Ozone layer or other atmospheric molecules necessary for survival?

But, beyond the wherefores, buts, maybes and hopefuls of SRM, can anything stop nature’s sudden eruption of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions into the atmosphere from former carbon sinks like the Amazon rainforest and Arctic permafrost and now in concert with cars, trains, planes and factories?

Indeed, this grisly consortium, including nature spewing emissions into the atmosphere alongside cars, trains, planes, and factories is by far the most disturbing event of the decade and maybe of the 21st century. It likely cancels out the benefits of renewable energy. Unfortunately, there’s no on-off switch to control nature’s carbon emissions, up up and away into the atmosphere alongside (‘strange bedfellows’) human-generated CO2 emissions; together, nature/humanity are on the road to who knows where?

The danger is only too obvious as nothing could be worse than losing legendary carbon sinks converted to carbon sources at the same time as the ocean is suffering record-setting heatwaves, up to 500 days consistently. This kind of ‘out of this world, unbelievable’ stuff is not supposed to happen. But it is happening. Does this spell the onset of a runaway hot Earth scenario, a very big question mark that may be on the minds of scientists.

This article was originally published on Oct. 24, 2025 © Counterpunch
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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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Eating Global Warming

Photo by blackieshoot on Unsplash
Photo by blackieshoot on Unsplash

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.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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