In the dead of winter, the Antarctic Peninsula, an 800-mile extension of the Antarctic continent, temperatures hit 32°F. (Source: It’s Even Hot in Antarctica, Where it’s Winter, Vox, July 13, 2023)
Global warming has been on a hot streak, accelerating its record-setting impact on the planet over the past couple of years. And even though it’s winter down below, Antarctica has joined the party. The icy continent, as large as the U.S. and Mexico combined, is the coldest continent on Earth with a mean annual interior temperature of -71F.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), despite mid-winter conditions, Antarctica’s sea ice is at record lows, in fact 17% below average for this time of year. Alas, only recently, within the past few years, scientists believed East Antarctica, the mother ship of the continent, solid, unwavering, the coldest place on Earth nearly impregnable to any kind of crash for the foreseeable future. But that theory has been tossed out because it does not hold up any longer: In a First, an Ice Shelf Collapses in East Antarctica, The New York Times d/d March 25, 2022.
Over the decades, ice shelf collapse in East Antarctica was not a concern. On the other hand, West Antarctica’s geological setting is a different story with brand-name glaciers Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier tipsy, threatening, under scrutiny.
Yet, in 2022 the Conger Ice Shelf/East Antarctica bit the dust. “The Conger collapse is the first observed in East Antarctica since the era of satellite imagery began in 1979, said Catherine Walker, a glaciologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts,” Ibid.
All of which prompts a very logical query as to whether coastal cities of the world support a coordinated plan to rein-in fossil fuel usage, the root cause of planetary heat that ultimately brings flooding to coastal cities. Umm- No such plan exists. Glaciologists privately say the full extent of the tipsy dynamics of ice sheets are not included in models for sea level rise, e.g., missing from IPCC calculations. However, if included, projections of sea levels increase by up to 200% over current projections (Eric Rignot, senior research scientist NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). That’s very big trouble.
Antarctica is starting to succumb to global heat much earlier than expected. It’s overwhelmed by the human footprint emitting greenhouse gases with abandon, for example, human CO2 emitted into the atmosphere: (a) 5 billion tons in 1950 (b) 25 billion tons in 2000 (c) 37 billion tons in 2022.
As a result, Greenland slumps in a hyper melt mode. Coincidentally, at the same time as Greenland slumps, America’s congressional Republican Party threatens big cuts to climate funding in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that allocated $375B to fight global warming. They want to cut climate funding at the same time as global heat celebrates all-time hotness across the world. The paradox is too obvious to ignore. Yet, paradox or contradiction, as it were, may not be strong enough language to fully explain the depths of degeneracy.
In sharp contrast to America’s helpless misinformed, the China Meteorological Administration’s Blue Book on Climate Change rolled out only recently. Here’s what China says: “It is essential for us to unite with the international community to confront climate change. On the one hand, we need to strengthen our scientific understanding and continue conducting in-depth research on climate change. Besides this, we must actively adapt to climate change by enhancing our capacity to cope with climate risks and disasters. Most importantly, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through various means to mitigate climate warming. We can start by taking action on an individual level and collaborating with society as a whole to alleviate the impact of climate change.” (Source: Extreme Heat Events in China Ever More Frequent: Blue Book, Global Times, July 2023)
China’s “breath of fresh air” is in sharp contrast to America’s Republican-backed initiative of 17 amendments whacking Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, demonstrating the preposterousness of shallow infantile blabber versus mature adult foresight.
Meantime, according to very smart scientists: “Greenland’s melt rate has gone into hyperdrive in the past few years.” (Source: ’Devastating’ Melt of Greenland, Antarctic Ice Sheets Found, Phys.org, April 20, 2023) Its average melt rate from 2017-2020 was +20% more per year than at the start of the decade and an astounding seven (7) times more than the 1990s. That’s super-duper speed for a big chunk of ice perceived as stationary. It should scare the living daylights out of the mayors of the world’s ten most vulnerable coastal cities, e.g., New York City, Miami, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, Cardiff, New Orleans, Manila, London, and Shenzhen.
“The new figures ‘are pretty disastrous really,’ said study co-author Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute,” Ibid.
“This is a devastating trajectory,’ said U.S. National Snow and Ice Center Deputy Lead Scientist Twila Moon, who wasn’t part of the study,” Ibid.
Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization reported Antarctica sea ice at record lows in the middle of winter (record lows in the winter???). According to Marilyn Raphael, Antarctica sea ice analyst at UCLA: “It’s not something that we should be comfortable with. It shouldn’t be as warm as it is. If that warming continues, it will make things go akilter.” (Source: It’s Even Hot in Antarctica, Where It’s Winter, Vox, July 13, 2023)
Antarctica going “akilter” refers to its significance to the rest of the planet. After all, it is home to 190 feet of frozen sea level rise. As if that’s not enough, what happens in Antarctica reshapes weather patterns around the world, and come to think of it, worldwide weather patterns are already in a tizzy. Antarctica determines ocean currents that destine important nutrients to nourish global fisheries, and it directly influences atmospheric circulation patterns for clouds, rainfall, and temperatures throughout the planet. All of that is already akilter.
“The sea ice and atmosphere and ocean… We just haven’t quite seen the size of the changes that are coming,” Jeremy Bassis, professor of Climate and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, “Ibid.
All of which brings to surface a very big question mark about 1.2°C above pre-industrial. According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, annual average global temperature reached 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial in 2022. Well, excuse me, but if East Antarctica’s cracked, West Antarctica’s shaky, the Peninsula’s warm, and Greenland’s in hyper meltdown, then what’s gonna happen if the world approaches the 1.5C upper limit suggested by the IPCC? More to the point, what’s gonna stop it?
According to James Hansen, the world’s leading climate scientist: “There has been a staggering increase in Earth’s energy imbalance.” (Source: James Hansen, El Nino and Global Warming Acceleration, June 14, 2023). Hansen’s dot-plot graph appears to put 1.5°C smack dab into the mid/late 2020s. That’s way-way ahead of the IPCC’s schedule. Ergo, if the worldwide climate disaster scene of 2022/23 is what happens at 1.2C, then what happens at 1.5C?
By now, everybody’s aware (well, almost everybody) since the start of the 21st century, human-generated global warming has overtaken, overwhelmed nature’s true course. A prime example: The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica was stable for 60 years of observation until all-of-a-sudden in 2015-2020 it retreated by 18 miles in only five years in celebration of its two-year birthday of CO2 crossing over 400 ppm for the first time in human history, May 2013. (Source: Thwaites and Pine Island Glacier are Losing Ice Faster Than at any Time in the Past 5000 Years, The International Thwaites Collaboration, June 30, 2022)
Republican lawmakers in the US Congress are unabashedly pro-global warming: “Bring it on! We’ve got air conditioners in our cars, offices, and homes… no sweat!” Not one Republican in Congress voted for the nation’s most inclusive climate bill of all time, the Inflation Reduction Act, not one Republican vote.
Meanwhile, here we go again, this coming fall, with Congress in another deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. They must pass several spending bills by September 30th when current funding expires or face another ugly quasi-default situation. Leading up to this white-knuckle drop-dead deadline, Republican lawmakers have armed themselves with a plethora of “climate poison pills” inserted into spending proposals. They hope to trim the budget by hammering climate funding.
They want to stop Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act dead in its tracks, and climate change is a prime target for massive cuts, to hell with global warming. They don’t buy into the climate change/global warming song and dance routine, as they like to reference it.
According to the Clean Budget Coalition, a watchdog group of advocacy nonprofits, at least seventeen (17) “poison pill” amendments have been issued to block clean energy funding. A poison pill is an amendment that weakens a legislative bill’s effectiveness and/or destroys its chances of passing.
This brings into focus a Republican Party that purportedly represents the interests of its constituents by torpedoing bills that mitigate global warming, consequently, eliminating green jobs in red states funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. There are lots of them. (Source: Red States to Reap the Biggest Rewards from Biden’s Climate Package, Bloomberg News, April 25, 2023)
Accordingly, “red states will receive $337B in investments for large solar, wind, and storage projects, Democratic states $183B” (Bloomberg News), making revenue assumptions more inclusive and beyond the Inflation Reduction Act of $375B as the act multiplies private initiatives.
An analysis by the Rocky Mountain Institute, extending beyond renewable projects within the Inflation Reduction Act, red states will receive investments of $623B compared to $354B for blue states between now and 2030, assuming companies and consumers adopt clean technologies to meet national targets.
However, a new amendment proposal prohibits the federal government from buying electric vehicles. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) explains it, as follows: “The military is no place to experiment with untested technology… The combat readiness and training of soldiers and equipment is jeopardized by the compelled use of electric vehicles.” (Source: As Budget Talks Heat Up in Congress, Republicans Ramp Up Attacks on Climate Spending, Inside Climate News, July 11, 2023)
Another amendment would prohibit R&D funding for EV charging infrastructure or solar panels within the National Defense Authorization Act.
Another demands the Defense Dept. terminate any contracts for electric non-combat vehicles.
Another amendment blocks the Biden executive order for federal departments to reach net-zero emissions by 2045 and reduce emissions by 50% by 2032.
Another amendment blocks all U.S. funding under the Paris climate agreement to help developing countries.
US Representative Paul Gosar, DDS, proposed his own solution in an October 10, 2021, tweet: “Even if climate change were real (it isn’t) there’s obviously solutions these ‘top scientists’ are ignoring. I have an ice maker in my basement. It can make gallons of ice cubes in a day. Can’t we just make a few million of these machines and replace this allegedly melting ice?”
Of course, none of this comes as a surprise. One year ago, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which contained the nation’s first-ever comprehensive climate legislation, allocating $375B on decarbonization and climate resilience over 10 years, not backed by one Republican vote, zero Republican votes in the House and zero in the Senate. Now, they want to take their Republican opposition to climate policy one step further by undermining/compromising last year’s legislation.
The House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, under the leadership of Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) advanced its fiscal 2024 spending bill on June 23rd including a prohibition of funding for “envoys not authorized by Congress or confirmed by the Senate.” Ipso facto, John Kerry’s position as Climate Czar will be eliminated along with his office budget of $16.7M, annually.
The Clean Budget Coalition’s Deanna Noel responded: “The disgraceful poison pill riders are nothing short of corporate giveaways to the corrupt fossil fuel industry.” (Source: Republicans Take Aim at Climate funds in Spending Bills, The Register-Herald, July 11, 2023)
What’s going on with the lack of convincing congressional support to fight climate change as global warming clobbers the planet like never before? Elizabeth Kolbert explained the root cause in The New Yorker: “After Citizens United, according to the report (ed.-Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis) ‘Bipartisan activity on comprehensive climate legislation collapsed.” (Source: Elizabeth Kolbert, How Did Fighting Climate Change Become a Partisan Issue? The New Yorker, August 14, 2022)
The 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case ruled that corporations and wealthy donors could, effectively, pour unlimited amounts of cash into electioneering. And guess what happened next? They bought a bunch of sell-outs, easy-to-buy, off-the-shelf baby-kissers. Ever since Citizens United, “billionaires are sponsoring candidates like prized racehorses.” (Source: Politics for Sale, Brennan Center for Justice, October 18, 2022) They own them.
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is a prime example, and an answer to why so many grovel at Trump’s feet: “Thiel is a particularly alarming example. Through massive donations to super PACs, which Citizens United brought to the fore, he’s using his riches to force his fringe views into mainstream political discourse. He’s supporting candidates who spread the false claim that fraud decided the 2020 election. And his money doesn’t just force a certain type of candidate into the public eye — it also silences Thiel’s ideological opponents. By working to defeat the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump, for example, Thiel has deterred others from speaking out against the former president. Few politicians can afford to ignore Thiel and the threat his money holds,” Ibid.
That is today’s American politics at work. For three-years-running America’s highest-ranking politicians focused on phony voter fraud claims, not one shred of evidence so far, in the face of the most treacherous climate in human history, where funding cuts are now proposed.
Will the world’s major coastal cities, such as NYC, survive escalating global heat conditions in Greenland? And what if both Greenland and Antarctica follow the recent very disturbing pattern of the world’s oceans? For the first time that scientists can recall, sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks are failing to do so, staying high.
Climate change is getting dangerously worse, which is becoming a more common statement among scientists. Ecosystems are starting to fail right before our eyes. For example, in 2022 Europe experienced a big scare with temporary loss of full service for navigable commercial waterways, like the Rhine, and loss of potable water in regions of France and Italy, necessitating water delivery by truck to over 100 communities, with much of Asia experiencing similar issues, especially China and India.
Suddenly, the world is a different place, a description that fits Greenland, especially August 14th, 2021, when it rained at Summit Station, 10,551 feet elevation. There’s no previous record of rainfall at the 2-mile summit. It was one more unprecedented climate event. More on Greenland and coastal cities follows herein.
According to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report: “There is high confidence that climate change has already caused irreversible losses in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems.” Still, climate scientists continue pumping out reports about those same irreversible losses, but frustration mounts as reports pile on top of reports in the face of negligible efforts by the 195 signatories to Paris ‘15.
It’s not surprising that climate scientists are becoming street protestors.
Scientists Rebel
In December 2021 an offbeat science article called for scientists to stop feeding research into a bottomless pit of inaction: “The science-society contract is broken. The climate is changing… The tragedy of climate change science is that at the same time as compelling evidence is gathered, fresh warnings issued, and novel methodologies developed, indicators of adverse global change rise year upon year.” (Source: Bruce C. Glavoic, et al, The Tragedy of Climate Change Science, Climate and Development, Vol 14, Issue 9, 2022)
Furthermore: “We therefore call for a halt to further IPCC assessments. We call for a moratorium on climate change research until governments are willing to fulfil their responsibilities in good faith and urgently mobilize coordinated action from the local to global levels. This third option is the only effective way to arrest the tragedy of climate change science,” Ibid.
“Over 1,00o scientists from 25 countries staged protests last week following the release of IPCC’s new report.” (Source: Scientists Stage Worldwide Climate Change Protests After IPCC Report, Smithsonian Magazine, April 13, 2022).
At the American Geophysical Union meeting in December 2022, which is the largest annual meeting of scientists, activists’ scientists unfurled a banner that read: “Out of the lab & into the streets,” demanding rapid deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 to avoid catastrophic climate effects, meaning all hell will break lose. But maybe it’s already breaking lose? In fact, in many respects it is already breaking lose.
Greenland is starting to come apart at the seams right before our eyes, threatening to impact the world’s most prominent cities: New York City, Miami, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, Cardiff, New Orleans, Manila, London, and Shenzhen are the 10 most vulnerable cities for sea level rise. Based upon the following chart of Greenland melt extent, capturing only a short duration in time, the famous cities must hope this ominous graph, June 28th, is nothing more than an aberration that dissipates soon. A nearly vertical spike of ice sheet melt extent can be seen on the chart from Jason Box, climatologist, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland,.
Surely the radical spike up does not forecast new higher levels down the road, as it naturally dissipates, but what if it does not dissipate, similar to sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks but failed to do so, staying high? Then, seawalls become mandatory.
“Sea surface temperatures (SST) have risen 5 degrees Celsius above normal during June. This is the warmest they have been in more than 170 years for this time of the year.” (Source: North Atlantic Marine Heatwave ‘Beyond Extreme’, Down to Earth, July 5, 2023)
Already, the combined ice mass loss for Greenland and Antarctica has been accelerating, fast and faster, from 116 billion tons per year in the late 1990s to 410 billion tons per year 2017-2020, which comprises the most recent data set. That’s a 250% increase in one decade, which is piping hot for a colossal block of ice. At that rate, it’s probably a good idea to start building seawalls, forget the plans, just build.
Meanwhile, the 10 coastal cities should keep their collective fingers crossed that the spike up doesn’t portend the future, like the recent experience with ocean heat, which demonstrated major, maj0r unwelcomed changes in climate behavior. If so, the word “trouble” takes on new meaning for some of the world’s biggest cities. In fact, The Economist declared Greenland a “goner” a couple of years ago: The Greenland Ice Sheet Has Melted Past the Point of No Return, The Economist, April 25th, 2020.
However, the problem runs deeper yet. A recent study of icesheets shows that the current generation of sea level rise modeling that’s commonly used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and policymakers is too conservative, unintentionally lowballing, missing data that changes the complexion from a cautionary yellow to a red alert.
According to the study, the hidden interior of the Greenland ice sheet is destabilizing because of millions of hairline cracks that cause hydro-fracking that satellite observations and previous studies have not yet recognized. (Source: David M. Chandler, et al, Widespread Partial-Depth Hydrofractures in Ice Sheets Driven by Supraglacial Streams, Nature Geoscience, June 2023)
The implications of the Chandler study are profound as the hydrofractures occur far from crevasse fields and melt lakes where science ordinarily finds such occurrences. Over time tiny hairline cracks grow into giant gaping maws large enough to swallow a cathedral. Ice sheet stability is compromised.
Beyond the Chandler study, other recent studies reveal vulnerabilities that are not yet factored into sea level expectations by the IPCC or policymakers. For example (1) warm ocean currents are flowing under ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica, destabilizing, undercutting outlet glaciers (2) Abnormal levels of rainfall in Greenland, including regions where, in unprecedented fashion, it’s never rained before, accelerate surface melt (3) foreign surface materials darken Greenland’s ice sheet and absorb more solar radiation, accelerating melt. And (4) Is Antarctica included in IPCC calculations for sea levels, or did they not have enough data points to include it? I think not. Meantime, the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica are already teetering, like listing ships at sea. Nobody knows for sure how soon a crash happens, maybe Thwaites, the alleged Doomsday Glacier, hmm.
An international collaboration of 65 polar scientists established in 2011, named Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise -IMBIE- to reconcile measurements of ice sheet mass balance. It’s supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. According to an April 20, 2023, press release: Since the early 1990s there has been a fivefold increase in melting of ice sheets. A five-fold increase is beyond disturbing, whatever that may be.
Underestimating sea level rise by the IPCC and policymakers is exposed in study-after-study, for example Eric Rignot, senior research scientist NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and professor, University of California, co-led a study of the Petermann Glacier, Greenland which proved that the melt rate at the junction of the ocean with grounded ice is much more vigorous than expected. Their finding potentially doubles projections of sea level rise. (Source: Enrico Ciraci, Eric Rignot, et al, Melt Rates in the Kilometer-Size Grounding Zone of Petermann Glacier, Greenland, Before and During Retreat, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2, 2023)
Doubling sea level rise is difficult to fathom and would be nearly impossible to handle, especially with nobody planning for it to happen.
“These ice-ocean interactions make the glaciers more sensitive to ocean warming,’ said senior co-author Eric Rignot, UCI professor of Earth system science and NASA JPL research scientist. ‘These dynamics are not included in models, and if we were to include them, it would increase projections of sea level rise by up to 200 percent – not just for Petermann but for all glaciers ending in the ocean, which is most of northern Greenland and all of Antarctica,” Ibid.\
Based upon numerous requests for a shorter-term forecast of likely sea level rise, an analysis was undertaken by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey, expecting significant sea level rise over the next 30 years, by region. They projected 10 to 14 inches (25 to 35 centimeters) of rise on average for the East Coast, 14 to 18 inches (35 to 45 centimeters) for the Gulf Coast, and 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) for the West Coast. (Source: NASA Study: Rising Sea Level Could Exceed Estimates for U.S. Coasts, NASA- Global Climate Change, November 1, 2022)
The wild card in NASA’s calculations is whether “the accelerating rate of sea level rise detected in satellite measurements from 1993 to 2020 – and the direction of those trends” used to determine future sea levels remains the same or accelerates beyond initial baseline calculations.
What can be done?
The answers for what can be done are in the public domain. Indeed, what can be done is all about when, or if it will be done, which is the real issue.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” (Robert Swan, one of the world’s greatest explorers, first to walk both the North and South Poles)
Oceans of the world are in a dangerous red zone that exceeds safe limits for marine and terrestrial life because of excessive heat. Several statements by climate scientists show heightened concerns about how this plays out, as 2023 could be a major inflection point with global warming suddenly turning much worse. For example, the recent work of Annalisa Bracco, Ph.D., Professor School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Tech, Ocean Heat Is Off The Charts – Here’s What That Means for Humans and Ecosystems Around the World, Phys.org, June 21, 2023
The backgrounder for ocean heat taking center stage includes major developed countries that haven’t done nearly enough to cool things down despite Paris ’15 commitments to cut emissions, which, in most cases. have proven to be nothing more than hollow promises, as multi-billion-dollar subsidies for fossil fuels continue unabated, no pushback for one of the most subsidized industries in the world, assuredly the most subsidized industry in the U.S.
Therefore, a question arises whether this dereliction of duty or a failure to meet Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at the heart of the Paris Agreement, Article 4, Paragraph 2, merits an ad hoc international emergency meeting to pull out all the stops to fight global warming. After all Paris ’15 hasn’t done the job.
Two-thirds of the planet consists of ocean that’s under attack by heat-seeking missiles of human and/or natural origin of greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4, and more. There are 10 primary greenhouse gases and more beyond that. Furthermore, the oceans have absorbed 90% of global heat for far too long; it’s starting to push back, erupting throughout the planet in a preview of a climate change horror movie that’ll outdo Don’t Look Up principally because Don’t Look Up’s asteroid was instantaneous with a precise target, whereas, global warming’s a thousand cuts across the planet; it hits everywhere.
Based upon the script for Don’t Look Up (2021 Best Picture Nominee), leaders of the world should be held accountable for ignoring science, which is clearly exposed for all to see in the film version starring Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, and Jennifer Lawrence. World leaders knew but did nothing. They must have known, not the actors, but real-world leaders that attended annual Conference of the Parties -COP- climate meetings, over 100 world leaders at COP27 last year, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres warning, time and again, and again, and again, ad nauseum: “The world is headed for climate catastrophe without urgent action.”
We now know that most world leaders sought photo ops, nothing more! Here’s the proof: Global emissions, the feedstock for global warming, continue setting new records every year. Only humans can control this. In May 2023, CO2 hit a new record high of 424 ppm according to Mauna Loa monthly mean data by NOAA Monitoring Lab. As a result, ocean heat is off the charts, puzzling climate scientists, wondering whether it’s a temporary phenomenon or a new era of devastating global heat sweeping the world that won’t stop. Ocean temperatures are the highest in the 40 years of satellite monitoring.
The North Atlantic had its warmest May in over 150 years, up to 9°F above normal, registered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as Category 4 “extreme” and Category 5 “beyond extreme”. Alarmingly, water temps in early June soared even higher than in May. “The North Atlantic heat wave is part of a rapid warming of global ocean waters since March that has scientists confused about the cause and concerned about its impacts.” (Source: ‘Beyond Extreme’ Ocean Heat Wave in North Atlantic is Worst in 170 Years, Boston Globe, June 23, 2023)
“NOAA said in a report last week… it appears to have continued at a record pace during June. The chance of seeing such warm sea surface temperatures is 1-in-256,000 according to Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, who said, ‘this is beyond extraordinary,” Ibid.
According to Dr. Annalisa Bracco/Georgia Tech: “The impact is breaking through in disruptive ways around the world.” For example, the Sea of Japan is a staggering 4°C above average, and Indian monsoons are way below normal strength, thus depleting South Asian crops. The marine heatwave along the eastern North Atlantic inhibits rainfall across Spain, France, England, and the whole of the Scandinavian peninsula. Sea surface temps are running 1-3°C above normal from Europe to the coast of Africa.
El Niño is starting to come into play as equatorial Pacific Ocean warm waters weaken trade winds in the tropics, affecting oceans around the world. The past three years of La Niña with cooler equatorial Pacific waters is over and no longer masking global warming.
A major contributor is abnormally low Arctic sea ice. A dark water background absorbs enormous quantities of solar radiation in contrast to ice that reflects 80-90% back to outer space. Alas, the world’s largest reflector of solar radiation has been humbled by global warming. There is a school of thought making the rounds that the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans are merging with negative implications for sea life and weather patterns for the entire Northern Hemisphere going haywire.
Dr. Bracco visited NORCE climate center in Bergen, Norway in June for two weeks to meet other ocean scientists. Warm waters across the eastern North Atlantic resulted in sunny, hot weather in Scandinavia when typically up to 70% of days experience downpours, but not now. As a result, the agricultural sector of Norway is preparing for drought conditions as bad as four years ago when they lost 40% of crop yield.
Dr. Bracco’s experience included a trip across the country: “Our train from Bergen to Oslo had a two-hour delay because the brakes of one car overheated and the 90 F (32 C) temperatures approaching the capital were too high to allow them to cool down.”
Ocean heat is hitting South Asia especially hard. Ironically, India felt compelled in 2022 to reopen >100 coal mines to meet energy demands for artificial cooling of buildings, as overloaded grids and widespread power outages hit well ahead of this year’s onslaught. Thereby, global warming brings forth a vicious Sisyphean frustration cycle, forcing humans to burn additional fossil fuels emitting more CO2 to stay cool but enhancing buildup of more heat. It’s a horrendous losing proposition, comparable to Sisyphus repeatedly trying to roll a boulder up the mountainside only to see it roll back down.
A recent CNN headline focused on human risks: Humans Approaching Limits of ‘Survivability’ as Swelting Heatwaves Engulf Parts of Asia, CNN, June 26, 2023. It conforms to a recent UN IPCC warning: “Increased heatwaves, droughts and floods are already exceeding plants’ and animals’ tolerance thresholds. These weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage.” (Source: In South Asia, Record Heat Threatens Future of Farming, UN Environment Programme, June 26, 2023)
“Limits of survivability” and “exceeding plant and animal tolerance thresholds” are phrases that increasingly haunt news stories throughout the world. When does this become an emergency?
What’s the next step for the world’s political leaders? Oh yes, of course, UNFCCC COP28 convenes November 30-December 12, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), a global climate event (in oil-rich Dubai) expecting over 140 heads of state, over 80,000 delegates and 5,000 media professionals, which will be record COP turnout with more heavy-duty-brass than attended the Super Bowl. You gotta wonder how hard they’ll debate the brutal impact of 37B tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere in 2022, up 50% since 25B tons was emitted in 2000 and a 7-fold increase since 5B tons was emitted in 1950 (Source: How the World Passed a Carbon Threshold and Why It Matters, YaleEnvironment360, January 24, 2017).
Thus far, within one human lifetime the scorecard for annual CO2 emissions is progressively 5 billion tons, 25 billion tons, 37 billion tons.
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
The evidence is starting to build that all bets are off on predictions that humanity has a decade, or more, of clear sailing before global warming turns vicious enough to run roughshod over climate change deniers and the mean-spirited anti-climate-change Republican Party. Voters better smarten up by 2024 or suffer the consequences. At least the Democrats enacted a partial baby-sized climate bill. Give’em credit.
Recent reports from Copernicus, the EU Earth Observation Programme, and Dr. James Hansen, Earth Institute Columbia University, point to the risks of an earlier than expected upside breakout of the 1.5°C (2.7°F) limit set by the Paris Agreement of 2015 and endorsed by 195 countries. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Agreement but Biden put the U.S. back in. Trump is 99% anti-science, maybe 100%.
Conclusively, coastal cities of the world should move up target dates for building seawalls. But how many seawalls are on drawing boards? A recent UN report (2022) finds that communities around the world haven’t done nearly enough to prepare for climate change (IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Climate change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability).
Restoring wetlands, which act as natural sponges, should be prioritized. Most wetlands have been paved over or plowed under. Coastal cities are not even close to being prepared for ocean flooding episodes, which will one day be greeted by tens of thousands of pissed off citizens stacking sandbags, or will they pack it in and head out for higher territory? They’ll pack it in.
A recent YaleEnvironment360 headline: As 1.5 Degrees Looms, Scientists See Growing Risk of Runaway Warming, Urgent Need to Slash Emissions, March 15, 2023. It’s a nice headline but forget it; slashing emissions has never happened, and it won’t until lower Manhattan floods for good. Factually, “an urgent need to slash emissions” is not anywhere to be found. It’s just simply not happening.
Sure, auto manufacturers are ga-ga about electric cars. Just imagine the revenue stream from replacing a worldwide fleet of gas guzzlers and yes, solar and wind are on the go. But several factors beyond EVs and solar are key to the reality of progression or decline, as fossil fuel emissions hit a new record in 2022, and ocean heat, where most of the heat is stored, hit new highs in 2022.
Significantly, maybe most importantly, carbon uptake by natural ecosystem channels has taken a big hit with degraded lands and overused waters taking up less and less CO2: “Carbon uptake by oceans has fallen 4 percent, while uptake by land has fallen 17 percent… and the challenge is likely to grow more severe.” (Source: As 1.5 Degrees Looms, Scientists See Growing Risk of Runaway Warming, Urgent Need to Slash Emissions, YaleEnvironment360, March 15, 2023).
That’s what happens when ecosystems are destroyed, ignored, or abused as if garbage dumps. Frankly, it’s the history of how life-sourcing ecosystems throughout the world are treated, and now natural carbon uptake has been severely crippled. It must be restored, or there’s no chance to successfully battle global warming. Direct Air Capture of CO2 can’t do the job for several reasons beyond the scope of this article.
Copernicus’s most recent broadside explains current global warming, rather bluntly: “Global-mean surface air temperatures for the first days of June 2023 were the highest in the ERAS data record for early June by a substantial margin, following a May during which sea-surface temperatures were at unprecedented levels for the time of year.” (Source: Tracking Breaches of the 1.5°C Global Warming Threshold, Copernicus, June 15, 2023)
According to the report, the global-mean temperature breached the 1.5°C limit during the first week of June. However, whether this early breach holds up going forward will be monitored. According to Copernicus: “The 1.5C and 2.0C limits set in the Paris Agreement are targets for the average temperature of the planet over the twenty or thirty-year periods typically used to define climate.” Meanwhile, breaches of 1.5C are occurring with more and more regularity.
Additionally, an incipient El Niño Pacific Ocean warming cycle is on the immediate horizon and will bring unwelcomed hottish tailwinds, cranking up temperatures even more. As such, 2023-24 could be worse than 2022, but how could it be any worse for Europe? Answer: Rather than one-hundred, hundreds upon hundreds of parched communities without tap water and all commercial barges stuck in mud.
James Hansen’s recent email letter, El Nino and Global Warming Acceleration, June 14, 2023, points to the impact of the Faustian bargain whereby clean energy displaces fossil fuel particulate matter, aka: the global dimming curse (Stanhill, 2006). As stated by Hansen: “The principal mechanism that may cause acceleration of global warming is a decrease of human-caused aerosols (particulate air pollution), which reflect sunlight and thus have a cooling effect that partially offsets warming by greenhouse gases (GHGs).
The Faustian bargain, i.e., human-generated particulates removed from the sky via mitigation of greenhouse gas sources paradoxically means: “We have suggested that a significant payment in accelerated global warming is now coming due.” For example, particulate matter that reflects sun radiation has decreased as the International Maritime Organization set strict limits on the sulfur content of ship fuels. Thus, removing a horrible sore point of global warming brings on more global warming! The Faustian Bargain at work.
Of special interest, according to Hansen: “There has been a staggering increase in Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI)… About 90% of the change of EEI is change of the heat content of the ocean, which is sampled by a fleet of about 4000 deep-diving Argo floats. Earth’s energy imbalance was 0.71 W/m2 during the 10-year calibration period, but EEI has subsequently increased to well over 1 W/m2.”
EEI is the driving force for global warming. Consequently, Hansen’s dot-plot yellow graph appears to place 1.5°C smack dab into the mid 2020s. That’s way-way ahead of schedule and should rattle the cages of world leaders.
Beyond 1.5°C things get dicey crazy scary triggering tipping points that could bring runaway global warming more directly to expressways, businesses and living rooms. Europe has already experienced this as EU temperatures are 2-times hotter than the global average (World Meteorological Organization).
For example, with last year’s temperatures one of the hottest years on record, the EU was a climate train wreck. Commercial barges sputtered in the mud of major European waterways, the Rhine, and the Danube whilst Italy and France furiously delivered drinking water via truck to over 100 parched out-of-tap-water communities. What’ll it be like when things get bad?
Cynically, one must wonder where leadership comes into play. Scientists have been warning Congress and the executive branch for years that fossil fuel emissions will be the end game for the great American experiment in social democracy. Republicans across the board make fun of climate change and oil companies filter dark money into their campaign buckets, as global warming is sold down the drain to the highest bidders. This is a horrifying mess but who’ll take the blame when it hits the fan?
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
When one of the world’s most developed culturally elite countries, France, tosses in the towel on the IPCC 2°C barrier, it sends a loud and clear message that the global warming fight is losing the battle.
Seriously, France expects 4°C. The country is bracing for 4°C according to Environment Minister Christophe Béchu: “We can’t escape the reality of global warming.” (Source: ‘We Can’t Escape the Reality’: France is Preparing for 4°C of Warming by 2100, Euronews.green, May 22, 2023).
France’s position on global warming is heavily influenced by other countries failing to deliver their targets to keep temperatures within the 1-5°C-2°C range of the Paris Agreement. “Unless countries around the world intensify their efforts to cut emissions further still, we are on track for global warming of between +2.8 and +3.2 degrees on average, which means +4 degrees for France because Europe is warming fast,” Béchu said,” Ibid.
The question going forward will be how to keep the electrical grid functioning as global warming diminishes water resources crucial for nuclear power, and as the aging fleet corrodes (37 years median age). France leads the world in nuclear power at 70% of total electricity generation. Yet, in a strange twist of fate, nuclear power, falsely advertised as clean green energy, is vulnerable to global warming shutdowns.
The French Court of Auditors’ Report on the Safety and Operation of France’s Fifty-six (56) Reactors highlights an increasingly unstable supply of water necessary for cooling reactors. (Source: Climate Change, Water Scarcity Jeopardizing French Nuclear Fleet, Balkan Green Energy News, March 24, 2023)
The Loire River is the longest river in France at 625 miles. As of early 2023, global warming clobbered the river, some areas completely dry with flow rate down to 1/20th of normal. Significantly, some of the country’s nuclear power plants depend upon the river for cooling purposes. Global warming is threatening France’s nuclear power system. So far, forced shutdowns have only occurred in the summer, but France’s Court of Auditors warned that such events are likely to become 3-to-4 times more frequent unless global warming somehow subsides, yet France’s environmental chief thinks 4°C is on the horizon.
Moreover, for the first time since 1980, France has been a net importer of electricity, losing its 40-year net exporter status. Output shrank 23% because of a double whammy: (1) global warming diminished water resources, and (2) corrosive defects in infrastructure as a result of the tension and stress of creating energy via nuclear fission, as a dozen reactors were shutdown. One-half of France’s nuclear fleet was shut down at times during 2022.
In the face of its most challenging hottest year on record, France is throwing in the towel on 1.5°C and 2°C above pre-industrial, the upper band as suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Notably, anything above 2°C is considered trouble for life-supporting ecosystems. In fact, the world today at only 1.2°C above pre-industrial is already experiencing trouble in many instances, e.g., losing the water towers of Europe, the Alps, way too fast. The European continent runs hotter than the world at large. According to the World Meteorological Organization, temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years. Meanwhile, with global warming walloping Europe last year, it nearly slid off the map.
With France convinced 4°C is in its future, it should be noted that there are plenty of credible scientists who believe 2°C above pre-industrial is simply intolerable, hmm. For example: A recent study entitled Assessing Dangerous Climate Change by James Hansen (Columbia University) Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University) Camille Parmesan (University of Plymouth), et al (18 scientists) claims that governments have set the wrong target to limit climate change at “2°C higher than the average for most of human history… consequences can be described as disastrous.” With a 2°C increase “sea level rise of several meters could be expected,” and several species will be decimated.
The Hansen study pulls no punches, 2°C above pre-industrial is too high. It should be noted that Dr. Hansen correctly warned the U. S. Senate in 1988 of the dangers of global warming, subsequently front-page news for the New York Times: “The greenhouse effect has been detected and is changing our climate now.” His warnings then as head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies are evident today. If only America’s highest-ranking politicians had listened and reacted, but they didn’t.
France is taking on the global warming challenge by opening a public consultation process thru the summer months to work at defining a nationwide adaptation plan as global warming is expected to trigger several events: (1) severe heatwaves will last up to two months (2) southern portions of the country can expect up to 90 nights with tropical temperatures per year (3) the west and south will experience longer more extreme droughts (4) water shortages will become severe.
2022 Hottest Year Since 1900
National weather agency Météo-France claims 2022 ranks as the hottest year ever recorded in France since data collection began in 1900. It was a year (2022) of multiple extreme disasters as excessive global warming hit hard, e.g., three suffocating heat waves over 33 days, temperature records smashed with many cities exceeding 40°C. (Source: 2022: The Hottest Year Ever Recorded in France, Le Monde, Jan. 6, 2023)
“France is gasping from a dire water shortage with hundreds of towns and villages left with no tap water as ‘ogre’ wildfires rip across the country for the second time this summer in a ‘vision of hell’… The entire nation is suffering its worst drought on record with restrictions in place to limit water usage, but for more than 100 parched communes, they don’t even have the option to ration their supply. French environment minister Christophe Béchu said it is a ‘historic’ crisis for so many communities to have no tap water at all, as fleets of vans ferry bottled water to the desperate residents. (Source: ‘Monster’ Wildfire Incinerates French Wine Country: France Desperately Sends in Reinforcement Firefighters as Ten Thousand Flee, While Record Drought Helps Kill Tons of Fish in Germany Amid Summer ‘Extremes Not Seen Before, Daily Mail, August 11,2022)
The ’vision of hell’ experience and trucking water to hundreds of parched communities is/was a wakeup call, and that experience “has prompted concerns over water security across the continent.” (Source: France Heading Towards Worse Summer Drought Than 2022, Geological Service Says, Reuters, April 13, 2023)
If 2022 was a disaster year with Europe’s temps above the global average of 1.2°C pre-industrial, what on earth can the French expect with 4°C looming?
A 4C World
The World Wildlife Foundation published a study of various scenarios of temperature ranges: Backgrounder: Comparing climate impacts at 1.5°C, 2°C, 3°C and 4°C.
4°C looks like this: (1) 3/4ths of the world population will have deadly temperatures for at least 20 days every year, e.g., a heatwave in Karachi, Pakistan killed 1300 people in 2015; at 4°C Karachi would get hit with deadly heat for 40 days straight. (2) major portions of the world will be hit with horrific food shortages (3) all of Europe will experience water shortages (4) hundreds of millions of people at risk of sea level rise with 760 million in high-risk coastal city locations (5) one-half of all plant and animal species at risk of local extinction, and alas (6) adaptation to 4°C may not be possible. In which case the first 5 examples may not matter all that much!
According to a World Bank analysis: “There is no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible…the projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur,” Ibid.
Even with worldwide awareness of global warming, it is still important to recognize the fact that climate change is a fickle public issue with plenty of ammunition for deniers and doubters to cast spells: “not to worry, the climate always changes.”
Studies suggest that people, not wanting to deal with a nearly impossible situation, block out the challenges of climate change. And as such, they are susceptible to any public statement that gives some comfort that it’s not all that bad. For example, “the climate always changes,” implying that it’s done this same thing over and over again, but we are still standing. However, that statement leaves out a crucial fact. It leaves out the rate of change. It’s one thing when it takes a thousand years to naturally increase CO2 at the rate of 0.02 ppm per year, thus impacting temperature levels gradually. It’s an altogether different case when its human-driven 100 times faster at 2.0 ppm, which is today’s rate, thus compressing 1,000 years into 10-to-100 years. From most signals in France today, the compression factor is looking more severe yet, just ask France’s environmental minister about the rate of change.
Excessive levels of greenhouse gases are the culprit: “In the 1960s, the global growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide was roughly 0.8± 0.1 ppm per year. Over the next half century, the annual growth rate tripled, reaching 2.4 ppm per year during the 2010s. The annual rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 60 years is about 100 times faster than previous natural increases, such as those that occurred at the end of the last ice age 11,000-17,000 years ago.” (Source: Climate Change: Atmosphere Carbon Dioxide, Climate.gov, May 12, 2023)
Here’s more unsettling paleoclimate history from Climate. gov: “Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in human history. In fact, the last time atmospheric carbon dioxide amounts were this high was more than 3 million years ago, during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period, when global surface temperature was 4.5–7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5–4 degrees Celsius) warmer than during the pre-industrial era. Sea level was at least 16 feet higher than it was in 1900 and possibly as much as 82 feet higher.”
To repeat the facts just described in the former paragraph, which are difficult to accept: Three million years ago, atmospheric CO2 was the same as today. It was 2.5-4°C warmer than today’s pre-industrial basis with sea levels at least 16 feet higher.
Maybe France is right, 4C could be low. Only time will tell. Today’s global heat is a product of CO2 from a decade ago. There’s a lag time that’s roughly 10+ years (source: Institute of Physics) between CO2 emissions and the subsequent temperature impact… buckle up!
Meanwhile, when nuclear power plants go down and drinking water is delivered via truck to hundreds of cities and towns in G7 countries, like Italy and France, the underlying message is silent and unspoken. There’s nothing more to say.
A Cool Solution
James Hansen has issued a draft paper entitled Global Warming in the Pipeline, Cornell University, May 2023 that answers the question of what must be done. An enormous drawdown of CO2 is required to cool the planet: “A new plan is essential. The plan must cool the planet to preserve our coastlines. Even today’s temperature would cause eventual multimeter sea level rise, and a majority of the world’s large and historic cities are on coastlines. Cooling will also address other major problems caused by global warming.”
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
The Supreme Court is effectively axing a major component of the Clean Water Act, rolling back 50 years of wetland protection in a declaration of war against nature by changing a word in the text of the Clean Water Act.
Seldom, if ever, will repercussions of a Supreme Court decision be so far-reaching and detrimental to life for the planet. It’s a dagger strike deep into the heart of the world’s most significant life source. Alito changing the text of the Clean Water Act is guaranteed to bring forth much, much worse flooding, especially along coastlines as sea levels rise from global warming; it’ll engender new sources of pollution of streams and lakes and bring on huge losses in biodiversity and crush the beauty of nature displaced by concrete, asphalt and development. Most importantly, aquifers depend upon wetlands for replenishment.
The Supreme Ct ruling in Sackett v. EPA effectively reverses what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -IPCC- stands for in its fight against climate change and global warming’s impact on the planet’s life support ecosystems.
Wetlands are warriors. By far, the most effective fighters against the ravages of climate change, for example, they are: (1) carbon sinks that sequester 10 times more carbon than mature tropical forests; studies show they outperform lame, insufficient carbon capture and sequestration machines, which will never get the job done (2) natural line of defense against flooding (3) home to 40% of all the world’s species (4) a major component for nature’s hydrology system, filtering/cleansing water for streams and lakes and most significantly, replenishing aquifers. Without wetlands, rainfall follows concrete, asphalt, development channels away from aquifers. NASA claims 1/3rd of the world’s largest aquifers to be dangerously stressed, e.g., portions of the Ogallala aquifer in the Texas Panhandle have gone dry and in west-central Kansas the Ogallala aquifer has gone dry. The Ogallala is the largest aquifer, by volume, in the world, underlying 8 states.
Hurricane Sandy, one of the worst storms to hit the East Coast in 2012 was checked by wetlands, e.g., according to Zurich Insurance, the four states with the most wetland coverage had flood damage reduced by up to 30% compared to unprotected areas. In New Jersey, with only 10% wetland coverage, the state saved $430M in flood damage because of wetland protection. (Source: Why Are Wetlands Important to People and Planet? Zurich, February 2, 2023)
“The world’s wetlands are some of our most biodiverse and important ecosystems,” John Scott, Head of Sustainability Risk at Zurich Insurance Group.
“The Court’s decision will open millions of acres of wetlands—all formerly protected by the Clean Water Act—to pollution and destruction,” the Sierra Club.
In the Sacketts’ case, the Supremes ruled that the Clean Water Act only concerns wetlands that are connected to larger bodies of water such as oceans, rivers and lakes. Anything adjacent doesn’t count.
The Biden administration disagrees: “The Supreme Court’s disappointing decision in Sackett v. EPA will take our country backwards,’ Biden said in a statement.” (Source: US Supreme Court Deals Setback to Clean Water Law, Phys.org, May 25, 2023)
“It puts our nation’s wetlands—and the rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds connected to them—at risk of pollution and destruction, jeopardizing the sources of clean water that millions of American families, farmers, and businesses rely on,’ the president said,” Ibid.
The Sackett decision literally re-writes congressional legislation. Brett Kavanaugh took exception, scolding Samuel Alito for taking liberties with congressional law, changing text by crossing out the word ‘adjacent” and replacing it to effectively say: Yes, landowners have as much latitude as they deem necessary to disrupt, destroy, and build upon the planet’s most valuable ecosystems.
“Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for the court is remarkably brazen about this approach—so brazen that Justice Brett Kavanaugh (of all people!) authored a sharp opinion accusing him of failing to “stick to the text.” (Source: Samuel Alito’s Assault on Wetlands Is So Indefensible That He Lost Brett Kavanaugh, Slate, May 25, 2023)
“The court has anointed itself the final arbiter of every controversy in the land, and if it thinks the Clean Water Act goes too far, then, well, it’s the court’s sacred duty to rewrite it. As Kagan put it ruefully: ‘That is not how I think our government should work,’ because ‘it is not how the Constitution thinks our government should work.” Ibid.
But isn’t the Court supposed to follow the Constitution? Not this Court.
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
Small Modular Reactors (SMR) are the new nuclear craze, especially with the U.S. Congress, as America’s representatives see SMRs as a big answer to energy needs and reduction of greenhouse gases, advertised as a green deal for clean energy that skirts the heavy costs of paying the Middle East billions upon billions. However, the devil in the details is dangerously overlooked.
Notable nuclear accidents: NRX (1952) Kyshtym (1957) Windscale (1957) SL-1 (1961) Wood River Junction (1964) K-27 (1968) Three Mile Island (1979) Constituyentes (1983) Mohammedia (1984) K-431 (1985) Chernobyl (1986) Tokai (1997, 1999) Fukushima (2011) … but wait, hundreds, possibly thousands, of Small Modular Reactors (nuclear SMRs) are about to pop up around the world. What could possibly go wrong?
“Multiple and unexpected failures are built into society’s complex and tightly coupled nuclear reactor systems. Such accidents are unavoidable and cannot be designed around.” (Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents (Princeton University Press, 1999)
“On dozens of occasions because of human error or technical miscue or active threat, the world has come dangerously close to the brink of nuclear conflagration… it is a terrifying history of which most people remain ignorant.” (Julian Cribb, How to Fix a Broken Planet, Cambridge University Press, 2023.)
Should nuclear power really circumnavigate the planet with mini-power plants?
For Germany, which closed its last three nuclear plants in April 2023, the country’s Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management conducted a study: “SMRs have been the subject of repeated discussion in recent times. They promise cheap energy, safety, and little waste. BASE commissioned an expert report (in German) to evaluate these concepts and the risks associated with them. The report provides a scientific assessment of possible areas of application and the associated safety issues. It concludes that the construction of SMRs is only economically viable for a very large number of units and poses significant risks if widely deployed.”
Yet, “resistance to nuclear power is starting to ebb around the world with support from a surprising group: environmentalists… This change of heart spans the globe, and is being prompted by climate change, unreliable electrical grids and fears about national security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” (Source: Why Even Environmentalists are Supporting Nuclear Power Today, NPR, August 30, 2022
U.S. senators recently introduced a nuclear energy bill called the Advance Act with bipartisan support, hopefully enhancing and advancing America’s world leadership role in nuclear energy by deploying SMRs by the bucketful, idealized as a “cleaner smarter safer solution” to today’s bulky nuclear power plants. Advance Act will cut red tape and make it easier and much faster for SMRs to gain a foothold in the marketplace.
Meanwhile, like the U.S., China has the same red hot nuclear fever. It has set aside $440B for its nuclear program, planning to build 150 new reactors by 2037, which equates to 10 per year, which, by almost all standards, seems unachievable. It tops cumulative world production over the past three decades.
Fearful of being left in China’s nuclear dust, on May 18th, a proposed House bill by Wittman (R-VA) speeds-up the building process for SMRs. And Joe Manchin (D-WV) has proposed the Nuclear Fuel Security Act to set up a nuclear fuel security program promoting domestic production of uranium.
The excitement over nuclear is palpable, as politicians’ hands tremble with excitement, introducing what’s billed as the perfect green clean way to solve energy needs. There are cheerleaders galore. The U.S. Congress for one is a very influential cheerleading group, but it’s more pervasive than that. Big players like Japan and China are going all-in for nuclear. Japan Adopts Plan to Maximize Nuclear Energy, in Major Shift, AP News, December 22, 2022.
Wait a moment… isn’t Japan currently being criticized in several quarters of the world for dumping Fukushima toxic radioactive water into the ocean? After all, the U.S. National Association of Marine Laboratories, with over 100 member laboratories, issued a position paper strongly opposing the toxic dumping because of a lack of adequate and accurate scientific data in support of Japan’s assertions of safety.
Regardless, last week the G7 nations gave its blessing for Japan to dump Fukushima’s toxic water into the Pacific Ocean. Hmm.
Interestingly, PM Shinzo Abe (1954-2022) shortly after Fukushima’s meltdown 10 years ago, assured the International Olympic Committee in consideration of holding the games in Tokyo, that “everything was under control.” Notwithstanding numerous assurances by Japanese authorities of no harm, no foul, over the years, several independent journalists in Japan have reported numerous deaths because of the Fukushima meltdown and its aftermath but never acknowledged by the government. Assurances are not always assurances!
Therefore, it’s only fair that the darker side of nuclear cheerleading — yea yea yea no nuclear no nuclear — deserves some notoriety. For starters, the results of a recent study by Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 31, 2022, entitled Nuclear Waste from Small Modular Reactors.
Stanford News also published the study: Sandford-led Research Finds Small Modular Reactors Will Exacerbate Challenges of Highly Radioactive Nuclear Waste. The study concludes that SMRs will generate more radioactive waste than conventional nuclear power plants. Stanford and the University of British Columbia jointly conducted the study, e.g., SMRs will be manufactured in factories and industry analysts claim SMRs will be cheaper and produce fewer radioactive byproducts than the big bulky conventional reactors; however, the study discovered the upsetting fact that, pound-for-pound when compared to the big bulky conventional nuclear plants, SMRs will increase nuclear waste… considerably!
“Our results show that most small modular reactor designs will actually increase the volume of nuclear waste in need of management and disposal, by factors of 2 to 30 for the reactors in our case study,” said study lead author Lindsay Krall, a former MacArthur Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation: “These findings stand in sharp contrast to the cost and waste reduction benefits that advocates have claimed for advanced nuclear technologies.” (Stanford study)
U.S. nuclear plants have already produced over 88,000 metric tons of “spent nuclear fuel” with nowhere to put it other than risky open pools of water at plant locations and some dry casks setups. Throughout America nuclear facilities contain open pools of spent fuel rods. According to Paul Blanch: “Continual storage in spent fuel pools is the most unsafe thing you could do.” (Paul Blanch, registered professional engineer, US Navy Reactor Operator & Instructor with 55 years of experience with nuclear engineering and regulatory agencies, widely recognized as one of America’s leading experts on nuclear power)
Accordingly, “the most highly radioactive waste, mainly spent fuel rods, will have to be isolated in deep-mined geologic repositories for hundreds of thousands of years. At present, the U.S. has no program to develop a geologic repository, after spending decades and billions of dollars on the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. As a result, spent nuclear fuel is currently stored in pools or in dry casks at reactor sites, accumulating at a rate of about 2,000 metric tonnes per year.” (Stanford)
Nobody wants it in their backyard. Furthermore, what’s the message behind the fact that humanity has humiliatingly endangered itself by utilizing the most potent toxic material on Earth to boil water that results in highly radioactive spent fuel rods that can only be stored in deep-deep geologic repositories as far away from civilization as possible, locked away for centuries upon centuries? Rubbing two sticks together a million years ago was much smarter.
The Stanford study claims that few, if any, developers of SMR have analyzed the management and disposal of nuclear waste. “The study concludes that, overall, small modular designs are inferior to conventional reactors with respect to radioactive waste generation, management requirements, and disposal options.”
Meanwhile, SMRs are about to enter a world of nuclear power that has sharp critics. For example, crib notes of a detailed analysis of nuclear by Greenpeace, which has considerable nuclear expertise on staff, provides an offset to the ringing applause around the world for SMRs: 6 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy is not the Way to a Green and Peaceful World d/d March 18, 2022.
Greenpeace is not at all hesitant about exposing the “myths being perpetuated by the nuclear industry.”
For starters the scale of proposed nuclear energy installations does not come close to meeting the needs to go to net zero emissions in a timely fashion, according to projections by the World Nuclear Association, greenhouse gas emissions would only drop by 4% by 2050, assuming 37 new large nuclear reactors brought onto the grid per year from now to 2050. Yet only 57 new reactors are schedule for construction over the next 15 years. A number for SMRs is unknown currently.
Nuclear power plants are extremely dangerous as easy targets for terrorists, cyberattacks or acts of war. Moreover, they are unique hazards for accidents by nature like Fukushima and/or by human error like Chernobyl, and some accidents never go away.
“For the first time in history, a major war is being waged in a country with multiple nuclear reactors and thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel. The war in southern Ukraine around Zaporizhzhia puts them all at heightened risk of a severe accident…. Nuclear power plants are some of the most complex and sensitive industrial installations, which require a very complex set of resources in ready state at all times to keep them operational,” Ibid.
Nuclear power plants are a water-hungry technology that must, must, must have a lot of water to cool the radioactive hot stuff. Nuclear power facilities are vulnerable to water stress, warming rivers, and rising temperatures. Facilities in the US and France have often been shut down during heatwaves or have scaled down activity, especially France’s shakiness in 2022. Global warming is nuclear power’s biggest enemy.
And, then there’s this: “Electricite de France SA’s fleet of 56 atomic power plants has long been the backbone of Europe’s energy system, but in 2022 it was more of a millstone. As reactors were shut down to fix cracked pipes, the company’s nuclear power generation slumped to the lowest since 1988, making the region more dependent on fossil fuels just as Russia squeezed natural gas exports.” (Source: French Nuclear Revival Hits Trouble as New Reactor Defects Found, Bloomberg March 10, 2023)
Not only does nuclear power put enormous stress on structural facilities, a huge incalculable risk, but water flowing past the nuclear fuel in the reactor cores gets heated to over 500°F. It can be heated to this temperature because it is pressurized to over 1,000 pounds per square inch (psi). The reactor vessel and its attached piping must be robust to remain intact and contain this high-pressure fluid. Abnormally high pressure can break even robust containers. (Union of Concerned Scientist) The strongest known pressure relief valves and piping must endure enormous pressure 24/7/365. This is an extreme high-risk category of nuclear operations.
Nuclear energy is also too expensive. According to a World Nuclear Industry Status Report, nuclear energy per MWh (megawatt-hour) costs 3-to-5 times more than wind or solar. Moreover, according to the same source, total costs of building and running a plant to lifetime for utility scale operations over the past decade have dropped by 88% for solar and by 69% for wind whilst nuclear has increased by 23%. Duh!
“Stabilizing the climate is an emergency. Yet, Nuclear Power is slow” (Greenpeace). The World Nuclear Industry Status Report says is takes 10 years on average in the world to construct a plant.
It’s impossible to get around the issue of radioactive waste, which is a huge problem that haunts the industry. Some isotopes remain highly radioactive for several thousand years. What to do with it? The costs are outrageous. The US Energy Dept. projected cost for long-term nuclear waste cleanup jumped more than $100B in just one year. According to Stanford’s study, SMRs will exaggerate this problem by factors of 2-to-30. (Stanford study)
But, of course there’s always the easy way out of handling toxic waste: According to a Greenpeace International 2021 Tweet: “French companies are exporting nuclear waste to Siberia dumping barrels in unsafe conditions completely exposed to the elements.” Hmm.
Moreover, it’s oxymoronic to claim nuclear power is “sustainable green energy” and should be eligible for green funding. Oh, please! Only radioactive waste is sustainable. Interestingly, in 2021 Austria, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain objected to an inclusion of nuclear power in the EU’s greenfinance category.
And nuclear energy has always overpromised and underdelivered: “Hypothetical new nuclear power technologies have been promised to be the next big thing for the last forty years, but in spite of massive public subsidies, that prospect has never panned out. That is also true of Small Modular Reactors, SMRs,” Ibid.
As explained in a press release d/d November 18, 2020, regarding SMR development: “The proposed reactors are still on the drawing board and will take a decade or more to develop. If built, their power will cost ten (10) times more than wind or solar energy. The most advanced SMR project to date in the US has already doubled its estimated costs from $3B to over $6B,” Ibid.
However, Russia has already launched a floating 70MW reactor in the Arctic Ocean (of all places!). China is also working on a floating design SMR. And three provinces in Canada are looking into SMRs. Rolls-Royce in the UK is working on a 440MW SMR. SMRs are generally designed to produce 50 to 300MW of electricity compared to the typical 1,000MW of traditional large-scale reactors.
In fairness to advocates, according to Nuscale, one of the engineering firms behind SMR development: “Even under worst case scenarios, where we lose all off-site power, the reactor will safely automatically shut down and remain cool for an unlimited time.’ adding, ‘this is the first time that’s been done’ for commercial nuclear power.” (Source: The Countries Building Miniature Nuclear Reactors, Future Planet, Yale e360, March 9, 2020).
Still, every nuclear conversation turns to radioactive waste and safety regardless of claims made by industry and with good reason. In fact, the repercussions of nuclear accident deaths and disfigurements are always buried from public view, until years later when the brutal truth finally comes out.
A BBC Future Planet article d/d July 25, 2019, The True Toll of the Chernobyl Disaster: “According to the official, internationally recognized death toll, just 31 people died as an immediate result of Chernobyl while the UN estimates that only 50 deaths can be directly attributed to the disaster. In 2005, it predicted a further 4,000 might eventually die as a result of the radiation exposure… Brown’s research, however, suggests Chernobyl has cast a far longer shadow.”
According to an article in USA Today d/d February 24, 2022, What Happened at Chernobyl? What to Know About Nuclear Disaster: “At least 28 people were killed by the disaster, but thousands more have died from cancer as a result of radiation that spread after the explosion and fire. The effects of radiation on the environment and humans is still being studied.”
As of 2023, the death count is much more than the 4,000 calculation of 2005.
The legacy of nuclear accidents, as deaths and deformities mount over time, kills the dream of a carbonless, clean power future. But legacies take years to form. Given enough time, radioactive waste will greet 30th century archeologists.
For a prize-winning compelling read about the most toxic place in America and a terrifying look at the radioactive nuclear materials produced at Hanford for four decades: Atomic Days, The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America (Haymarket Books, 2022)
Regardless of the strongest assurances, nuclear accidents happen. They just happen!
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
Image by NASA Earth Observatory is in the Public Domain
The Atmosphere is Cooling Dangerously Fast
By Robert Hunziker
The upper atmosphere is cooling too fast for comfort.
Global warming is only one half of the impact of excessive CO2 emissions generated by cars, planes, trains, and industry. The other impact is rapid cooling of the upper atmosphere which may be of considerably more concern than global warming as it negatively impacts the ozone layer, which protects the planet from burning up. Hmm, this is important.
Based upon a new study, atmospheric scientists are concerned about the impact of a rapidly cooling atmosphere: Benjamin D. Santer, et al, Exceptional Stratospheric Contribution to Human Fingerprints on Atmospheric Temperature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS Journal, May 8, 2023.
Greenhouse gases, especially CO2, impact the planet considerably more all-inclusive than realized. For example, ramifications of excessive CO2 are manifold, including what we already know as global warming but surprise, surprise, also too much atmospheric cooling which puts at dangerous risk: (1) orbiting satellites (2) the precious, all-important ozone layer and (3) tumultuous weather systems.
Excessive levels of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) generated by humans pack a one-two-three bunch, impacting Earth’s lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Greenhouse gases, like CO2, function like a regulator of the planet from the heights of the Exosphere at 400-to-6,214 miles up to down to the depths of Challenge Deep in the Pacific Ocean at 36,000 feet or seven miles below surface.
The problem of excessive cooling of the atmosphere is as serious as excessive global warming and maybe more so. In both instances, disrupted ecosystems negatively alter the major life forces of the planet, creating existential risks.
The new findings about cooling in the above-mentioned Santer study are quantified in detail by satellite sensors. Thus, what climate models previously suspected about rapid atmospheric cooling is now confirmed. Moreover, scientists previously knew very little about the upper atmosphere, beyond climate modeling.
“Climate change is almost always thought about in terms of the lowest regions of the atmosphere. But physicists now warn that we need to rethink this assumption. Increases in the amount of CO2 are “manifest throughout the entire perceptible atmosphere,’ says Martin Miynezak, an atmospheric physicist at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. They are ‘driving dramatic changes [that] scientists are just now beginning to grasp. Those changes in the wild blue yonder far above our heads could feed back to change our world below.” (Source: Fred Pearce, The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns, YaleEnvironment360, May 18, 2023)
It is now known that the rate of increase in concentration of CO2 at the top of the atmosphere is as great as at the bottom. But there’s a major difference in excessive CO2 levels, meaning, the heat emitted by CO2 at the top with thinner air escapes into outer space whilst the impact of CO2 trapping more and more heat at the lower levels actually impacts rapid cooling at the top.
For example, satellite data from 2002 to 2019 show the lower thermosphere cooled by 3.1°F (1.7°C). At current rates of emissions, scientists believe cooling could hit 13.5°F (7.5C) during the century. This would be three times faster than warming at ground level. According to the Santer study, the essence of the problem: “We are fundamentally changing the thermal structure of the planet… the results make me very worried,” Ibid.
The sky is falling is a result of this rapid cooling effect, meaning cooling causes the upper air to contract. The depth of the stratosphere has diminished by 1,300 feet over the past 40 years. This has been confirmed by Petr Pišoft, atmospheric physicist at Charles University in Prague by analyzing NASA data. Additionally, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, above the stratosphere, contracted by 4,400 feet between 2002-2019.
Contraction of the atmosphere means it is less dense which reduces drag on satellites in low orbit. In turn, this allows space junk to stick around longer and increases the risks of collisions. More than 5,000 satellites and the International Space Station are in orbit at this low altitude in competition with a lot of space junk. Cooling and contraction enhance risks of collisions.
Of much bigger concern, ozone molecules, which protect the planet from burning alive, are at risk because of excessive cooling of the upper atmosphere.
In the Arctic, upper atmospheric rapid cooling has worsened ozone loss, this according to Peter von der Gathen of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany Climate change is almost always thought about in terms of the lowest regions of the atmosphere. But physicists now warn that we need to rethink this assumption. Increases in the amount of CO2 are now “manifest throughout the entire perceptible atmosphere,” says Martin Mlyncsak, an atmospheric physicist at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. They are “driving dramatic changes [that] scientists are just now beginning to grasp.” Those changes in the wild blue yonder far above our heads could feed back to change our world below.” (Source: Peter von der Gathen, et al, Climate Change Favours Large Seasonal Loss of Arctic Ozone, Nature Communications, June 23, 2021)
Loss of ozone is a deadly danger signal. According to von der Gathen, current expectations that the ozone layer should be fully healed by mid-century are almost certainly overly optimistic. Moreover, the most vulnerable ozone regions are calculated to be densely populated areas including Central and Western Europe. “It we thought the thinning ozone layer was a 20th century worry, we may have to think again,” Ibid.
Upper atmospheric excessive cooling also impacts weather patterns at ground level. It’s responsible for sudden atmospheric warming, which brings big temperature swings, warming as much as 90°F in a few days. The excessive cooling dynamic causes blocking highs that can bring on weeks of extreme weather, intense rains (atmospheric bombs) summer droughts, or intense cold spells.
In many respects, the studies of human impact on the planet via excessive levels of greenhouse gases are at an early stage. After all, it’s only over the past few decades that scientists have really focused on human-generated emissions impact on the planet. Yet one thing is crystal clear, the more scientists’ study, the more they discover vulnerabilities, for example, upper atmospheric cooling puts at risk the ozone layer. As stated above, the world thought the ozone was healing. Yet, as stated: “If we thought the thinning ozone layer was a 20th century worry, we may have to think again.” (Peter von der Gathen).
It’s probably a fair suggestion that major governments of the world should collaborate by establishing an international joint effort to immediately take whatever steps are necessary to control, halt, and remove excessive greenhouse gases, assuming it is possible on such a large scale and hopefully soon enough! The integrity of the ozone layer should be all the leaders of the world need to know to limitlessly fund research and work programs, day & night, 24/7 year-round. What are the chances?
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
It’s official, according to a speech by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the United States is jumping off the neoliberal globalization bandwagon (a root cause of domestic extremism) and it couldn’t come soon enough as institutions of government are sucking up more and more angry exhaust fumes from constituents, as well as encountering a world trade map with China bullying its way across the world of commerce via its massive Belt and Road Initiative encircling the globe, kicking sand into Uncle Sam’s face.
Neoliberalism is an economic philosophy of capitalism that promotes freedom of markets, very little government regulation, no price controls, low trade barriers, low-low taxes, and most importantly, reducing the role of government via austerity measures and privatization of state assets. Government social programs, like food stamps, are detested like the plague. Neoliberal-minded President Ronald Reagan famously said: “Government isn’t the solution to the problem; government is the problem.”
Neoliberalism in harmony with globalization has dictated American policy for several decades, thanks to Reagan. However, that’s about to change as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced changes for America’s role in the world in a very significant recent speech: “Remarks by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Renewing American Economic Leadership at the Brookings Institution, The White House, April 27, 2023.”
As a backgrounder to that speech, over the past few decades America sent high-paying union jobs offshore to find the lowest common denominator wages (globalization) but it really started in earnest with Clint0n’s NAFTA deal. Back in the day Ross Perot nailed it: “You implement that NAFTA, the Mexican trade agreement, where they pay people a dollar an hour, have no health care, no retirement, no pollution controls,’ Perot said during the second presidential debate in October 1992, ‘and you’re going to hear a giant sucking sound of jobs being pulled out of this country.” (Source: Ross Perot was Ridiculed as Alarmist in 1992 but his warning turned out to be Prescient, Salon, July 21, 2019)
America’s $15-20-35/hour union jobs that spun-off into the wilderness of NAFTA originated from today’s red states. NAFTA and expansive globalization (SE Asia & China) undercut union wages, crushing a vibrant middle class that was content to work 40-hours per week for wages that supported family, school, vacations, and a good retirement. Today, former union members are red-faced, angry, frustrated, searching for a voice to avenge decades of misery at the hands of elites that crushed middle class livelihoods. Trump’s early campaign promises beckoned interest: “The three most dangerous voices in America, academic elites, political elites, and media elites” captured the heart and soul of displaced Americans by voicing one word, “Elites.”
The Biden administration knows this. His 2021 speech to a joint session of Congress countered Trump: “Trickle-down economics has never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.” The table had been set for Biden’s trickle-down speech by four decades of neoliberal/globalization hanky-panky resulted in the biggest money gusher of all time but only for a select few (“the elites”). Meanwhile, the failure to adhere to the original promise of the American equality of opportunity dream is epitomized by billionaires taking joy rides into outer space.
Now, after years of abuse of the blue-collar relationship, it’s finally dawned on America’s politicos that decades of neoliberalism and globalization hollowed-out the great American industrial machine whilst breaking the spirit of working people, decimating the all-important middle core of society. It’s difficult to keep a capitalistic democracy in balance when both ends of the economic spectrum are so heavily weighted, massive golden wealth on the right shooting up into outer space versus the skimping of 42 million SNAP cards barely-getting-by in survival mode on the left, with a weakened, deeply sagging middle. This clash of classes automatically breeds frustration, anger, and hatred: “Hang Pence” easily rolled off the lips of American extremist on January 6th.
National security advisor Jake Sullivan was quick to itemize key categories of the old Washington Consensus that need to be addressed: (1) globalization and privatization have failed America; those are hallmarks of neoliberalism (2) challenges from China (3) challenges from climate change and inequality, as lowly job opportunities, the leftovers from neoliberalism-globalization’s search for the lowest common denominator, breeds contempt.
More specifically: (1) the neoliberal trajectory has left a hollowed-out industrial base (2) public investment has declined because of too much emphasis on de-regulation, privatization, and trade liberalization, which defines the post-Reagan Republican mantra (3) widespread faith in “the magic of the markets” dogma to achieving success, growth, and prosperity totally backfired with too much emphasis on the “financial sector” at the expense of a “real economy” that has solid job-producing industries such as semi-conductor manufacturing and infrastructure development, two big Biden proposals.
According to an astutely worded interpretation of Sullivan’s remarks: “The US national security establishment now argues that ‘trickle down economics’ has been a disaster that has led to ‘corporate concentration’ and ‘active measures to undermine the labor movement that initially built the American middle class.” (Source: Anuradha Chenoy, US Merges its Economics and Foreign Policy, Defend Democracy Press, May 14, 2023)
Washington Consensus-2 has not yet been thoroughly vetted or analyzed or countered by either side of the aisle, which will be difficult because it’s equivalent to rolling back time to the good ole Fifties and Sixties when unions shone, and the middle class flexed its muscles and unions impacted politics. That’s gone. Replaced by dark money billionaires pulling the strings of today’s politicians, and judges, in favor of disassembling America’s social welfare state and weakening unions as much as possible. It’s fascinating that the Federal Reserve fights inflation, in large part, based upon employment weakness or strength and rate of pay, too rapid of increases (good for labor) causes the Fed to wince and tighten credit conditions to slow down or abort high wages (bad for labor).
The White House is a strong proponent of changing America’s character to better represent its glorious past of the Fifties/Sixties strong middle-class values. After all, the country already knows via first-hand experience that farming-out good, solid American jobs to cheaper manufacturing in SE Asia and China handed over, on a golden platter, a cat’s bird seat for China in world markets whilst building its own middle class worker bees at the expense of decimation of workers in America, far removed from a distant American past of the Fifties and Sixties when real wages doubled, and blue-collar families were proud. Biden wants that once again.
Implicit within this new directive for revival of America, it’s likely that Biden and Sullivan have their fingers tightly crossed, hoping it’ll stem the outrageous infectious anger pitting Americans against Americans in an ugly throwback reminiscent of the dark shadows of Jim Crowism. It’s difficult to ignore the noose that swayed in the breeze on the capitol grounds on January 6th with its stern message and serving as an imprimatur for radical public violence. Ever since, all hell broke loose.
Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and published in over 50 journals, magazines and sites worldwide.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. For more information see our Privacy Policy.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
