“I think calling it climate change is rather limiting. I would rather call it the everything change because when people think climate change, they think maybe it’s going to rain more or something like that. It’s much more extensive a change than that because when you change patterns of where it rains and how much and where it doesn’t rain, you’re also affecting just about everything. You’re affecting what you can grow in those places. You’re affecting whether you can live there. You’re affecting all of the species that are currently there.”

Margaret Atwood

There has been a flurry of activities at the United Nations this week. The Summit for the Future included a Pact for the Future with a Declaration for Future Generations. Following the summit, a day was set aside to address the existential threats posed by sea-level rise.

On September 26, the UN’s International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons again stressed a key goal of most UN members. At the same time, the UN Sustainability Development Goals are being heralded as key objectives even while they flounder before 2030, the date by which they are meant to be reached. World “leaders” debated all these issues.

These well-intentioned summits have brought into focus the enormous dangers that are now upon us. The following article lays out some of those climate realities. Let’s hope that governments wake up to their responsibilities while there is still time. https://www.un.org/en/high-level-week-2024

The polycrisis mentioned by Margaret Atwood is transforming every aspect of life on Earth. Health, world cultures, ecological integrity, political stability, social justice and Earth systems are fraying rapidly as a direct result of the burning of fossil fuels,

The acceleration of extreme temperatures in the 21st century was particularly intense in 2023. It’s hard to forget the massive air pollution and ecological devastation brought on by Québec’s wildfires, which caused 15 million hectares to burn, seven times the yearly rate in the last 40 years.

Recently the global flooding of 2024 hit Central Europe. Meanwhile in Brazil, the doubling in one year alone to 3.3 million hectares scorched in August’s wildfires resulted from the accompanying mega droughts. All this was caused by a 165-year rampage of unabated destructive fossil fuel carbon colonialism, which has brought mayhem to all parts of the world. 

The world is now experiencing flash droughts as well as flash floods. Scientists now speak of “climate whiplash,” when wild swings in weather have devastating consequences. Abrupt transitions from drought to flood and vice versa are intensifying. But this climate whiplash is becoming even more prevalent with our winter’s increasingly early transition to spring. A sudden heatwave at the beginning of March will cause trees to produce flowers that will die in the subsequent freeze. Maple syrup production has become more and more unpredictable. As usual these extreme events are impacting the global south’s ability to cope. And they exact an ever-increasing toll on animal health and are ultimately pushing forward extinctions. 

The new levels of heat are responsible for endless infernos/flooding/pollution, but these same scourges, self-inflicted by humans, have spawned the spread of unanticipated health risks. Phoenix, Arizona recently experienced 113 consecutive days on which the temperature reached at least 37.7C, causing massive health issues. And it is not only landmasses that are succumbing to these ever-intensifying heatwaves. In the Mediterranean region, which is warming 20% faster than the global average, water temperature is expected to rise by between 1.8C and 3.5C by 2100. https://tinyurl.com/Mediterranean-heatwaves

But to better take in how climate warming has infiltrated all aspects of life on Earth, here is one more astonishing example: heatwaves in Zimbabwe and Siberia have released previously dormant anthrax spores in the soil, killing thousands of animals and some humans.

The climate scientist Johan Rockström put humanity’s planetary crises into undeniable focus with his 2009 “planetary boundaries,” which show graphically the limits our Earth system will tolerate, riddled by human interference, before it is destabilized. Climate heating and biosphere integrity are just two boundaries in the framework that can tip all the others. Rockström has called the Holocene epoch the “corridor of life,” as these last 12,000 years of stability gave humans the ability to flourish. “The planetary boundary (PB) approach aims to define a safe operating space for human societies to develop and thrive, based on our evolving understanding of the functioning and resilience of the Earth system,” Rockström writes. https://tinyurl.com/boundaries-for-stability

In an important no-nonsense appraisal of where our Earth system is heading, Rockström’s recent TED Talk describes our grave situation as an “act now” emergency.

https://tinyurl.com/Earth-health-summary

Upending the Holocene’s climate predictability is also turning up the heat for democracies. Peaceful protest has always been regarded as a pillar of democracy. Now the right to assemble for climate demonstrations is being crushed by many so-called free states. Long prison sentences have been imposed to suppress and deter protests that highlight climate breakdown and the lack of political will to stop it. https://tinyurl.com/suppression-of-activists

A recent New York Times article, “How Extreme Heat Is Threatening Education Progress Worldwide,” explains how climate chaos has impacted children’s ability to go to school and concentrate in many of those countries that did not contribute to this heatwave crisis. Yes, heatwaves caused by accelerating climate breakdown are a social justice issue. What child can learn when the temperature is 38C? Unlike their grandparents, millions of students are missing weeks of school. https://tinyurl.com/education-and-heatwaves

However, it is not only disadvantaged children who are suffering during these unprecedented heatwaves. Many construction workers have died recently because they are not being allowed to take extra breaks in conditions of extreme heat. “Even as extreme heat raged across the southern United States this summer, the governors of Florida and Texas struck down heat protections for outdoor workers. Construction companies and agricultural firms lobbied against the rights of workers to water, shade and rest breaks when temperatures soar,” writes George Monbiot in The Guardian.

And let’s clearly understand that escalating wars multiply the risks for an already fragile Earth balance both ecologically and socially, and push otherwise commendable and positive Earth solutions off the priority lists of war-zone embattled governments. Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and at least ten other countries are affected by wars that kill, contaminate, and produce even more carbon pollution. 

On top of this, “democratic” governments are sanctioning and enabling international arms trading. In a webinar I attended recently, hosted by Campaign Against Arms Trade, an extremely knowledgeable panel discussed the unparalleled access that large arms manufacturers have to the highest levels of government, even though those companies do not bring large economic benefits.

Bluntly said, the blowing up of oil refineries and dams using bombs provided by western countries causes untold environmental destruction, thereby accelerating even more intense heatwaves. https://tinyurl.com/arms-trade-destruction

Often not associated with planetary concerns is “ecotourism,” of which I will write more in a forthcoming article. Building hotels and boutique resorts in or beside nationally and internationally recognized parks and ecologically sensitive zones that are often protected by Indigenous people and farmers is a major source of strife. Degrading areas so that rich tourists can view sanitized landscapes that then suffer landslides and other whiplash climate eventualities must be a priority for governments to prohibit instead of promoting. One such assault that is currently occurring is in the UNESCO World Heritage Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in southern India, where multinational hotel franchises are swaying local officials to wreak havoc.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and policy expert who has just published What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, a book of essays, poetry and conversations from many of the world’s most engaged voices, who write passionately and embrace a pathway away from heatwaves, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. The question, “What If…?” is one we must not leave to others. Rather, we must act as if a better climate future is possible. There are solutions. https://tinyurl.com/getting-solutions