A changing planet

The numbers are increasing telling us the story about our rapidly changing climate. As has been widely reported in recent days, we had a three-day stretch from July 3-5 in which we beat the previous record for the highest average global temperature ever recorded. We beat the old record from 2016 on July 3, then beat that record the following day. Then, on July 5, we topped the all-time record set on July 4.
We’re facing unprecedented heat waves, massive wildfires, and so much disruption as a result of our burning of fossil fuels. And yet it doesn’t seem that this reality is translating into the kind of action that it’s going to take to keep this rising global disaster in some semblance of check— which means we may need to start talking about climate change differently.
That’s because the change that’s coming goes far, far beyond the climate. What we are witnessing today is just the warm-up act to a profound global change that is going to reshape everything. Virtually every aspect of human society will be affected by the changes wrought by our continued burning of fossil fuels— the changes are already being seen.
One of the questions that has arisen in the past few years is simple— at what temperature is human society no longer possible? We recognize that innovations like air conditioning may allow those with financial means to survive in almost any temperature, as long as we stay indoors. But what about the vast majority of humans on the planet who don’t have access to air conditioning or who need to work outdoors? What about the residents of poorer nations to our south who depend on reliable climate patterns to grow the basic staples they need to feed their families?
Climate change is already responsible for some of the disruptions in Central America that have sparked mass migration. The pressure on those who live to our south to move north is only going to increase in the years ahead. A wall, no matter how high, will not prevent people from doing what they need to do to survive.
And mass migration won’t be limited to those from countries to our south. Eventually, maybe even soon, residents from the southern U.S., will begin to head northward to avoid the kind of brutal and unrelenting heat experienced in recent weeks in places like Texas. Heat indices of 125 degrees or more are dangerous to the human body and such temperatures are going to be much more common in the near future. Rising sea levels and the effects of intensifying wildfires and hurricanes in places like California and Florida are already making these places too expensive for many to live as insurance rates in both states are skyrocketing due to climate change.
How will we greet this growing flood of climate refugees? Will we offer them our support or will we turn them back as a perceived threat to our own security? Will we even have the ability to do either?
Food shortages are going to plague us all, increasing both the levels of hunger and the cost of food when it’s available. The U.S. has been fortunate that its best agricultural land has been largely aligned with a climate that is conducive to crop-growing. That is already changing and the change is only going to accelerate. If, as projected, our best crop-growing climate shifts to the north and east, it will increasingly move into regions, such as northeastern Minnesota and Canada, where the soils are not conducive to large-scale agriculture.
Irrigation is a temporary fix at best for farming in many areas. Across the Great Plains it is becoming increasingly difficult already as aquifers run dry and farmers are already facing the loss of river water for crops in large parts of the Southwest.
Much of the heat we’re experiencing this summer is related to the return of what is being described as an el Niño on steroids, with ocean temperatures unlike any we’ve recorded before. Ultimately, it is the change to the oceans that will do us in. Scientists have reported that, to date, the oceans have absorbed about 90 percent of the additional heat generated in the last few decades due to climate change. That has helped to limit atmospheric heating, but it will eventually upend the marine ecosystems upon which we all depend for food as well as the oxygen we breathe. We are an ocean planet and we are in the process of altering them at an unprecedented rate. If we don’t take action, the consequences will be existential.
Humans have proven themselves to be remarkably clever over the centuries, but not always wise. In our brave new world of human-induced planetary change, wisdom is the only thing that can save us.