The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, has three bullet points in its mission statement: (1) To understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts; (2) To share that knowledge and information with others; and (3) To conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. As such, NOAA is the go-to governmental organization in the United States for information about weather, climate, the global ocean, and coastlines. That’s a lot of responsibility for a single organization.
On 28 January 2024, NOAA published the final update to its 2023 Billion-dollar disaster report, which confirmed a historic year in the number and magnitude of expensive disasters throughout the U.S. There were 28 weather and climate disasters in 2023, significantly exceeding the previous record of 22 such events in 2020. The cost is at least $92.9 billion. These events affected states from Florida to Maine, which includes the entire eastern coastline of the U.S.
As you can see in this chart from NOAA’s 2023 Billion-dollar disaster report, 2023 was truly historic with respect to billion-dollar events. The red line represents 2023, which clearly exceeded other years.
In a section titled Notable U.S. billion-dollar disasters of 2023, this year’s report includes three disasters: (1) the Southern/Midwestern Drought and Heat Wave, which was characterized by 247 human deaths and $14.5 billion in costs; (2) Central Tornado Outbreak and Eastern Severe Weather in early March 31-April 1, which accounted for 33 human deaths and $5.7 billion in costs; and (3) Hawaii firestorm, August 8, which caused 100 human deaths and costs $5.6 billion.
Next year’s report will include the human lives lost and the monetary cost of Hurricanes Milton and Helene on the eastern coast of the U.S. About 300 humans died as a result of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, and the estimated financial cost is likely to exceed $100 billion. As a result, it appears NOAA will be reporting another record year with next year’s report.
It is no surprise that climate-driven weather events are setting records almost every year. After all, as the designed-to-fail Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported more than five years ago with two reports, Earth is amid abrupt, irreversible climate change. As a result of the collective actions of too many humans on a finite planet, we are beginning to see adverse consequences.
Hurricanes driven by an overheated planet are hardly the only negative outcome documented so far. According to a peer-reviewed, open-access paper in Nature published on 7 August 2024, ocean temperatures in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef “were the warmest in 400 years.” The abstract also indicates that the January-March Coral Sea extremes were warmest in 2024, 2017, 2020, 2016, 2004, and 2022, in descending order from warmest to coolest. In other words, the last 20 years include the 6 warmest years on record and the last 10 years includes the 4 warmest years on record. This is not good news for those of us who appreciate life on the only planet known with certainty to currently include life.
The abstract of this renowned peer-reviewed paper closes with two terrifying sentences: “Without urgent action, the iconic Great Barrier Reef is at risk of experiencing temperatures conducive to near-annual coral bleaching, with negative consequences for biodiversity and ecosystems services. A continuation on the current trajectory would further threaten the ecological function and outstanding universal value of one of Earth’s greatest natural wonders.”
It is unstated and unclear what “urgent action” will stop threatening “the ecological function and outstanding universal value of one of Earth’s greatest natural wonders.” After all, as the IPCC reported more than five years ago with two reports, Earth is amid abrupt, irreversible climate change. Continuing on the current path is a prescription for planetary disaster leading to the extinction of all life on Earth. However, as I point out now and then in this space, reducing industrial activity invokes the loss of aerosol masking, which will drive all life to extinction even faster than the current path. The continued virtual absence of the slightest mention of aerosol masking from corporate media outlets, government officials, and paid climate scientists will continue to prevent most people from understanding this important concept. As a result, it will continue to promote a misguided path leading to a so-called solution. Reducing industrial activity—sometimes called degrowth by people who like to invent new words when existing vocabulary works perfectly well—is no solution to the predicament in which we find ourselves. Regardless, we have been taught, essentially from birth, that humans can solve any problem.
What if we can’t solve every problem? What if the so-called problem is actually a thorny predicament that includes no viable solution? What if all current members of Homo sapiens are only as clever as the final members of the previous eight species—well, at least eight species—in the genus Homo that went extinct? In invoking these final members of the previous species in the genus Homo, I am indicating that at least eight species in the genus Homo have already gone extinct. We think of ourselves as special, but evidence that indicates we are cleverer than the eight species that foretold our own extinction is lacking. If such evidence is available to you, please send it my way. Perhaps there is a way out of this mess, and it is not apparent to me. Perhaps paid climate scientists are withholding information, only to heroically save our species as the clock ticks down.
Collective human activity has acidified the ocean to the extent that some species of fish avoid coral reefs. This finding was reported in the peer-reviewed Journal of Animal Ecology on 26 June 2024. Written by nine scholars and published on 26 June 2024, the Abstract of this paper begins with this statement: “Climate change stressors are progressively simplifying biogenic habitats in the terrestrial and marine realms, and consequently altering the structure of associated species communities.”
Even The Washington Post occasionally publishes a relevant article. Consider the 9 October 2024 article titled Earth’s wildlife populations have disappeared at a ‘catastrophic’ rate in the past half-century, new analysis says. The article focuses on vertebrates. Here’s the lede: “Earth’s wildlife populations have fallen on average by a ‘catastrophic’ rate of 73 percent in the past half-century, according to a new analysis the World Wildlife Fund released Wednesday [today].” The article in the Post quotes the chief scientist at World Wildlife Fund: “It really does indicate to us that the fabric of nature is unraveling. Vertebrate populations underpin ecosystem health and the services we get from ecosystems like stable climate, abundant and clean water, healthy soils to grow food, productive fisheries that supply people with protein.”
The worst declines during the 50 years studied were in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, this is primarily due to the fact that locations characterized by early Caucasian settlement “had already wiped out nature on a wide scale by 1970,” when this study began. It’s unfair to compare contemporary disasters while including regions where disasters have already wreaked havoc on life.
A Professor of wildlife ecology and conservation in Australia who was not involved in the generation of this year’s report is quoted in the article in The Washington Post: working in conservation involves “experiencing trauma on a daily basis.” He compared this trauma to an art lover’s reaction if three-quarters of the contents of the Louvre disappeared: “This is what’s happening to our nature; we’re watching it be destroyed before our very eyes.”
This is what happens during a Mass Extinction Event. The biggest difference between the current Mass Extinction Event and previous ones is the magnitude of this one. Our collective action will almost certainly cause the extinction of all life on Earth.
Just as there is no recovery from terminal cancer, there is no recovery from a devastated living planet. Although all life ends in death, we are hastening the process at an unprecedented rate. It’s clearly time to implement Planetary Hospice.
https://youtu.be/ZUKZuIAFleU
Author
"Dr. Guy McPherson is an internationally recognized speaker, award-winning scientist, and the world’s leading authority on abrupt climate change leading to near-term human extinction. He is professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, where he taught and conducted research for twenty years. His published works include 14 books and hundreds of scholarly articles. Dr. McPherson has been featured on TV and radio and in several documentary films. He is a blogger, cultural critic, and co-host of his own radio show “Nature Bats Last.” Dr. McPherson speaks to general audiences across the globe, and to scientists, students, educators, and not-for-profit and business leaders who seek their best available options when confronting Earth’s cataclysmic changes." source
Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Article: McPherson, Guy R., Beril Sirmack, and Ricardo Vinuesa. March 2022. Environmental thresholds for mass-extinction events. Results in Engineering (2022), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100342.
