Here in the Oklatex, we just had our first bite from winter. Ouch!
It is daft, of course, to think that extreme cold weather refutes the overwhelming evidence of Earth’s continued warming. A side effect of climate change is “extreme climate-related events [that] caused widespread societal and ecological impacts across the globe,” as concluded by Advances in Atmospheric Sciences last month, citing Nature Climate Change.
From the Copernicus Climate Change Service, AAS mentioned global warming-enhanced catastrophes such as intense monsoons in South and Southeast Asia; deadly November flooding in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam; severe flooding and landslides in Central China, and the “flash flood in Central Texas over the 4 July weekend, triggered by record-breaking rainfall, that resulted in at least 138 fatalities, highlighting the escalating risks associated with rapidly intensifying storm systems in a warming climate.”
Last year continued the recent trend of accelerated planet warming. This year’s forecast predicts more of the same.
“Global ocean warming continued unabated in 2025 in response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations and recent reductions in sulfate aerosols, reflecting the long-term accumulation of heat within the climate system.”
The report explains, while 2025 was a bit cooler than 2024, that merely reflects the bump 2024 got from El Niño. Last year was comparable to 2023 even though that, too, was an El Niño year.
Furthermore, “Greenhouse gas concentrations reached record levels in 2025 … and real-time observations indicate that this upward trend continued through 2025, reinforcing the long-term warming trajectory.”
On Jan. 14, Climate Data Canada reported the Environment and Climate Change Canada forecast that, “2026 will likely be among the four hottest years on record.”
Along with the recent El Niño push, ECCC cited, “ongoing human-induced global warming.” And coming during the hottest 11-year stretch in history, ECCC predicted, “the period from 2026 to 2030 will likely be the hottest five-year period on record.”
Our presidentially-maligned northern neighbors also reported on their local concerns:
“On average, Canada is warming at more than twice the global rate, with Northern regions warming about three times as quickly.”
Idiotic isolationists might say, “That’s their problem.” But excessive warming across northern Canada triggered the massive forest fires that smoked much of our nation last year.
Also, higher temperatures in Canada, Alaska and Siberia have already started melting the permafrost in those regions. Defrosted permafrost releases methane into the atmosphere, which accelerates the greenhouse effect, which warms the planet, which thaws more permafrost, which releases more methane, etc.
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences euphemistically attributes the rising Ocean Heat Content to “anthropogenic drivers of ocean heat accumulation.” Those reckless drivers are the humans inhabiting this planet.
Of course, there are many such drivers who lie to deny their impact upon the planet, seeking short-term profits [or donation bribes from Big Oil].
The Daily Kos headline for the AAS report summed up this antisocial behavior: “The oceans are burning quietly while the arsonists continue to say no big deal.”
And the arsonists have co-opted part of the climate conscious movement, too.
The Progressive, that venerable champion of liberal thought, printed one of last year’s saddest stories in November. David Goessmann interviewed Bill McKibben, “an icon among environmentalists.”
McKibben, an activist and the author of many green-oriented books, said he saw, “a real opening for quicker progress” prior to the November United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil.
That someone of his stature could hold such delusions about the cop-outs at COP30 after the last several conferences boggles the mind.
Following the world community’s latest failure to address the threat of global warming, Common Dream’s Jake Johnson reported:
“Climate advocates voiced alarm and outrage Friday after every mention of fossil fuels was dropped from the latest draft text to emerge from the COP30 summit, high-stakes talks that have been swarmed by a record number of oil and gas lobbyists seeking to derail any progress toward a clean energy transition.”
The U.S. was not present, of course. Global warming evidence runs counter to President Donald Trump’s grifting deal with Big Oil.
Trump further distanced the U.S. from responsible action this January when he withdrew “from the entire United Nations climate-fighting apparatus,” according to Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press.
Borenstein added that this “takes America’s environmental isolation to another level and is likely to damage both the United States and the world as the planet flirts with ecological tipping points, experts say.”
Borenstein offers cautionary considerations for our future.
“Leaders from around the world,” according to Borenstein, “say the United States will be left behind as more than 190 other nations join in what they call a blossoming green economy that is transitioning from polluting coal, oil and gas to cleaner and cheaper solar, wind and other renewable energies.”
Cleaner and cheaper energies. But not for us. Yet, the greedheads have company among some of our neighbors who prefer to ignore the consequences of promoting a fossil foolish economy.
We are already dealing with some of the fallout from our warming world. Following generations will suffer even more, while wondering why we took no productive, protective action.
