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Fiddling as Earth Burns [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-16
America's ongoing coup takes all the headlines, but pales into insignificance next to rapid climate change, as does every other issue or disagreement, large or small. None of them really matter when man is gone, thanks to rapid climate change. The products of hydrocarbon combustion are on track to kill us off by 2050. We have to do much more than stop burning oil, and very soon, if we want our species to survive. Every day we wait to act, the odds against survival of life on earth grow.
According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of people who believe wind and solar power should have precedence over oil and gas power dropped from 79% to 60% since 2020. I guess people are not reading my increasingly urgent posts, and those of every climatologist. 60% is still "most", but Trump will consider the 19% drop a mandate to "burn, baby burn." So we will burn.
In 1856, Eunice Foote first demonstrated the “greenhouse effect” - rising levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere trap a growing proportion of the sun’s heat, causing the planet to warm. Svante Arrhenius quantified the impact of CO₂ in the atmosphere and hypothesized that fossil fuel combustion would increase global temperatures (1896).
Scientists have known precisely how much CO₂ is in the atmosphere for generations. In 1958, Charles David Keeling at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawai‛i reported 315 parts per million (ppm) of CO₂ in the atmosphere. In 2024, Mauna Loa reported 422 ppm of CO₂, a 33 percent increase (NOAA GML 2025).
Scientists have been taking precise temperature measurements around the world for centuries, and have consistently charted increases in the global average, with about double that average in polar regions. The ten warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade (NOAA NCEI 2024). The oceans are rising about 0.15" per year, and 230 million people live less than one meter above sea level.
A mounting body of evidence, including recently released internal corporate documents, demonstrates that decades ago, as early as 1950, major fossil fuel companies fully understood that the continued extraction, production, promotion, and sale of their products would lead to catastrophic consequences for the world (Franta 2018). For example:
Internal documents from major fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Shell, show that by the 1970s and 1980s, they had developed sophisticated climate models that projected the very impacts we see today (Supran et al. 2023).
An internal report by Shell acknowledged the significant carbon emissions the company is responsible for and warned that “by the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even to stabilize the situation” (1988).
Stanford climate scientist John Laurmann told the American Petroleum Institute, the fossil fuel industry’s largest trade association, that global warming caused by fossil fuels would bring “major economic consequences” with potentially “globally catastrophic effects.” (1980)
Big Oil also recognized that action to ward off the crisis would threaten their bottom lines.
Instead of ameliorating the climate debacle, the oil industry doubled down, pouring money into promoting the benefits of an oil economy and denigrating the science about its downside. A 1998 “Roadmap” memo prepared by the American Petroleum Institute explicitly outlined how the companies could delay climate action by promoting uncertainty about climate science. Those uncertainties will not be resolved by NOAA, which has been gutted by Trump, so we will be walking in darkness through primordial conditions that have never been experienced by living creatures.
Big Oil engaged in a long-term, deliberate deception, denial and disinformation campaign to sow public doubt, block climate action, and continue profiting from fossil fuel extraction at the expense of the planet. Its playbook: manufacture uncertainty, invest in “alternative” fringe science, recast the debate, cultivate close ties with government officials, and sow doubt (Franta 2022; Supran and Oreskes 2017). This deliberate deception continues to delay climate action and has already "locked in" irreversible impacts, including future sea level rise (Ekwurzel et al. 2017; Licker et al. 2019). The consequences of this inaction are now undeniable.. A very bad, very troubling decision, like suicide or murder, or both. These companies have not only failed to take responsibility for their role in the climate crisis but also actively obstructed efforts to transition to a clean energy future. Governments colluded in this deception, in the US - both republican and democratic administrations. Fully indoctrinated in the big lie, many or most people cannot imagine a world without oil and gas, and at first they will join in resisting change. The campaign by oil interests has succeeded - they continue to "earn" $tens of trillions, but as a consequence their children, possibly the last generation, will die too young, as will all life on earth.
Corporations, and many individuals, consider themselves only responsible for increasing their bottom line, not social justice, helping the less fortunate, environmental preservation or even survival of the species. In fact, greed at the level of oil industry profits ($28 trillion/year) trumps all other considerations. However, in light of the science, promoting oil is insane, because in a few years the $trillions earned will be worthless in a lifeless world. Insane is the way we are going; the disconnect with logic is palpable.
The dreaded Greenhouse Effect is well underway. The delicate balance of nature has been seriously disrupted. CO2 and methane emissions warm the earth, more and more water vapor joins in, and eventually nature finds a new equilibrium – too hot for life or even to retain water on the planet. Burning hydrocarbons caused the warming and continuing to do so accelerates its consequences, too quickly for any species to adapt for long.
An enlightened dominant species would have acted to prevent this crisis 50 years ago. However, the powerful have chosen not to deviate from the march toward extinction. They know about greed, not about science. They care about wealth, not people. Now certain tipping points cannot be undone – the poles will melt, the sea will rise, desertification and flooding will continue, storms will be more powerful and damaging. Life will be more dangerous and limited, the die-off will accelerate. We waited too long to act.
If we act decisively and soon to move from oil to alternative, less polluting energy we may be able to avoid the worst outcome for life – extinction, and for the planet – the oceans and atmosphere boiling into space, leaving earth a barren husk like Venus. To restore the balance the earth maintained for 20,000 years we must remove about half of the CO2 from the atmosphere, a daunting task (400 billion tons at 0.04% concentration). Even if we could remove billions of tons of CO2 from the air, which we can’t yet do, where will we put it? We don’t know. Maybe with enough energy we can make the carbon back into coal? We are racing into the unknown at the eleventh or twelvth hour, still doing nothing to save ourselves.
The current hydrocarbon economy has outlived its usefulness. It would be a shame if we allowed it to extinguish life on earth when cleaner and less dangerous alternatives are readily available. Yet the current US administration is the greatest promoter of hydrocarbons in the world, ever.
We won't know exactly where and when climate disasters will strike, we just know that the increasing heat must be released through the weather and over time, the climate. Weather patterns are complex, but the physics of a warming planet are predictable: Farm land will become desert and shrink, drought and flooding will destroy crops and cause famine. Clean water will become a challenge. Food and water resources will shrink, leading to famines and war. Hurricanes and tornados will also grow in number and size, effecting wide swaths of destruction. Huge migrations of people from broiling equatorial areas to more temperate zones will cause unprecedented border crises. As countries submerge, survivors must find shelter elsewhere. Increased temperatures will shorten tempers and fuel fights.
We are experiencing only the beginning of profound climate change, but the heat is creating exponentially bigger storms, more often each year. Sea levels are rising to flood many of earth's greatest cities. The highest ocean waves were 60 feet a few decades ago, now they are 80 feet.
From 1980 through 2019 (40 years), the earth survived an average of 7.175 $1 billion storms per year, but from 2020 to 2025 the average number of mega-storms rose over 300% to 23. By 2030 we can expect 33, by 2050 - 50.
Years Number of $1 Billion
Environmental Disasters per Year*
2020-2025 23
2010-2019 13
2000-2009 6.7
1990-1999 5.7
1980-1989 3.3
* Source: NOAA & Union of Concerned Scientists
This year, the US suffered over $100 billion in damages related to climate change, and Asia suffered twice that. The damages will continue to rise, exponentially - $400 billion next year, $500 billion the next, then $600 billion, etc. Soon the burgeoning cost of rebuilding will overwhelm whatever resources are available.
Human activities are responsible for rapid climate change. Indisputably, the primary driver is the burning of fossil fuels by the "more advanced" nations. Meanwhile, many of the poorest countries that contributed the least to global warming are the hardest hit - those along the equator or in the southern hemisphere. Here at home, the cost of climate change, like the cost of cleaning up after the oil industry, falls disproportionately on taxpayers rather than on corporations that knowingly caused the crisis.
Given this overwhelming evidence, legal action against the fossil fuel industry is gaining traction. Several dozen states, counties, cities, and tribes across the United States and its territories have filed lawsuits against fossil fuel corporations, seeking accountability for fraud, climate damages, and/or racketeering. These cases, part of a growing global movement for climate justice, contend that fossil fuel companies knowingly misled the public about climate science and the risks of continued fossil fuel use. The lawsuits argue that, like Big Tobacco deception concerning the dangers of smoking, fossil fuel companies have long understood the harm their products cause and chose to prioritize profit over people and the planet.
Climate justice remains elusive. Fossil fuel corporations deploy vast legal resources to delay proceedings, seeking to evade accountability. The out-of-touch Trump administration is the most pro-oil yet, still giddy over their new friends in OPEC. Fossil fuel corporations are also lobbying Congress to legislate a shield from liability similar to the protections afforded to gun manufacturers. These efforts, if successful, would be a devastating setback for climate accountability and the public interest.
The Trump administration is fixated on providing immediate benefits to the oil & gas industry, ignorant of the consequences of its decisions. As a candidate, Donald Trump vowed to “stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists.” In the same breath, he also pledged to build “hundreds of brand-new beautiful [fossil fuel] power plants.” DOGE has decimated EPA and NOAA. Trump is closing down FEMA when it is needed most. Trump has stopped research and the public dissemination of climate data. In February, new leadership at the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the agency would not enforce a recently enacted rule requiring public companies to detail items such as carbon emissions and climate-related financial risks in annual reports. None of this is supported by the American people.
Holding these corporations responsible is a matter of both justice and necessity. Without intervention, these companies will continue their deception, continue to delay the urgent action needed to mitigate further climate destruction. Public awareness and legal pressure must demand that Big Oil contribute to repairing the damage they have caused. The lawsuits currently making their way through the courts are focused on securing financial compensation, establishing accountability, and preventing further deception.
The courts are late to the party. Climate change is already wreaking havoc on our planet; worsening heat waves, wildfires, flooding, and droughts; melting glaciers and polar ice masses; raising sea levels; and threatening human health. Hundreds have died, with thousands soon to follow and millions or billions behind them if we don't initiate a massive effort immediately.
It is almost too late to be proactive. 1980 would have been a good time to be proactive. We could have prevented this crisis, but now we are up to our necks in it and we don't know how to swim. By that I mean we don't know how we are going to remove 400 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere, though we must to stop rapid climate change. There is no alternative, man cannot adapt to 120o temperatures. At 130o photosynthesis stops. In ten years, Mars won't be ready. Where will survivors go?
The system is broken, to fix it major fossil fuel corporations must:
End disinformation on climate science and public policy.
Stop greenwashing corporate actions.
Accelerate actions, investments, and business planning for a fair and fast phaseout of fossil fuels worldwide.
Stop obstructing science-informed public policy and its implementation.
Fully disclose, and regularly and publicly report on, risks and impacts to the climate, communities, and the economy.
Pay an equitable share of the costs of climate damages; climate adaptation; and the environmental, social, and systemic impacts of fossil fuel products and production.
Stop violating civil rights, human rights, and the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Remove 400 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere to stop global warming
The clock is ticking. We have a few years before rapid climate change overwhelms us. Fossil fuel companies have been delaying, denying, deceiving and gaslighting their way out of accountability for decades. The world is in distress, the die-off has begun, we can’t let the planet warm as larger and larger portions become uninhabitable. The path we are on leads to death of all life on earth. Organized, informed, outraged communities have the power to choose life instead. Where are they?
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