Image courtesy of Slava Jamm on Unsplash
It’s sad on so many levels. For over 40 years, climate scientists have been speaking (shouting and protesting) about the problems of global warming. Big businesses have paid lawmakers to be allowed to continue harming our home, our beloved Earth, the planet that provides us with everything.
With the climate out of balance, winds, rains, and wildfires are becoming much more lethal and destructive worldwide. Ex-US President Clinton had quipped, It’s the economy was stupid, but now it’s crystal clear that It’s the environment, stupid. In 2024, Earth experienced its hottest year on record for the fourth year. Water systems across the globe bore the brunt,” said Australian National University, Professor Albert van Dijk.
Canada, Australia, Greece, and many US states experienced devastating wildfires. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding rains inflicted horrific damage in Spain, many US states, Kenya, Pakistan, China, Brazil, and many more parts of the planet.
According to NOAA in 2024, there were 27 individual weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion in damages, second only to the 28 events in 2023. Adding the 27 events of 2024 to the record that begins in 1980, the US has sustained 403 weather and climate disasters for which the individual damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The cumulative cost for these 403 events exceeds $2.915 trillion.
