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The Doomsday Clock 80-Year Low

Doomsday Clock image by Micthev is licensed by CC BY-SA 1.0
Image of clock by Micthev  is licensed by CC BY-SA 1.0

The Doomsday Clock 80-Year Low

By Robert Hunziker

Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1945. The famous Doomsday Clock was created two years later and reset every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with the Board of Sponsors, including eight Nobel laureates.

Manhattan Project scientists felt obligated to educate the public about the catastrophic implications of nuclear weapons, especially after US bombings of Hiroshima (Aug.6, 1945 – 80,000 instant deaths, 140,000 by year end) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9, 1945 – approximately 40,000 instant deaths, 80,000 by year end).”Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima was 15-kilotons. Today’s thermonuclear weapons are well over 100-kilotons up to a megaton (a megaton equals 1,000 kilotons).

According to data provided by ICAN, one thermonuclear weapon detonated over NYC would ignite a fireball wider than one mile instantly vaporizing people and buildings on initial impact within that radius. Additionally, the thermal pulse or intense flash of light and heat would cause third-degree burns and inflame infrastructure 7-8 miles away. Then a firestorm would consume the city for as much as 150 square miles.

The initial setting for the iconic clock in 1947 was seven (7) minutes to midnight. The world-famous clock symbolizes the vulnerability to global catastrophe via human-made technology. The scientists were hopeful of preventing a nuclear arms race. Oops! As of 2026, nine nations possess approximately 12,330 nuclear warheads (Russia 5459; US 5277; China 600; France 290; UK 225; India 180; Pakistan 170; Israel 90; No. Korea 50).

Risks never looked so ominous. In plain English, as of January 27th, 2026, the new clock setting is more foreboding than ever before at 85 seconds to midnight. Accordingly, since the onset of the clock in 1947, world affairs have succumbed to the lowest level in generations. It’s as if the world is trapped in a vortex of blundering, ineptitude, and clownishness.

The Board’s Summary of World Affairs

“A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential Risks.”

By setting the famous clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the Board recognizes the failure of leadership of the world as the principal reason for the lowest reading ever. World leadership lacks vision and horribly deficient in historical perspective of missteps among nations often leading to unnecessary combativeness with nuclear in the hotseat.

Nuclear Risks

From day one, nuclear risks have been paramount. Living up to that concern, 2025 experienced three regional conflicts involving nuclear powers, all threatening to escalate (1) Russia-Ukraine (2) India-Pakistan (3) US/Israel-Iran.

However, according to the Board, the biggest turn of events is the onset of a full-blown arms race. China has dramatically increased nuclear warheads, in 2025 China completed or was near completing around 350 new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos across multiple desert and mountain sites, and the US, Russia, and China have modernized their nuclear delivery systems. But none of the big three appears to feel as threatened as does the United States, which plans to build a Golden Dome, including space-based interceptors. This defensive maneuver by the US guarantees a new space-based arms race that’s certain to spread alarm around the world.

Of additional concern, the nuclear weapon countries are not talking about strategic stability or arms control. The US commitment, or lack of commitment, for allies in Europe and in Asia is pushing countries sans nuclear weapons to acquiring them. Indeed, this enhances an incipient new arms race across the world.

Making matters even worse yet, the two biggest gorillas in the room the US and Russia START agreement that limits the number of nuclear weapons is set to expire after 60 years  The treaty is set to end on February 5, and without it there will be no constraints on long-range nuclear arsenals for the first time since Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed historic agreements in 1972 on the first-ever trip by a U.S. president to Moscow

Climate Change on Bad Footing

The Board sees climate change on a downhill trajectory that threatens civilization: “The national and international responses to the climate emergency went from wholly insufficient to profoundly destructive. None of the three most recent UN climate summits emphasized phasing out fossil fuels or monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. In the United States, the Trump administration has essentially declared war on renewable energy and sensible climate policies, relentlessly gutting national efforts to combat climate change.”

The graph below demonstrates the post-industrial trend in greenhouse gases, which are the primary drivers of global warming: The steeper/ the longer/ the more Earth heats up. Trump administration focus on fossil fuels at the expense of renewables steepens the vertical ascent eventually to Hot House Earth, unless CO2 is stopped and also removed to a certain extent. Removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is extremely challenging as current technology is anemic.

A graph with red line and blue line AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Synthetic Biology “Mirror Life” Threatens All Life

The past year witnessed a life sciences artificial development that threatens all life. Scientists from nine countries have warned about the creation of “Mirror Life” via laboratory synthesis, consisting of “mirror bacteria” and other “mirror cells” that scientists warn should not be allowed to continue. Mirror Life is composed of chemically synthesized molecules that are “mirror-images” of molecules naturally found on Earth. According to the Board: “A self-replicating mirror cell could plausibly evade normal controls on growth, spread throughout all ecosystems, and eventually cause the widespread death of humans, other animals, and plants, potentially disrupting all life on Earth. So far, however, the international community has not arrived at a plan to address this risk.”

AI

“The AI revolution has the potential to accelerate the existing chaos and dysfunction in the world’s information ecosystem, supercharging mis- and disinformation campaigns and undermining the fact-based public discussions required to address urgent major threats like nuclear war, pandemics, and climate change.” AI-aided design of new pathogens harmful to humans is of concern as state-sponsored biological weapons.

US Degradation of Public Health

The Board takes special aim at the US: “Perhaps of most immediate concern is the rapid degradation of US public health infrastructure and expertise. This dangerously reduces the ability of the United States and other nations to respond to pandemics and other biological threats.”

Autocratic Trends

Overlaying the above-mentioned flash points, the ongoing autocratic trend of world governments impedes international cooperation. It reduces accountability. And it acts like a “threat accelerant.” Autocrats are not reliable negotiators and can easily upset the proverbial apple cart, triggering unforeseen domino-effect disaster scenarios.

In the final analysis, eighty-five (85) seconds to midnight doesn’t leave much room for error.

This article was originally published on Feb. 6, 2026 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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Ocean Heat Goes Ballistic

Photo by Thomas Fryatt is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Thomas Fryatt is licensed by Unsplash

Ocean Heat Goes Ballistic

By Robert Hunziker


Climate science, over the past few decades, especially since the turn of the new century, has increasingly identified trouble spots with ecosystems that support life on Earth. These crucial ecosystems are stressed. But not many of the scientific reports of the past couple of decades compares to a bone-chilling new study of massive ocean heat accumulation in the year 2025, published January 14th, 2026, ScienceDaily: The Ocean Absorbed a Stunning Amount of Heat in 2025. Sources: Institute of Atmospheric Physics and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

That report lays out stark details: “In 2025 alone, the ocean gained 23 Zetta Joules (23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of energy, of heat). That amount of energy is roughly equal to about 37 years of total global primary energy use at 2023 levels (~620 Exa Joules per year). The findings are based on work by more than 50 scientists representing 31 research institutions across the globe.”

In other words, it is equivalent to every power plant, every car, every light bulb, and every device on Earth continuously in use for 37 years. This is how much extra heat the oceans absorbed in 2025, in one year!

The ocean is Earth’s primary heat sink absorbing 90% of extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases like CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels by people filling up cars at local gas stations. As such, ocean heat content (OHC) is the most reliable measure of long-term climate change. The question therefore arises, how much heat content can the oceans absorb and what happens when it’s excessive, like it is right now?

OHC has been setting new records, every year, for nine consecutive years. The consequences are spelled out in the study: “Warmer ocean surfaces increase evaporation and rainfall, making storms more intense and extreme weather events more likely. In 2025, these effects contributed to severe flooding and disruption across much of Southeast Asia, prolonged drought in the Middle East, and flooding in Mexico and the Pacific Northwest.” In other words, regardless of the event, it’s extreme, which is the fingerprint of global warming.

CO2 Impact on Oceans

“The primary impact of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions on the ocean is the rapid warming of ocean waters, which significantly reduces the ocean’s capacity to hold oxygen—a critical lifeline for species survival. Rising temperatures also drive ocean acidification—weakening marine organisms, disrupting ecosystems, altering the physiology of numerous species, and triggering mass die-offs.” (World’s Oceans Hit Record Heat in 2025 at Great Economic and Social Costs, Global Issues, UN Bureau Report, Jan. 22, 2026)

“This year may be remembered as one of the gravest for marine mammals on record. Or, more worryingly, a sign that our ocean environment is changing so drastically that in some places and seasons, it’s becoming uninhabitable for the life it holds.” (Marine Mammals are Dying in Record Numbers Along the California Coast, LA Times, October 3, 2025)

Solutions

There are no quick solutions to a problem that has been building at an indeterminate scale for at least 200 years but on a determinate accelerating scale since the year 2000. Global warming is quickly becoming a misnomer, s/b, global heating. The proof of acceleration is easy to discover, check out worldwide glacier meltdowns, which are melting 36% faster today than at the turn of the new century. Thirty-six percent is a precise figure as the GRACE satellites of NASA/German Aerospace Center (thankfully, hopefully, not on Trump’s hit list) have continuously measured glacier mass loss since 2002. Fresh water sources dwindle and sea levels rise; these are not good trends, and if properly explained politically as major risks to every individual family in America, which is enhanced by current policy directives, it could be a game-changer, powerful political capital, in favor of reversing everything the Trump administration kills in science.

For people interested in individual solutions, go to: Climate Responsible for guidance tailored to individuals. Alternatively, climate.gov is a good source: What Can We Do To Slow or Stop Global Warming? This site is part of NOAA, which unfortunately is on the Trump chopping block for the upcoming budget; it is not known whether this solutions web site will remain.

Meanwhile, on an international scale, COP UN meetings have repeatedly failed to impact global warming due to the “consensus-based voting structure.” This allows fossil fuel-dependent nations, like Saudi Arabia and Russia, to block (veto) meaningful policy on emissions. Recently, Brazil/COP30 (2025) sessions ended with weak agreements, failing to mandate a clear fossil fuel phase-out. Once again, major fossil fuel producers obstructed efforts. And the United States, by withdrawing completely, has opened the door for “me-too rejections” of serious climate change mitigation policies, as an expanding worldwide right-wing challenges what’s ‘perceived’ to be liberal policies.

“Not having the United States participate substantively in future annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to monitor progress and set Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is, in itself, a setback. The United States is still the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It is also the world’s largest economy and has been a formidable influence in global politics. Indeed, the system of relationships that Trump is dismantling was largely created by the United States in the years following the Second World War,.. Before November 2024, assuming the continuation of Biden’s climate mitigation policies, the United States was likely to meet the goal of a 50–52% reduction in emissions by 2030 relative to a 2005 baseline.” (The Trump Administration and Climate Policy: The Effects of Right-Wing Populism, European Center for Populism Studies, Jan. 20, 2026). Bidenism is gone!

Trump policies on global warming directly contribute to a potential worst-case situation, i.e., a catastrophic mass extinction event of marine life not seen in over 250 million years. “Global heating is causing such a drastic change to the world’s oceans that it risks a mass extinction event of marine species that rivals anything that’s happened in the Earth’s history over tens of millions of years, new research has warned.” (Global Heating Risks Most Cataclysmic Extinction of Marine life in 250m Years, The Guardian, Aug. 28, 2022)

That Guardian-referenced study was four years ago. Subsequent studies of ocean conditions are much worse. The current ocean heat situation is, in fact, spooking scientists.

The Dreaded Fundamental Climate Shift Expressed by Ocean Heat Content

A graph showing the number of countries/regions AI-generated content may be incorrect. This figure shows changes in heat content of the top 700 meters of the world’s oceans between 1955 and 2023 (US EPA). Thousands of Argo Floats strategically placed throughout the world’s oceans linked to satellites provide precise temperature measurements.

The study published in ScienceDaily claims severe ocean overheating may be causing a fundamental climate shift. Ocean heatwaves over the past couple of years have been massive and extensive and intensive on a scale never seen before at times covering 96% of the world’s oceans, which should be impossible. (The Oceans are Overheating – and Scientists Say a Climate Tipping Point May be Here, ScienceDaily d/d July 26, 2025)

Starting in 2022-23, massive ocean heatwaves persisted for more than 500 days covering nearly the entire globe. A terrestrial day-after-day heatwave of suffocating temperatures for 500 days unending has never been recorded on land, but the oceans just experienced it. This shocking event, never recorded before, puts the entire global warming scenario on a new level that’s predictably negative.

This calls for the biggest “clarion bell shrill” in modern climate history: Do Something Constructive!

The United States needs to switch to climate change mitigation policies and downplay fossil fuels as soon as possible.

This article was originally published on Jan. 30, 2026 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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America’s Sheeple Elites

Photo by Luca Iaconelli is licensed by Unsplash.
Photo by Luca Iaconelli is licensed by Unsplash.

America’s Sheeple Elites

By Robert Hunziker

Sheeple is defined as “people who are like sheep, meek, conforming, easily led.” And they are easy to herd when frightened. America’s most prominent sheeple are well known leaders in the fields of law, education, business, and philanthropy. Intuitively, these same high-ranking leaders are expected to possess strong backbones. They don’t.

The Trump administration has exposed the utter weaknesses, the weak underbelly of America’s great capitalistic success story of individuals who reach the pinnacles of power, allegedly the smart ones, the strong ones, the natural leaders, the trail blazers. But like children on a playground in their formative years, they yield to the playground bully. It’s always the playground bully that other kids fear and cower. Now the grown-up rugged, piercing corporate faces that preach high principles are torn to shreds right before all eyes, exposing a mushiness that belies the façades of power. Nobody ever dreamed that cowardice would lead to leadership but in America it does.

The list of sheeple elites in America is riddled with high profile names and institutions. “Social media platforms, energy companies, investment firms, airlines, big banks and even philanthropic organizations have recently backtracked on their environmental pledges to fall in line with the Trump administration’s anti-climate agenda.” (These Companies Are Backtracking on Climate in Bow to Conservatives, Earth.org)

It was only a couple of years ago when Meta CEO Zukerberg testified before Congress that climate disinformation was a ‘big issue’ on the platform. However, Meta ended its contracts with fact-checking organizations early in 2025. Analysts and industry experts warned that this paves the way for unchecked proliferation of climate misinformation and disinformation on Facebook and Instagram, the first and third most widely used social networks worldwide with more than 5 billion monthly active users. Meta also removed two key sections (1) “Leading the Way on Climate Change” and (2) “Taking Bold Climate Action” from its sustainability webpage.

Early in 2025 the Bezos Earth Fund stopped its $18 million grant in support of a leading climate certification organization named Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) which assesses company decarbonizing efforts to meet Paris 2015 guidelines. Meanwhile, Bezos’s Washington Post declared that only opinions that support “personal liberties” and “free markets” will be welcome in the newspaper. A highly regarded former editor for the newspaper named Marty Baron told The Guardian that Bezos’s move was a betrayal of the very idea of free expression.

In 2025, America’s six largest banks all withdrew from a very important industry climate alliance, the Net Zero Banking Alliance established in alignment with the UN in 2021 meant to limit environmental footprints contrary to meeting the objectives of Paris 2015. Following suit, the world’s largest investment management company BlackRock withdrew from Net Zero Managers initiative. The company publicly admitted it withdrew under pressure from public officials and Republican led legal inquiries. This move by the behemoth of asset managers led to several other firms disbanding their commitments, such as American Vanguard and Northern Trust.

Before the sudden breakdown of key members of Net Zero Banking Alliance, it had 325 signatories managing $57.4 trillion of assets. “The alliance launched in December 2020 to support the asset management industry to commit to a goal of net zero emissions in order to mitigate financial risk and to maximize long-term value of assets… US grassroots environmental organization Sierra Club described the departure of major financial institutions from global net-zero initiatives as ‘disappointing,’ adding it was ‘a sign that these banks and asset managers are capitulating to ongoing attacks from climate denier politicians that want to stop sustainable finance efforts,” Ibid.

Meanwhile, top insurers fear the climate crisis could soon outpace industry solutions, effectively threatening to make entire regions around the world uninsurable. Günther Thallinger, a board member at Allianz, one of the world’s biggest insurers, recently outlined how the world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for financial services, such as mortgages and investments.

Ipso facto, the breakdowns of Net Zero Banking Alliance and Net Zero Managers initiative could not have come at a worse time as fossil fuel emissions and global temperatures jointly set new record highs, threatening the very existence of insurance. See- Climate Crisis on Track to Destroy Capitalism, Warns Top Insurer,

With a new lease of life, the fossil fuel industry is experiencing the biggest green light of all time to “go full bore like never before… drill baby drill.” Their corporate boardrooms continue to celebrate by spraying confetti and serving champagne on occasion to re-celebrate the big breakthrough with the world’s largest economy, pinching themselves to be sure it’s true. They are seen to be giddy, and they share “knowing winks” and “playful jabs and fist pumps” among back-slapping colleagues in corporate hallways, sometimes enthusiastically “yelping” with excitement. In celebration the big boys like ExxonMobil have committed to increasing fossil fuel production. Moreover, almost all energy companies cut renewable energy investments and scaled back low carbon energy investment plans, as coal companies’ dust-off rusty equipment.

“Former US climate envoy John Kerry, a key figure in global negotiations that led to the Paris climate agreement, said energy companies have been ‘intimidated’ into backtracking on their climate efforts,” Ibid.

A Financial Times investigation revealed that leading corporations including Walmart and Kraft Heinz have revised statements on climate change over the past year, coinciding with a Republican backlash against climate action and sustainability efforts. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer claims it is likely to miss its emissions reduction targets of 35% by 2025 and 65% by 2030 compared with 2015 levels – adding that it would consider revising the goals this year. In 2023, the company produced 15.06 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the equivalent of nearly 3.5 million fossil fuel-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year.

The retail giant wrote on its website last year that “climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time.” It continued: “If we don’t take more aggressive action now, the damage will only worsen, and the consequences will be disastrous for this and future generations.” According to the Financial Times, that statement was removed, although the company reiterated its commitment to reducing emissions across its operations

Demand Justice is a web site that tracks law firms that are caving in to Trump: “Not every law firm has given in. But too many have- and what comes next may be even worse” : Standing Up To Big Law Cowards broadcast on YouTube exposes cowardly law firms that undoubtably identifies former childhood targets of bullies on playgrounds. Hence, they gravitate to the false comfort of a law degree shingle on the office wall as an appearance of strength. It’s a façade. For proof of many façades, see: The Pathetic, Cowardly Collapse of Big Law, The Atlantic, March 27, 2025.

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Bending a Knee Brings More Angst, Whereas Fighting Back Brings Allies Strengthening Democracy

“The Trump administration issued executive orders targeting specific law firms by taking away their security clearances, restricting access to federal buildings, and calling for a review of their federal contracts. Some law firms immediately bowed to the administration, while others fought back. Law firms that cut deals with the administration now owe a combined nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services to causes the administration supports. In contrast, law firms that challenged the administration are faring better. Lower-court judges, including those appointed by Republican presidents, are consistently ruling against the administration’s executive orders targeting law firms, finding that the firms’ First Amendment rights, among other constitutional rights, are being violated. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan, blocking executive action against law firm Susman Godfrey, stated, ‘The framers of our Constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power.” (The Dangers of Obeying: 4 Risks for Organizations Bowing to the Trump Administration, Center for American Progress, July 2, 2025)

“Some law firms that made deals with the Trump administration are facing negative consequences from their peers. For example, partners at various law firms that struck agreements with the Trump administration have left their posts. An increasing number of law students are reporting that they are only interested in working for firms that align with their values, sending a clear message to institutions that capitulate to this administration. Major companies—such as Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and Oracle—are now changing or considering rethinking which law firms will represent them amid concerns about the lack of integrity of law firms that made deals,” Ibid.

“Challenging President Trump and the Trump administration carries risks and costs, but settling means guaranteed loss. ABC News, for example, settled a defamation case with then-President-elect Trump for $15 million despite having “an exceptionally strong case,” according to media law experts. Conversely, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have chosen to fight back, and all have won litigation brought by Trump against them throughout the years. President Trump , was even ordered by a court to pay nearly $400,000 to The New York Times for the legal fees it incurred defending itself against his frivolous claims,” Ibid.

Georgetown Law rebuked the administration’s intimidation tactics, stating that the Constitution “guarantees that the government cannot direct what Georgetown and its faculty teach and how to teach it.” By standing alone, demonstrating strength, it’s fearlessness prompted more than 650 college presidents and scholarly societies to sign a letter standing strong against government intrusion.

There is considerable evidence that the tide is shifting against presidential overreach. Organizations that stand up are being met with sizeable, unexpected, strength in numbers by other organizations coalescing against the administration, strengthening the resistance and giving democracy a powerful endorsement.

Meanwhile: “We are running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much CO2 the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.” (Elon Musk, USA Today, 4/17/2013)

This article was originally published on Jan. 23, 2026 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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The Arctic-Greenland-Florida Conga

Photo by henrique setim is licensed by Unsplash.
Photo by henrique setim is licensed by Unsplash.

The Arctic-Greenland-Florida Conga

By Robert Hunziker

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (an agency that is subject to drastic cuts in Trump’s FY2026 budget) from October 2024 to September 2025 temperatures across the entire Arctic region were the hottest in 125 years of modern record keeping,

As of year-end, the status of the Arctic and Greenland present the world with a nerve-racking knuckle-biting dilemma, as apparently, according to climate scientists, they’re coming apart at the seams. Meanwhile, the United States issues policy-after-policy guaranteed to make it much, much worse. Will residents in states like Florida protest policies that promote fossil fuel usage over renewables, as it’s starting to look like higher sea levels on the distant horizon.

In sharp contrast to scientific reports about threats of climate change, a recent U.S. Department of Energy report A Critical Review,,, d/d July 23, 2025 downplays these concerns about climate change, global warming, rising sea levels, and excessive greenhouse emissions such as CO2.. This has prompted sharp criticism by numerous non-governmental sources, as explained further herein.

Bill McGuire professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London is one of the most outspoken scientists in the field, not afraid to “tell it like it is.” His recent comments about the Arctic and Greenland are chilling.

Bill McGuire X posting (Dec. 16, 2025):

“The huge polar amplification of heating continues Tipping of the Greenland Ice Sheet all but certain now, locking-in an eventual ~7m rise Say goodbye to much of Florida, and coastal towns and cities across the planet.”

Dr. McGuire is likely responding to an article in The Guardian, Arctic Endured Year of Record Heat as Climate Scientists Warn of ‘Winter Being Redefined’ d/d Dec. 16, 2025. According to one interview: “We are seeing cascading impacts from a warming Arctic,’ said Zack Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central. ‘Coastal cities aren’t ready for the rising sea levels; we have completely changed the fisheries in the Arctic which leads to rising food bills for sea food. We can point to the Arctic as a faraway place but the changes there affect the rest of the world.”

Dr. Labe says “we are seeing cascading impacts…” something that innocent bystanders do not want to see happening in the rugged Arctic. Cascading impacts are chain reactions where the starting event triggers a series of follow-up events, which are amplified to a degree worse than the starting event. As it happens, “cascading impacts” are the worst possible news out of the Arctic for obvious reasons. For starters, it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Moreover, when the Arctic region is massively diminished by global warming, it indirectly and in some cases directly causes adverse whacko weather systems across the Northern Hemisphere, or put another way, out-of-the-ordinary severe weather systems which have been slamming the hemisphere these past few years.

Furthermore, of utmost concern, the Arctic contains oodles of trapped frozen methane CH4 that, once unfrozen and released into the atmosphere, powers up global warming like ‘there’s no tomorrow’ and it is much more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than is CO2.

Plus, Greenland is a big-time concern for residents of Florida because it’s one of the world’s largest blocks of ice in direct line of fire of Arctic warming amplification. Thus, the world’s major coastal megacities, like NYC, and major low-lying coastal states, like Florida, are indirectly exposed as Arctic warming amplification quickens the meltdown of Greenland. Hello rising sea levels! The last thing residents of Florida and the Outer Banks want to hear is “cascading impacts in the Arctic.” Well, according to Dr. Labe, it’s happening!

A recent study from the University of Zurich published in ScienceDaily is cause for additional concern: Here’s the headline: Massive Hidden Waves are Rapidly Melting Greenland’s Glaciers: “Calving icebergs unleash hidden wave forces that supercharge Greenland’s melt and push the ice sheet closer to collapse… Our entire Earth system depends, at least in part, on these ice sheets. It’s a fragile system that could collapse if temperatures rise too high,’ warns Dominik Gräff.”

MIT Climate Portal: “Despite the enormous stakes for the future of humanity, it remains frustratingly difficult to know how much sea level rise is in store for us. All we know for sure is that taking strong and immediate action to control our greenhouse gas emissions gives us the best chance to avoid meters of sea level rise.”

MIT acknowledges one of the biggest mysteries in climate science which is the levels and timing of sea level rise because of global warming. Nobody really knows for sure, and this is what makes it so necessary to pay attention to early warning signs so coastal communities can prepare for what might hit them. Once it’s too high too quickly, it’s too late to do much other than move to higher ground.

Unfortunately, the failure of almost all of the voluntary commitments made at the Paris 2015 climate accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions like CO2 by 2030 has been a farce and a fatal weakness for the world as fossil fuel usage continues unabated. Even worse yet, the United States has dropped out of the Paris agreement altogether, becoming the world’s biggest promoter of oil and gas and coal and greenhouse gases like CO2.

This has given several other right-leaning countries license to ease up or abandon altogether mitigation policies. For example: “Sweden, an Early Climate Leader, Is Retreating from Its Environmental Commitments, Part of an EU Trend,” Inside Climate News, August 3, 2025.

DOE Report on Climate Change– No Sweat, No Worries, Plants Love It

The Department of Energy July 150-pg report supports the administration’s fossil fuel policies by downplaying concerns. For example: “U.S. tide gauge measurements reveal no obvious acceleration beyond the historical average rate of sea level rise,” pg 85)

However, “New research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution finds sea level rise is accelerating across the contiguous United States, contradicting a federal report from July that downplayed the risks from climate change.” (New Study Finds Sea Level Rise is Speeding Up, Contradicting Federal Report, WBUR – Boston NPR, December 19, 2025)

When the DOE report was released, more than 85 scientists issued a rebuttal that called many of the assertions “misleading or fundamentally incorrect.” To wit: “Our review reveals that the DOE report’s key assertions—including claims of no trends in extreme weather and the supposed broad benefits of carbon dioxide—are either misleading or fundamentally incorrect. The authors reached these flawed conclusions through selective filtering of evidence (‘cherry picking’), overemphasis of uncertainties, misquoting peer-reviewed research, and a general dismissal of the vast majority of decades of peer-reviewed research.”

Accordingly, Christopher Piecuch, a physical oceanographer at WHOI and author of the study, said the report from the U.S. Department of Energy released this summer referenced only a select few tidal gauge locations in its analysis, which may not properly represent nationwide sea level rise. The DOE report found “no obvious acceleration in sea level rise.” In contrast, Piecuch said his study included all available long-term records from U.S. tidal gauges, 70 in all. “You can’t really just look at a record here and a record there and expect to have representative results for the entire U.S.,” he said. “ There’s a very large disconnect between the data that they show and the conclusions that they draw.”

Nearly one-half of Americans live in coastal counties. Sea level has a direct bearing on them, requiring adequate notice of changes to allow for either mitigation policies, plans for building sea walls, moving out of the area, etc., or conversely, taking no preventative measures if the DOE report is correct, “not to worry.” Which-will-it-be impacts over 130 million American households. In general, and almost universally, scientists believe aggressive mitigation measures are prudent.

Andrew Kemp, a professor of earth and climate sciences at Tufts University who was not part of the research, called the new analysis robust and sound: “The Piecuch study is repeatable, supported by other evidence, and reflects the understanding of the overwhelming majority of sea-level scientists. It was written to address the DOE report that is not robust, lacks sound reasoning, is contradicted by an abundance of other evidence that was ignored, and represents fringe science.”

Citizens depend upon the government for proper guidance. Hopefully, the DOE will issue a response to criticism by scientists that many of the report’s assertions are “misleading or fundamentally incorrect.” Citizens of the country need to know whether a major factcheck of the Trump DOE report is true: Factcheck: Trump’s Climate Report Includes More Than 100 False or Misleading Claims, Carbon Brief, August 15, 2025. If DOE cannot properly address 100 alleged false or misleading statements, the report should be officially censured and removed.

The citizens of Florida deserve it!

This article was originally publshed on Jan. 5, 2026 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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America’s Loss of Science and Loss of Virtue

Photo by Vlad Tchompalov is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Vlad Tchompalov is licensed by Unsplash

America’s Loss of Science and Loss of Virtue

By Robert Hunziker

The Trump administration has issued a death warrant for science. This kills one of America’s greatest most productive avenues to GDP growth. Simple-minded people are determining the future course of the country. After all, science is foundational to America’s economy.

This legacy for America is destined to be the antithesis of what’s found in the writings of Marcus Aurelius’ world-famous notebooks, filled with words of wisdom about leading an honorable life, Meditations, one of the world’s great pieces of literature by one of the wisest minds of the ancient world Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 CE) the 16th emperor of Rome collected thoughts in notebooks, now considered one of the most important Stoic texts of all time and common text for America’s universities today. Marcus is now stronger than ever as one of the most widely read works of philosophy in the world. Will this administration leave a “notebook” like Marcus’s for history to judge… virtue, honor, respectfulness, pursuit of the common good? Hmm.

Marcus Aurelius was the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world. “More recent leaders such as Bill Clinton have admired Marcus not so much as a philosopher-king but simply as a man who recognized that he had to do his duty as emperor without letting it go this his head and without becoming a tyrant.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditation, The Annotated Edition by Robin Waterfield, Basic Books, 2021).

Marcus’s notebooks are filled with praise for a virtuous lifestyle. He describes the most important virtue as “acting fairly, honestly, and with kindness towards others, thus recognizing one’s duty to the community and the common good.” ICE?

Yet, America is experiencing a feast of political retribution and destruction of value-oriented policies created for the common good. This is destruction via a wrecking ball of indeterminate size because it is so large that it’s difficult to fully comprehend. For example, Trump underlings are halting construction of major offshore wind farms, based upon a squirrely excuse of “threats to national security” (classified reports) creating radar interference. Why does this sound phony? Come on now, seriously, years ago, Trump claimed windmills cause cancer, said he hates them, before anybody dreamed up a national security issue. They’re suspending five major projects that were slated to go into full operation in 2026 and early 2027. Wind is free, no CO2 emissions, suspending work is prima facie evidence of insanity at work.

The Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts’ coast is one of the targeted projects. One-half of its turbines are already generating power and sending it to the grid while the remainder of the massive 62-turbine-farm remains under construction, aiming to serve 400,000 homes with electricity when fully operational. However, as of December 22, 2025, it is now officially halted by a federal order from the DOI. Meanwhile, the operating turbines have exceeded all pro forma expectations for electricity generation. Standing tall!

In pitch-perfect Newspeak, Trump officials say cuts in science are made in “the interest of better science” that benefits all Americans. That has a very bad odor to it. Nearly 2,000 doctors, scientists, and researchers, including dozens of Nobel Prize winners, signed an open letter warning that the U.S. lead in science is being “decimated” and that a “climate of fear” has descended on the research community. More than 90 NIH researchers publicly signed a separate letter, aka: the “Bethesda Declaration” criticizing deep cuts in public health research. That doesn’t sound like better science.

Plans to Breakup “The Mother of Climate Research”

“White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, in a post Tuesday on X, announced the plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, calling it ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.’ NCAR was founded more than six decades ago to provide universities with expertise and resources for collaborative research on global weather, water, and climate challenges… Antonio Busalacchi, who heads the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of 129 U.S. universities that oversees the Boulder facility, told NPR he received no prior notice before the announcement and believes the decision ‘is entirely political.” (Scientists Push Back on Trump Plan to Break Up a Critical Climate and Weather Center, NPR, Texas Public Radio, Dec. 20, 2025)

NCAR impressively impacts every American, e.g., among NCAR’s many contributions, it developed dropsondes — tube-shaped instruments released from aircraft…Antonio Busalacchi says these efforts have contributed to decades without passenger plane crashes caused by wind shear or downbursts. “We’ve had zero loss of life from these weather events that can be directly attributed to our research. And that’s what we’re talking about losing, if NCAR shuts down,” Ibid.

The threat to NCAR is far-reaching: “Jason Furtado, an associate professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, calls NCAR ‘a world-envied research center for atmospheric science’ and ‘a beating heart for the atmospheric science community.’ He says his research and that of many other scientists would simply not be possible without the Boulder center. ‘In some way every atmospheric scientist has a connection to NCAR, whether they’ve directly been to the building or they have not,” Ibid.

Negatively clobbering atmospheric scientists does not make science better. It makes it much, much worse and threatening a society that is increasingly harmed by climate change’s insane whiplashing weather systems that, if not forewarned, kill and destroy, sending a clear message that fossil fuel CO2 emissions heat up the planet beyond sustainability of a 10,000-year-old climate system, not too hot, not too cold. Why have the insurance industry and commercial banks figured this one out, yet the White House seems lost in the weeds?

“Insured losses from natural disasters in the U.S. now routinely approach $100 billion a year, compared to $4.6 billion in 2000,’ according to a recent Senate Budget Committee report…  Costs to insure many homes are higher today, and in some cases, insurance is harder—in certain areas even seemingly impossible—to find.” (How Climate Risk — and losses — Are Creating High Prices for Home Insurance, JP Morgan, May 16, 2025)

The world’s largest insurance company: Allianz: How Climate Change is Unravelling Insurance Markets, Sustainability Magazine, April 7, 2025. This is no hoax.

Ipso facto, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder has never been needed more than today. Major insurance companies and major commercial banks have already identified the issue of a whacky climate system supercharged by burning too much fossil fuels as a threat to America’s economic system. But now, with the Trump cuts, everybody’s flying blind in the face of torrential climate behavior seen on nightly news programs throughout the country.

Statement by Allianz Senior Executive

“The way forward, according to Allianz and others, is unequivocal – reduce emissions at speed and scale. The technologies already exist – solar, wind, battery storage, green hydrogen, grid upgrades – but deployment remains sluggish. This is not just a moral imperative, they argue. It is a financial one. This is not about saving the planet. This is about saving the conditions under which markets, finance and civilization itself can continue to operate. Manufacturers, particularly those dependent on insurance, finance and cross-border capital flows, must see decarbonization as not just a regulatory or ethical requirement—but as a precondition for business continuity,” Ibid.

Those wind farms could save tons of CO2 emissions that heat up the planet, disrupting thousands of years of a Goldilocks’ climate system. It’s nearly gone!

Meanwhile, scientists are looking overseas for work.

What a mess!

This article was originally publshed on Dec. 30, 2025 © Counterpunch
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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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The Doomsday Glacier Flunks 2025 Checkup

 

Photo by Amar Adestiempo is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Amar Adestiempo is licensed by Unsplash

The Doomsday Glacier Flunks 2025 Checkup

By Robert Hunziker

Thwaites, the most studied glacier in the world, commands attention because it is not only the widest in the world at 80 miles but also the shakiest. And its nickname “The Doomsday Glacier” certainly sets it apart from the 500 other named glaciers in Antarctica. Based upon new research of 2024-25, polar scientists have been speaking out like never before, making public predictions about a rapidly deteriorating situation and insisting upon an end to burning fossil fuels, or else!

The new studies identify new concerns: (1) undersea storms that deteriorate/melt from below (2) hundreds of ice earthquakes, fracturing the glacier (3) Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf, a major portion of the glacier, seriously losing stability.

And finally, a final goodbye to the iconic International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) as it goes dark by year-end 2026. The Trump administration’s FY2026 budget request includes severe cuts to polar science, aiming to end support for the research icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP).

Going forward, Thwaites cascading ice shelves will be unanticipated by polar researchers, as the Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker, a veteran of 30 years, is no longer available. It’s been canceled by budget cuts, and the only way to study sea ice is with a vessel. From this point forward, Thwaites abstruse behavior will come as an unwelcomed surprise to coastal megacities of the world.

Nevertheless, as of today, Thwaites followers can exhale because ITGC concluded that the monster glacier will continue to retreat but most likely will not completely collapse this century. However, its impact on sea levels is indeterminate and could be challenging. This conclusion is confusing as several recent studies outside of the purview of ITGC are issuing alarm signals of imminent danger and catastrophic sea level rise for today’s generation, which comes as a real shocker, explained herein. This troubling difference of opinion amongst polar scientists likely points to the difficulties in analyses of an ice continent the size of Antarctica, or the US and Mexico combined; thus, subjective opinions become more prominent and can easily radically disagree. Of special note, the disagreement by scientists over future sea level rise is wide enough to drive a Mack truck through.

Thwaites is so over-the-top controversial that it has its own international study group: International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration involving 100 scientists from world-leading research institutes, but going dark soon. Interestingly, the ITGC web site states: “Thwaites Glacier’s retreat has accelerated considerably…, our findings indicate it is set to retreat further, and faster, through the 21st and 22nd centuries, and general collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet over this timeframe cannot be ruled out.” The date of this general statement on the web site is not provided, but ITGC was established in 2018. Additionally, a solution is offered: “Immediate and sustained climate change mitigation (decarbonization) offers the best hope of delaying this ice loss and avoiding initiation of similar unstable retreat in marine-based sectors of East Antarctica.”

In stark contrast to ITCG’s assessment of sea level rise, other studies reported over the past 24 months by polar scientists, who are not necessarily with the ITCG, are bone rattling, e.g. an August 2024 meeting of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, 1,500 scientists: “Antarctica’s glacial melt is advancing faster than ever before in recorded history.” Gino Casassa, glaciologist and head of the Chilean Antarctic Institute, one of the attendees: “Based upon current trends, sea levels will be up 13’ by 2100,” which begs the question of how high by 2035, one decade from now, and furthermore, this projection by Dr. Casassa is wide of the mark of the ITCG. In fact, this is the first known public statement of such an aggressive prediction. Additionally, in general support of Dr. Casassa’s 13-feet, in November 2024, 450 polar scientists held an emergency summit in Australia, stating: “If we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea level rise around the globe within our lifetimes.” It is believed this is the first time such a shocking statement, specifically about Antarctica, has been issued by a major gathering of scientists. “Catastrophic, within our lifetimes” is a real punch to the gut.

Both instances go well beyond expectations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and ITCG and published research in general. Both call for immediate halt to greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning as well as decarbonization. Nevertheless, in the face of scientists’ warnings of deep, deep trouble, the United States is taking a path of climate change ignorance. This puts the world at risks which most of today’s American politicians will not have to face because of indeterminate timing, making it easier to “go for the money” and “screw the environment.” As such, sorrowfully, money becomes the new Golden Calf (Book of Exodus). How’d that biblical story work out?

A chilling new study in Science News, University of Manitoba, with a telling headline: Satellites Spot Rapid ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Collapse, Summary: “Two decades of satellite and GPS data show the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf slowly losing its grip on a crucial stabilizing point as fractures multiply and ice speeds up. Scientists warn this pattern could spread to other vulnerable Antarctic shelves… The study notes that the pinning point, once a key factor holding the TEIS in place, has slowly shifted into a feature that now contributes to its instability. This four-stage pattern of structural decline may be a signal for other Antarctic ice shelves that appear to be entering similar phases of weakness.” (Debangshu Banerjee, et al, Evolution of Shear‐Zone Fractures Presages the Disintegration of Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 2025)

Another new study, as of December 2025, published in Nature Geosciences is the first to systematically analyze how the ocean is melting ice shelves over just hours and days, rather than seasons or years, another real shocker. Swirling underwater storms are the protagonists that aggressively melt from down below. The study is listed in CNN Climate, Underwater ‘Storms’ are Eating Away at the Doomsday Glacier. It Could Have a Big Impact on Sea Level Rise d/d Dec. 10, 2025.

Another new study of Thwaites discusses glacial earthquakes, which weaken the gigantic glacier. About two-thirds of the events detected, 245 out of 362, were located near the marine end of Thwaites. Most of these glacial earthquakes are due to capsizing icebergs. A glacial earthquake is created when tall, thin icebergs fall off a glacier into the ocean. When icebergs capsize, they clash violently with the “mother glacier.” This generates strong mechanical ground vibrations, seismic waves, that propagate thousands of kilometers from origin. (Hundreds of Iceberg Earthquakes Detected at the Crumbling End of Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’, Phys.org, December 14, 2025).

Whether the Doomsday Glacier craters with a big splash today, tomorrow, or next century, the fact remains that polar scientists agree it is ultra-high risk surrounded by uncertainty. The dimensions are well known, timing of sea level rise is guesswork. But because it is huge and known to be extremely unstable, someday it’ll disrupt civilization beyond the comprehension of today’s stubborn ill-informed climate deniers. And, assuming the 450 polar scientists are close to correct; they’ll see it during their lifetimes. Then what?

This article was originally published on Dec. 19, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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George Carlin’s Obedient America

Photo by Little David Records is in the public domain.
Photo by Little David Records is in the public domain.

George Carlin’s Obedient America

By Robert Hunziker

“They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money.” (George Carlin, American stand-up comedian, 1937-2008)

According to Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), the controversial social psychologist who conducted experiments on obedience in the 1960s at Yale: “Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to.” (more on this study to follow)

Currently in America, a very dark brand of obedience serves to confirm the sarcasm George Carlin leveled at America’s socio/economic system which takes advantage of a complaisant public, and when this obedient public does not exert sufficient pressure on political leaders, it grants “silent permission” to avoid or radicalize crucial issues such as climate change, uniform tax policy, proper medical treatment, and fair societal policies.

This darkness transfers control by allowing extreme divisive rhetoric to become normalized, in power, in control. Then political dialogue easily shifts to extremism, a very effective tool of control, marginalizing minority groups, intensifying social divisions. This is how societies and ecosystems go “extinct from politeness,” a term coined by Caitlin Johnstone. journalist, essayist, painter and poet: Faces Of The Empire: The Battle For Humanity’s Soul (November 2025)

Caitlin Johnstone recently posted an article: On Becoming The First Species To Go Extinct From Politeness, which goes straight to the heart of today’s nonsensicalness getting away with murder of every type and stripe while clobbering life-sourcing ecosystems without a care in the world. The simple explanation for mean-spiritedness getting away with mountains of ridiculousness is “American Obedience.” People seem to embrace being led around by their noses to the end of the Earth, to a certain demise, to utter destruction, to cold-bloodied murder, to Wile E Coyote’s edge of the cliff. This type of human tragedy is found in Jesus’ teachings, Matthew 15:14 and Luke 6:39: “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Caitlin’s article captures the essence of Jesus’ teachings by pointing the guitar strumming finger of the famous poet, folk-songster and celebrated labor advocate Utah Phillips (1935-2008) who exclaimed: “The Earth is not dying, it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.” The relevance of Phillips in today’s world could not be more apropos.

Caitlin quotes Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States): “As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem…. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”

According to Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) the controversial social psychologist who conducted experiments on obedience in the 1960s at Yale: “Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to… The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous import, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.” (Stanley Milgram, The Perils of Obedience, physics.utah.edu, The University of Utah)

Lying Creates a Kind of Trickle-Down Corruption

This infestation of dark obedience prevails even as nearly seventy-five percent (75%) of people in a Gallup poll that identify with either of America’s political parties agree that moral values are getting worse. This is a strong signal that something is deeply wrong. “The problem begins with the government and the media. The problem is not that we feel like morality is in decline by our fellow citizens but by our government and media. When the government and the media lie to us or share information that doesn’t align with our experience, it feels like honesty and integrity for America as a whole are eroding. Perhaps President Herbert Hoover said it best back in the 1930s when he observed, ‘When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.’ Lying creates a kind of trickle-down corruption and the average citizen’s reasoning can quickly become: “If the government can, then why can’t I?”” (Is Morality in Decline or Is It Being Manipulated? Psychology Today)

The question remains: Why are today’s descendants of the original disobedient American revolutionaries of the late 18th century so obedient, especially in the face of misdeeds, theft, graft, con artists, swindlers, and crooks at an all-time high? Do they idolize the original American Revolutionaries, the Founders who were wealthy landowners/slaveowners disobedient to monarchial rights while ignoring true democratic spirits. The early American Revolutionary era (1765-1783) established an extraordinarily narrow focus, only extending rights to white property-owning men, excluding women, slaves and non-property owners or pretty much everybody else. Democracy? “That’s our history. We were founded on a very basic double standard: This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free!” (George Carlin)

The Founders did not trust democracy. They reveled in oligarchical democracy, creating government structures designed to limit direct democracy, e.g., the Electoral College. It was a narrow interpretation of democracy, e.g., as for “religious freedom,” Catholics were denied rights like holding public office, voting, owning land and freely practicing their faith, some laws banned priests. Based upon the morality and ideals of the Founding Fathers, the DNA of American democracy is fragile and vulnerable to returning to oligarchical democracy. The 2000 and 2024 presidential elections demonstrated a fatal weakness inherent with mindless public obedience. All of which is only possible in the context of an “obedient society,” both then and now.

America has returned to its origins, with oligarchical democracy anxiously waiting in the wings, with taxes once again a pivot point, recalling the Boston Tea Party of 1773 led by some of the richest men in the colonies like John Hancock and Joseh Warren opposed to any form of taxation like today’s Big Beautiful Bill roundly accepted by smiling billionaires with clandestine tipping, accepted by obedient millionaire members of Congress and an obedient unwitting public from coast-to-coast, nobody stood up against it, nobody stood up, even as it buries America in a mountain of $3.4 trillion in new decadal debt. Moreover, with obedience so pervasive, all of Project2025 is easily enacted, smooth as silk, in a heady return to oligarchical democracy, as warned by Milgram: “The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority.” Project2025 proved to be that authority, nobody questioned, nobody challenged it, nobody!

Like a mindless drunkard wobbling down the street, American Obedience has given free rein to Project2025’s massive quiver filled with poisoned arrows aimed at complete destruction of a tenuous democracy and wholesale avoidance of enormously destructive climate systems directly caused by burning fossil fuels that are, in fact, encouraged; consequently, targeting the last remaining hope, i.e., a fair democratic system, of easily led obedient adults that have reduced themselves to sittin’ ducks. Who’s proud of this?

This article was originally published on Dec. 12, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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UK National Emergency Briefing Wakes Up World

Photo by Valentin Antonucci is licensed by Pexels
Photo by Valentin Antonucci is licensed by Pexels

UK National Emergency Briefing Wakes Up World

By Robert Hunziker

An impressive display of world class scientists recently (Nov. 27th) held a UK National Emergency Briefing, informing the world of impending climate change disaster scenarios that can no longer be ignored. A war-time footing is necessary. Ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed politicians, business leaders, faith, sport, and the media in a marathon session.

The British are dead serious about the deleterious impact of climate change and intend to alert the public to this existential threat to civilization. Eighty-one (81) Members of Parliament and fifty-two (52) Peers attended the session headed by the UK’s chief scientific advisor, explaining why the UK must take emergency-level action like a war-time scenario. There were 1,200 invite-only attendees at the session. A 45-minutte documentary of the event is in the production stage.

Opening remarks by Professor Mike Berners Lee, Lancaster University, Sustainability Expert, Chair of the session: “For an understanding of the root causes of the most serious crisis that will ever impact our species we need people. We need to trust them because they are telling us the truth…. The information that we’re going to be looking at is extremely serious, urgent, and it affects us all here in the UK. That is why we’re calling this a National Emergency Briefing…. In the words of James Baldwin: ‘Nothing can be changed until it is faced.’ COP30 recently ended without any progress on fossil fuel emissions, in fact, the words ‘fossil fuel’ were stripped from the proceedings. We desperately need to reset the narrative on climate change and wipe out misinformation.”

The original video of the event d/d November 27th runs 3:05. Herein a sampling of excerpts of the first five speakers suffices to emphasize the critical nature of the subject prompting this emergency briefing. These excerpts are a combination of direct quotes as well as summaries of statements.

Excerpts of First Four Speakers:

Chris Packham, UK Naturalist: We are the only known life forms in the universe, and we’ve got nowhere else to go. This little blue planet is where we will either live in harmony with the environment or we will destroy ourselves and much of other life too… Do we want it on our conscience that we waste everything? Why are we unbelievably pulling back from addressing the greatest crises to ever threaten our species, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss… climate denialism is a mainstream thing again thanks to well-oiled machines of the rich, powerful, and influential lobbyists from the fossil fuel and other industries. A dangerous wave of misinformation and lies fills our lives. But worse, it fills the lives of our decision-makers… the people who shape policy. For example, the petro states said “no” and thrashed COP30 because of the crazed consensus requirement that allows oil to say “no” and abort any movement against CO2 emissions. Fossil fuel companies are some of the biggest contributors to our politicians, especially the less scrupulous. And the media is failing to explain to the public “the gravity of our predicament.” We must listen to the science… if politicians ignore science, billions of lives are at risk. Politicians in the audience today must listen to the scientists and act accordingly.

Nathalie Seddon, Professor of Biodiversity, Oxford Martin School: Nature is not simply nice to have. It’s not a luxury. It’s critical national infrastructure. When we destroy and degrade it, we expose this country to escalating risks, e.g. floods, fires, heat waves, insecurity and economic instability. When we protect and restore it, we can build resilience. The living creatures that support our entire life system are breaking down. We are facing a national emergency not only because the climate is changing but because the living systems that regulate that climate, protect homes and feed our people are breaking down here in one of the most nature depleted nations on Earth. The facts are sobering. Only about ½ of UK biodiversity remains. Only 14% of rivers in England are in good ecological health as the result of chemical pollution, sewage discharge and erosion, and agricultural runoff choking the arteries of the landscape. When rivers fail, so does resilience to droughts, etc.. Only 7% of our woodlands are healthy, only 3% of our lands, and 8% of our waters are effectively protected for nature. Over 5 million properties in England are at risk of flooding. Additional national concerns due to degradation, misuse, and abuse of nature are itemized in this speech skillfully transitioning the errors of society and government to the need to follow public opinion, which strongly supports protecting nature and redirecting public funds from inadvertent harmfulness to positive embracing of nature within government policymaking.

Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change: Let me start by framing the problem as I see it. And it’s very much that CO2 concentrations in the environment in the atmosphere that are rising at unprecedented rates… across the last 800,000 years, CO2 varied by 100 parts per million but over the past 10,000 years it only varied by 20 parts per million. This gave civilization a very stable climate. Now, in a blink of geologic time we’ve increased, since 1850 from 280 to 424 ppm or +134 ppm in less than 200 years, burying 9,800 years of the perfect climate system, not too hot, not too cold. That is gone. Therefore, we must eliminate, not cut, fossil fuels or temperatures will continue to go up. We are headed for 2C by midcentury and 3C to 4C by 2100. The planet system cannot handle it. We are looking at systemic collapse of economies within a collapsing climate system. 1.5C is no longer a viable target because of failure to cut emissions, which is a very depressing admission. There is new evidence that we are warming up much faster than science expected, which adds to the urgency of taking action now.

The world needs to cut carbon emission by 13% per year to hold temps down to 2C. We need a profound shift in our social norms to accomplish that, and you can forget carbon capture and storage. After 30 years of promises to do the job, according to the CCS Institute, it’s managed to store less than 0.03% of all fossil fuel emissions after 30 years of promises by the ‘delay technology” groupies, like the oil and gas industry. These are false solutions designed to avoid meaningful legislation to cut back emissions. Timely technologies are required, e.g. retrofitting homes, more public transport, EV charging stations, zero carbon electricity.

It is now too late for nonradical solutions. There is no way other than revolutionary rates of change, and the rich, luxury class of living must give up its overallocation of resources. Remarkably, the top 1% of the population of high income/high emissions people give rise to twice the level of emissions as the bottom half of the world’s population. This statistic makes the case for revolutionary change. Put another way, the top 1% generate twice the greenhouse gas emissions as 4,000,000,000 people.

According to an article in Oxfam (not provided by Anderson but this is a fact-check of his !% statement; the Stockholm Environment Institute also participated in Oxfam’s study, and several other independent studies show variations of the Oxfam study; all similar, some showing less some more but all show vast inequity in carbon polluting by class status) Oxfam (est. 1942) Richest 1% Use Their Entire Annual Carbon Limit in Just 10 Days d/d January 10, 2025: “The richest 1% are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution than half of humanity, with devastating consequences… To meet the 1.5°C goal, the richest 1% need to cut their emissions by 97% by 2030… Governments need to stop pandering to the richest. Rich polluters must be made to pay for the havoc they’re wreaking on our planet… Tax them, curb their emissions, and ban their excessive indulgences —private jets, superyachts, and the like. Leaders who fail to act are effectively choosing complicity in a crisis that threatens the lives of billions.”

Kevin Anderson (cont.) We need urgent legislation to drive down energy use within that 1% group. And I would argue that the second prerequisite of Paris is that fair and deep reductions in energy use… This will deliver immediate and substantial cuts in emissions; it gives us critical time to put in place zero carbon technologies that are very important, and it releases the labor, the materials, the finance, and even the political capital we need to drive the clean revolution… affordable low carbon homes, high quality public transport, etc., we need to move the resources and labor that furnish the private luxury of a relative few of us like me and many of us here to the public well-being for all.

Tim Lenten, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter: Tipping Points.

If we carry on with current trajectory to three or maybe four degrees centigrade, then we will definitely be in a national emergency. We’ll likely be at a tipping point with a climate that’ll make this country a very different uninhabitable place. There is plenty of evidence that we are headed toward several tipping points, which interact, causing widespread climate disruption. We’ve already crossed a tipping point with the world’s coral reefs that support the livelihoods of ½ billion people and protects coastlines from rising sea levels and storm surges.

An upcoming example of the most dangerous tipping point is AMOC, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is already showing signs of slowing. Paleoclimate research shows us that AMOC has turned off and on several times over the last ice age.

If we lose the deep-water formation of AMOC, a state-of-the-art scientific model using 2°C of global warming shows what’ll happen with the decadal winter climate extremes, assuming we cross this tipping point, thereby losing the enduring circulation of tropical warm water to the North Atlantic, heretofore warming Europe.

Here are the theoretical consequences of losing AMOC because of a 2°C warming cycle:

(1) Remarkable comeback of Arctic sea ice reaches down to covering most of the North Sea by February each winter

(2) In London it is minus 20°C (-4°F) with three frozen months of the year

(3) Edinburgh minus 30°C (-22°F) with five and a half frozen months per year

(4) But the summers will still be hotter than today because of a 2°C warmer world, well beyond today’s 1.4-1.5C.

(5) The UK will be nearly 100% dependent upon import of food crops and suffer a shortage of potable water.

(6) On a global scale, regions where staple crops are grown will be reduced by 50%.

In closing, a radical acceleration of action towards zero emissions is required. And the only way to convince ourselves that that’s credible is to show positive tipping points achieved via transition from fossil fuels to renewables that can become self-accelerating, and we’ve successfully done that in the UK but only in the power sector. At the peak in 2012, 40% of UK electricity came from black coal. Today it is zero from coal. This was accomplished by a climate change act with cross-party consensus to gradually put a floor price on carbon levied just on the power sector, stepped up over time, enough to incentivize switching to renewables, which, with ever-larger economies of scale, serve as a tipping point to lesser costs and enhanced proficiency. Importantly, in the final analysis, mandates on a global scale are needed to take out fossil fuels, transitioning as soon as possible out of fossil fuels.

The full 3:05 session UK National Emergency Briefing is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/2-PFKT1SNc4

This article was originally published on Dec. 5, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

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Pay to Pollute

 

Photo by Chris LeBoutillier is licensed by Unsplash
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier is licensed by Unsplash

Pay to Pollute, Starting in 2026

By Robert Hunziker

The United States of America was unofficially represented at COP30, the annual UN climate conference (November 10-21) in Belem, Brazil by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). He was not granted the privilege of officially representing the U.S. The State Department refused to facilitate his trip, refused to acknowledge the senator as a representative of a congressional delegation, refusing to acknowledge COP30, refusing to acknowledge global warming. This is the first time in Senator Whitehouse’s career that the executive branch of government has dictated a congressional member’s CODEL (Congressional Delegation paid trip for members).

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

In meetings with country representatives outside of COP30 official proceedings, Senator Whitehouse learned what’s happening to hopefully limit global warming, concluding that one way to climate safety is by imposing a fee on polluters. According to studies by Potsdam Institute, “a price on carbon” is one of the ways not yet implemented to tackle global warming.

The senator met with the Europeans, the Brits, and the Australians. The EU is instituting a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which is a global price on carbon that comes via tariffs. It is already law and set to go into effect in 2026. The conservative UK government is also in the process of figuring out how they’ll handle a carbon tariff. Australia is also looking into it.

Whitehouse: “This is sending a global price signal that if your goods are more carbon intensive than ours, we are going to charge you for that. You cannot pollute and export for free any longer.” However, a fee on carbon pollution is no guarantee of climate safety; on the other hand, not instituting a carbon fee is a pathway for climate failure, likely taking down civilization at some unexpected juncture. It’s gotten that serious.

In that regard, the value of oil and gas subsidies in the U.S. are $700 billion per year. That’s the value of polluting for free that the fossil fuel industry receives. It’s no surprise they were willing to “grease” the president with several hundred million dollars to do whatever they want to do.

American Opinion Polls on Carbon Pollution

According to the senator, Trump does not represent American interests. He only represents fossil fuel interests, not the American public. Proof is found in recent polls, as expressed in Senator Whitehouse’s speech, stating that a proposal to “limit carbon pollution by big corporations” is supported by 72% of Americans. Whereas Trump’s Mar-a-Lago commitment to fossil fuel interests has been sealed with several hundred million dollars of grease following his open offer to do whatever they want for a one-billion-dollar quid pro quo. This is simply one more weird oddball difficult to rationalize stance against America’s best interests. Nearly 2/3rds of the American public want “limits to carbon pollution.”

According to the senator’s speech, when ask if a “fee should be imposed for polluting,” Americans polled said ‘Yes’ by a resounding 74%. Once again, Trump would certainly oppose such a fee since he has already sold his soul to the polluters. American citizens diametrically oppose Trump on carbon pollution. Two-thirds of Americans favor a fee on carbon polluters. Significantly, the EU is instituting such a fee; the UK is considering it; Australia is considering it. This may become a global movement now that all past approaches over the past 30 years by nations of the world, demonstrating concern about climate change at annual COPs, have so little to show for 30 years of meetings.

An updated poll Climate Change in the American Mind d/d June 17, 2025 conducted by Yale Climate Change Communications and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communications d/d May 1-25, 2025 can be accessed.

COP30 Results- Global Warming Wins Once Again

According to Reuters d/d November 22, 2025: “World secures compromise deal at COP30 that sidesteps fossil fuels.” This is one more COP failure to properly address the key reason behind starting UN climate conferences 30 years ago. The first UN climate conference, COP1, held in Berlin in 1995 started a process of negotiations to create “legally binding emission reduction targets” for the developed countries of the world. That initial “statement of purpose” remains fluttering in midair directionless, heartless, meaningless, out of reach with each annual meeting. Next year Antalya, Turkey will host the staging arena for COP31’s chatter, wine, caviar, nearly guaranteed disappointing results, and photo ops for state leaders.

The Ultimate Impact of Failure to Challenge Climate Change

Senator Whitehouse’s Senate speech (Nov. 21) discusses the outcome of failure to address climate change. Accordingly, big trouble is on the docket by avoiding the climate change issue. This threat of upcoming trouble is voiced by leading figureheads in finance. Senator Whitehouse refers to it as the Great Climate Insurance Collapse, warned by finance authorities, claiming climate change alone could reduce global GDP by 10-20%.

“In 10 or 15 years, there are going to be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage” (Federal Reserve Board Chair Powell) because people will not be able to get home insurance. This, in turn, eliminates home mortgages. “Whole regions of the U.S. are going to become so climate risky that they’re uninsurable.” (Whitehouse)

According to the senator, Florida is on a fast-track: “In Florida the insurance market is already trembling, propped up, perhaps even fake.” The likely scenario is a cascade: “It goes from climate risk-to un-insurability-to mortgage failure-to property value collapse-to recession.” Still, a typical Florida family home is $407,830 in 2025 versus $410,000 in 2023, not too much of a decrease in value in two years but still a decrease as sources say typical Florida buyers experience “climate change denialism” to an extreme despite several obvious risks. Meanwhile, Florida is the most expensive state for home insurance in the country and likely going higher, pricing many buyers out of the market.

Extreme Climate Change Shows Up in the Damnedest Places, Clobbering a Town in Nebraska

“In Cozad, Neb., a hailstorm last year caused an estimated $100 million in damage, according to local insurance agent Brian Messersmith, in a town of just 4,000 people. After the storm, many homeowners and business owners in town say they were dropped by their insurers and forced to scramble to find new, generally more expensive, policies. Others saw the price of their existing policies go up significantly. The average cost of homeowners insurance in Nebraska this year is nearly $6,400, according to Bankrate. That’s the highest in the country, and almost $4,000 above the national average.” (It’s Harder to Get Home Insurance. That’s Changing Communities Across the U.S., NPR, November 12, 2025)

A cascading climate change situation is what the chief economist of Freddie Mac told a Senate committee could happen. Freddie Mac is not a green organization. Freddie Mac is a mortgage company warning the country of climate change negatively impacting the real estate market.

The finance community is warning of big economic trouble because of climate change. These are not green NGOs. The Economist magazine featured an article entitled The Next Housing Disaster, predicting a $25 trillion hit to global real estate because of climate change’s home insurance meltdown.

The president of Aon Insurance, one of the biggest in the country, testified before the Senate budget committee, saying climate risk is a “systemic risk,” which means the issue is not confined to where it originates, it spreads. For example, the 2008 recession was systemic with the mortgage meltdown hurting everybody throughout the economic system. But now we are confronted with global systemic risks that could be globally cataclysmic after years of ignoring climate change.

Two Million Canceled Home Insurance Policies

The climate-engineered home insurance crisis is already happening and threatens to get much worse as the Trump administration officially ignores climate change, labeling it a “hoax”: “In one five-year period, 2018-2023, insurers canceled nearly 2 million homeowner’s policies in the face of rising climate risks.” (How Climate Risks Are Putting Home Insurance Out of Reach, YaleEnvironment360, September 15, 2025) Why would major insurance companies cancel 2,000,000 home insurance policies if climate change is a hoax?

Gunther Thallinger of Allianz SE, the world’s largest insurance company warned about the prospect of hitting 3C, which Senator Whitehouse believes is coming: “The financial system as we know it ceases to exist and capitalism ceases to be viable.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association says the fiscal risk associated with climate change may exceed the capacity of insurance and governmental assistance in some regions of the country.

Climate Deniers Threaten Entire Financial System

If major finance executives, including the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and leading finance entities like Aon Insurance and Allianz SE believe climate change is a systemic risk to the financial system, what more is needed to reverse the administration’s anti-science, anti-climate change campaign that will harm every American and take down the entire financial system. There are no winners under this scenario, only losers, including climate deniers.

This article was originally published on Nov. 26, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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Antarctica’s Red Flag Warning

Photo by Torsten Dederichs is licensed by Unsplash.
Photo by Torsten Dederichs is licensed by Unsplash.

Antarctica’s Red Flag Warning

By Robert Hunziker

Antarctica has moved to “the front of the line” as a global warming threat that’s already well beyond expectations, and it’s happening fast. Based upon statements by polar scientists over the past 18 months, it warrants a Red Flag Warning, meaning higher than expected risks of catastrophic meltdown within current lifetimes.

This meets criteria for the latest international concern surrounding climate change: “When is enough, enough” for world leaders to take to heart the risks of ecosystem failures and take extraordinary, drastic, unprecedented measures in unison to hopefully head off the onset of a maniacal worldwide climate system. There are people of stature who believe it (climate change) is already over the top, meaning “it’s too late.” But this is not universal belief.

Antarctica may be the catalyst that tips the scales enough to scare the daylights out of world leaders, but will this be recognized early enough for extreme mitigation measures to hopefully take hold well before EVs, with electron sparks flying, are left floating on city streets throughout the world?

Antarctica has been commanding more public attention as the principal ogre of global warming’s impact on sea levels simply because it is the biggest monster in the room, and it’s starting to move, a lot. Increasingly, the science that once, not so long ago, thought of Antarctica as an issue for the distant future, has turned tail as the rapidity of global warming has changed the entire complexity of the continent’s future. Its future is now, not a hundred years from now.

The risk of massive sea level rise flooding coastal megacities has jump-started from a distant hundred years hence, or more, to today’s generation, right now. This new unanticipated risk has been hammered home by statements from scientific meetings over the past 18 months with explicit warnings of Antarctica’s meltdown advancing much faster than ever expected:

The 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research meeting d/d August 2024 attended by 1,500 scientists: “Antarctica’s glacial melt is advancing faster than ever before in recorded history.” Quote by Gino Casassa, glaciologist head of Chilean Antarctic Institute: “Based upon current trends, sea levels will be up 13 feet by 2100.” If this happens, sea levels by 2035-40 will shock the world. After all, 13 feet doesn’t suddenly happen in the year 2099. And this is the first time such a projection (13’) has gone public.

A couple of months after that scientific meeting, 450 polar scientists held an emergency meeting in Australia d/d November 2024 issuing a press release to the public: “If we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea level rise around the globe within our lifetimes.” The 450 polar scientists claim: “Drastic action is necessary regarding CO2 emissions as soon as possible.” Immense global warming-induced shifts were found in Antarctica. And this is the first time a group of polar scientists has stated “catastrophic sea level rise within our lifetimes.”

Now, a new study has discovered evidence of Antarctica mimicking Greenland’s meltdown dynamics, which are pervasive: Ruth Mottram, et al, The Greenlandification of Antarctica, Nature Geoscience, October 2025. Indeed, this study adds a new layer to outcries by scientists that a very big problem is about to burst loose with Antarctica’s meltdown phase.

Disturbingly, the Mottram, et al study exposes new dimensions of meltdown risks in Antarctica that should shatter any opposition to confronting global warming with every available resource guided by top notch scientists: “Both satellite data and field observations in Antarctica reveal alarming signs of a Greenland-like meltdown, with increased surface melting of the ice fields, faster-moving glaciers and dwindling sea ice. Some scientists are sounding the alarm, warning that the rapid ‘Greenlandification’ of Antarctica will have serious consequences, including an accelerated rise in sea levels and significant shifts in rainfall and drought patterns.” (Bob Berwyn, Scientists Warn About the ‘Greenlandification’ of Antarctica, Inside Climate News, October 16, 2025)

The immediate risk for today’s generation could be West Antarctica coming apart at the seams with enough ice melt alone to raise sea levels by 10 feet due to its uniquely vulnerable geographic setting. Overall, the entire Antarctic continent contains approximately 200 feet of sea level rise, which would take hundreds of years for complete meltdown, keeping in mind that every foot of sea level rise on the way to 200 feet equates to 100 feet of flooded shoreline; this puts every coastal megacity in the world at risk, within today’s generation.

The Ocean Mega-Heat Threat, since 2023

It’s entirely possible that current projections of sea level rise should be tossed out the window as ocean heat content exceeds all expectations. Indeed, this new risk is already a measurable factor that’s truly “scary” in the words of the co-author of a recent ocean dynamic study: “Record-Breaking 2023 Marine Heatwaves,” which observed 500 days with 96% of the ocean in consistent extreme heatwaves (hard to imagine but true) in a continual pattern 2023-24-25 well above all expectations, a Red Flag Warning for Antarctica.

Uninhabitable Ocean Environments

A comparable heatwave of 500 days on land would cause immeasurable death and destruction. Already, western Australia in 2025 witnessed 30,000 dead fish washed ashore as ocean temps registered 5C above normal, and the LA Times reported unprecedented numbers of dead marine mammals on California shorelines: Marine Mammals are Dying in Record Numbers Along the California Coast, Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2025, which, according to the article: “Raises questions about whether some ocean environments are becoming uninhabitable.”

This supports the finding of a dangerous “regime shift” in the ocean, a staggering new development. The co-lead scientist of “Record-Breaking 2023 Marine Heatwaves,” Zeng Zhenzhong, PhD, Earth Systems Scientist, China Southern University of Science & Technology commented on the study results: “I am scared,” which scientists never admit, but they are saying it now.

According to crucial data (used worldwide by scientists) provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, which is on Trump’s chopping block) the top 2,300 feet of the ocean has experienced a stunning 5-fold increase in heat content in only five years. This type of horrible news serves to destroy the climate denialism narrative.

Of special concern, if Greenland-type pervasive meltdown hits West Antarctica’s notorious Doomsday Glacier, Thwaites, the world’s largest most unstable glacier at 80 miles wide, then the world may be about to change beyond anybody’s worst nightmare. For the record, Antarctica’s sudden unruly behavior exposes the utter failure and downright stupidity of climate denialism and avoidance of the issue. Ocean heat not only turns regions of the ocean uninhabitable; it’s also the primary cause of Antarctic ice sheet/glacial meltdown.

Of additional concern, a new 20-year study by 35 international teams found worldwide glaciers, excluding Greenland and Antarctica, melting down with “staggering volumes of ice loss,” more than Greenland and Antarctica combined and accelerating by nearly 40% over the past decade, extraordinarily fast for massive ice glaciers. This throws a whole new ingredient into sea level rise as cascading terrestrial glaciers create havoc for surrounding villages and cities and major river systems while accelerating sea level along with Greenland and Antarctica.

All of which prompts serious questions: Is this new direction in worldwide glacier meltdown included in current scientific models for sea level rise? Probably not, which means nobody is sure which end is up.

“What can be done about it” is by far the most provocative question of the 21st century.

But more importantly, massive glacial meltdown throughout the world hasn’t been formally recognized as a major threat to the world’s coastal megacities by the world at large, meaning, a “world approach” to some kind of solution is not even on the table. And thinking out loud: Is there really a solution? Maybe sea walls?

This article was originally published on Nov. 14, 2025 © Counterpunch

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Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Note: This article will also be posted on the Facing Future Now! Facebook group. If you would like to comment on this article, please go to the Facebook group and post your comments there under the article posting.

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