Climate Mission Accomplished, 2021

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It’s been another great year in the war on climate change. With a combination of forceful inaction, concentrated inattention, strenuous ignorance of facts, strategic amnesia and just plain orneriness we have once again succeeded in not losing to this implacable enemy which, in our humble opinion, does not really exist. Consider this year’s milestones in our epic non-struggle:

• The United States suffered more billion-dollar weather disasters in 2021 — at least 20 — than in any other year on record. They included exceptional heat and drought in the western states, a rash of wildfires, a punishing cold snap in Texas, four tropical storms and hurricanes, and eight severe thunderstorm/tornado events. As the year came to an end there were not one but two record-setting tornado outbreaks in the southern and central states during the warmest December ever recorded. But here’s the good news they won’t tell you: The total price tag for the disasters — $145 billion — was only the third worst in history. Isn’t that great?
• Ocean heating caused by greenhouse gasses set an all-time record high in 2021. In fact, the oceans have been heating since the late 1980s, at a rate eight times faster than in previous decades. There was more  heat energy in the oceans in 2021 than ever measured since measurements began 60 years ago. But here’s the good news they don’t tell you: Surface air temperatures — and that after all is where we all live — were only the fifth warmest on record. Yay!
• Warming permafrost in the Arctic posed a “high risk” to infrastructure. More than 120,000 buildings and 25,000 miles of roads in the Arctic Tundra are built on permafrost — ground that never thaws. But with average temperatures in the area up 4 degrees Celsius, three times the average global increase, the permafrost is melting now. The loss of foundational support means twisted roads, buckled buildings, ruptured pipelines and so on. In addition, the melted permafrost releases tons of carbon, a principal greenhouse gas that has been locked in the frozen ground for millennia, into the atmosphere. But here’s the good news they don’t tell you: it will be a full three decades before the area is essentially uninhabitable. We have time to figure out what to do.
• But the best news of 2021 was about the U.S. economy, which came roaring back from its pandemic-induced coma. That meant, of course, that U.S. emissions of greenhouse gasses  surged in 2021, putting the nation further off track from its climate targets, set in solemn vows taken at places like COP-25 and Paris.. The increase in pollution was led by coal-fired electricity generation, which surged 17 percent. But here’s the good news they don’t tell you: emissions are still below pre-pandemic levels. We should take care of that next year. 

So take heart. Things are getting worse with dizzying slowness, and before long Elon Musk or somebody will come up with an easy, one-size-fits-all solution. And the other good news is that we won’t be subjected to a tyrannical government solution — the government has kicked that can so far down the road they can’t even find it any more. You know, because of the pollution in the air.

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash