We’re back live on today’s BradCast after a much-needed holiday stand down last week, even as the world registered its hottest day on record…four different times on four consecutive days. Other than that, did we miss anything? [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
The globe is broiling, but it’s also flooding for the same reason. Our climate is in crisis. From the U.S. to Canada to Spain to India and China, just to name a few of the “hot spots” over just the past 24 to 48 hours or so. And, in case your other news sources forgot to tell you, it’s all our fault. Or, at least the fault of the fossil fuel industry and the politicians and dupes they’ve bought off over the decades to hoax you into believing that our climate crisis itself is a hoax. It isn’t. And, based on the mind-warping records being shattered across Planet Earth right now — with little hope of cooling any time soon — a case can be made that if we haven’t hit a few disastrous, point-of-no-return tipping points by now, we are certainly on the verge.
Climate warming greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, continue to increase along with smashed heat records. Is it too late to do anything about it?
Longtime climate and energy reporter ANDREW FREEDMAN of Axios joins us today to discuss the mind-blowing records now being shattered by the day, who should be held accountable for it (including those in the media), and if it is or isn’t too late for humanity to take action to reverse course
When I ask Freedman if it’s hard to wrap his head around all that now seems to be going on in the climate, even after so many years of warning folks that this would be, he tells me, “It is. While my expectations might have been for some of these records, everything everywhere all at once is how it feels right now. It feels that way as a reporter, it feels that way as just a person on Earth.”
“The global records weren’t something I was expecting to jump out this early in July. The peak is usually later in July,” he explains. “It’s pretty much a done deal that July will be the hottest July on record, and most likely the hottest month that we’ve seen since records began.” The news he has for the rest of the year, and for next year, isn’t much better.
He’s got a lot more to say. He’s been writing a lot about this of late for some reason.
Then, with an invitation for a “Reverse BradCast” — where listeners call in to tell me what they think I need to know, and I get to tell them they are wrong about it — most of our callers today wanted to talk about the climate instead for some reason. And that’s probably a very good thing.
As Freedman notes today, citing climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, “Her appeal to people is to say, ‘The most powerful thing that you can do about climate change is to have a conversation with somebody about it.’ We need to be talking about it more. All these things actually have an impact. It’s not just ‘Oh well, we’re screwed.’ It’s hard not to think that way. It’s hard for me and other climate reporters. But there are a ton of solutions. The question is are we going fast enough?”
So far, the answer, according to most scientists?: No. We absolutely aren’t. That can still change. But only if we keep talking about it to everyone who will listen…and even those who don’t want to…
“Other than that, did we miss anything?”
Not really, that is the big picture ‘above ground’.
The subsurface world is going thru some ground breaking news this year too due to the events you covered (Antarctica 2.0 – 15).