Some Like It Wet, Some Like It Hot, Some Like It Hotter
And Some Don’t
“They say that the seas will rise over the next 400 years, one-eighth of an inch, you know, which means basically have a little more beachfront property OK.”
Donald Trump in early June 2024
If “they” are the scientific community, Trump’s timing is well off. The virtually unanimous projection for sea rise from the relevant scientific community is 12 inches within the next few decades. Living with the “hoax” label that Trump anointed for climate change throughout his run for the presidency and thereafter, his constituents seem to suffer a disproportionate level of climate misery than most of the rest of the country.
In mid-June, as Trump complained about his teleprompter malfunctioning in the heat, his rally tour of the Southwest was conducted as a dangerous heat dome — basically, a boiling pot of atmospheric heat and humidity sat over a region — seared the American southwest, sending temperatures in several states skyrocketing north of 20 and even 30 degrees Fahrenheit above their normal June temperatures. The Associated Press reported that, nonetheless, thousands of MAGA followers, attending those rallies accepted that heat risk, but dozens wound up hospitalized due to heat-related effects. Later in June, temperatures pressing 100 degrees Fahrenheit slammed into Eastern states, including New England, often in areas where air conditioning is not the norm. Like Maine!
Acolytes of Trump marginalization of the serious impacts of climate change include well-educated MAGA leaders who absolutely know better – including Ivy League educated Ron DeSantis, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, JD Vance, etc. – who are willing to lie to hold political power. Being a Republican Governor does not, however, mean you to have to play pretend with your constituents even in deep red states. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon helms one of the largest coal producing states in the country, but if you want to build your green energy alternative anywhere, Gordon suggests you bring that technology to Wyoming.
Yet across the land, residents everywhere are noting that summer heat is arriving two months ahead of schedule, that even before we have the horrendous hurricane season meteorologists have predicted, torrential rain (effectively hurricane level precipitation without the required wind force) has already soaked vast areas of Texas and South Florida (see above pictures). California’s fire season is also at her doorstep early, with major blazes already in both northern and southern parts of the state. Denial, as they say, is not a river in Egypt, but even for the relatively warm and dry areas in that region where air conditioning is too expensive for most, people are dying in record numbers from heat-related afflictions. Record-breaking heat is taking its toll even on the Muslim faithful fulfilling their religious mandates.
On June 24th, Live France (one of many outlets) addressed the killing heat during the annual Hajj to the Muslim Holy City of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Determined by the lunar calendar, the Hajj is a massive at-least-once-in-a-lifetime-pilgrimage required of all Muslims. But, as reported, climate change may soon render this tradition untenable: “The new deaths reported Thursday [6/24] included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims… Around 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage [increasing by hundreds as the month progressed], one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once… The national meteorological centre reported a high of 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) [in mid-June] at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.” Unprecedented even for Saudi Arabia. Bodies, covered with reverential white cloth, lay by the Holy sites as Saudi attendants struggled to keep up with collecting the dead.
It's also pretty typical for autocrats (actual and wannabe) with strong ties to the mega-rich to deny climate change. Addressing climate change as a genuine threat often requires significant new investments, environmental regulation and a transition away from fossil fuels which are very frequently the source of wealth to many of those rich “friends.” So it was with Jair Bolsonaro, recent Brazilian President with a Trump copycat style, as he sanctioned burning away massive sections of the irreplaceable rain forest to make room for more farms and urban developments. His followers easily slid into denial mode, but this year, the changes seem to be sliding into becoming the undeniable.
“For 250 years, traders and farmers toiled away on the banks of the Taquari River in Brazil’s prosperous south, turning this small community into a hub of corn and tobacco production… But in a matter of days last month, Mariante and its roughly 600 homes were reduced to a pile of muddy rubble, swept off the map with scores of other towns by catastrophic floods that have killed at least 175 people… More than 650,000 others were evacuated, the country’s biggest displacement on record, according to government figures, and the largest in the Americas as a result of floods in 14 years. Environmentalists say it is a harbinger of disasters to come as climate change uproots ever more families worldwide.” Wall Street Journal, June 16th. This is but one example in a nation that has accelerated climate change with its recent wasteful activities.
I’m Peter Dekom, and we are talking about millions, if not billions, of people suffering extreme misery and death from rising temperatures, animals perishing, crops withering, migration exploding away from the worst areas and trillions and trillions of dollars of unrecoupable damages… as “I’ll say anything to get elected” leaders continue to pretend we’re just going through a normal heat cycle that will self-correct.
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