Climate change is an existential threat

Jonah Goldberg’s column September 11 claims that we don’t have a crisis, yet.

Humans have inherent problems with slow-moving disasters. They respond better to disasters that are imminent or occur over a short period of time. Make no mistake, however, that climate change is a slow-moving man-made disaster and a true existential threat to mankind and most animals on the earth. It is not natural or political. Unless bold actions as proposed by Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren are taken, millions of lives will be impacted and lost.

These politicians can walk and chew gum too, so I’m not worried about other priorities.

The effects of climate change will be with us for thousands of years. Even if all of humanity stopped driving gasoline/diesel vehicles and shut-down all of the fossil-fuel power plants overnight, the effects of climate change would not reverse for hundreds of years. There will still be too much CO2 in the atmosphere. The best we can hope for now is to mitigate the worst effects that constitute an eventual disaster for humanity and most animal life on earth.

“Existential threat” simply means that our existence is threatened. Our food and water supply, arable and livable lands are being eliminated by this slow-moving disaster. We see evidence of this all around us as it starts to accelerate. Hurricanes are more intense, flooding is more common, wildfires are more common/larger and heatwaves are killing more every year. High temperatures in humid areas of the country are not just inconvenient. Sweating simply doesn’t work to cool the body, so outdoor time is limited.

Farms in our Midwest were seriously impacted by flooding this year.

One-hundred-year floodplains on plat maps make no sense anymore because floods are occurring every year or two.

Countries in the Middle East and Africa are expected to be uninhabitable due to the heat and drought.

This summer, 9 million acres of forest in Siberia burned.

There were over 100,000 fires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay this summer, as the forest is being converted to soybean farms and cattle ranches to sell to the market in China created by Trump’s tariffs, which cut off our own farmers and ranchers.

These markets will not rebuild after the tariffs are removed.

New supply chains in Brazil, Argentina and other countries have already taken the place of U.S. suppliers.

Too late. Trump gave away our lucrative Chinese markets and as a result, destroyed what experts call the “lungs of the planet,” as it generates 20 percent of the planet’s oxygen and is a major CO2 absorber. Once these large forests are gone, oxygen will start to deplete. The only major CO2 sink left will be the oceans, which are becoming warmer and more acidic every year, killing reefs and fish as a result. Indigenous Florida fish are already showing up in

Maine.

As the crisis impacts livability and food/water supply in the U.S., those with money and resources will relocate to lands where it is possible to function and live outdoors, where food and water are still available.

Farms and ranches will be forced to migrate north.

Most people worldwide without such resources will suffer and eventually die from starvation, drought or wars.

Climate refugees will cause wars and civil unrest worldwide as evidenced by the recent refugees from Syria.

Countries that are most impacted by climate change will invade other countries.

Millions of people that have no control over their situation will suffer and die.

This is 99 percent of the world population.

If you don’t consider decimation of 99 percent of the world’s human population to be an “existential threat,” then you need to look it up in the dictionary.