Climate change today is all about a massive dislocation of the climate system, not unlike the loss of ozone molecules 40 years ago. Image by Wolfgang Hasselmann.

It May Be Too Late is a climate change idiom that is gaining recognition because global warming is bringing the threat of irreversible climate system collapse to reality as nightly TV news broadcasts flash floods and record-setting temperatures year-by-year with increasing intensity, but that’s just for starters.

Along the way, Earth is regurgitating decades of climate system abuse as glacial lake outbursts bury entire villages, Blatten, Switzerland and more telling yet, the world’s leading insurance companies, e.g. Allianz (the world’s largest) warn of uninsurable mortgages because of a lashing climate system. They foresee an upcoming systemic breakdown of the financial system, which is climate change’s payback, unless, as stated by insurance executives, CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels are stopped.

Nobody has warned of the dangers like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) who on September 9, 2025 delivered his 301st Time to Wake Up speech to the US Senate, warning of a collapsing socio-economic future because of a whacky climate system fed by the fossil fuel industry’s excessive CO2 emissions, but as he explains in some detail, horror of horrors, fossil fuel interests are now on ‘the inside’ with a complacent Trump administration as global warming’s new partner working in its best interests to exceed +2°C above pre-industrial, With the full power of the US government as an ally, global warming should be able to achieve much hotter temperatures much sooner. Then, in due course, Climate Armageddon will have its own nightly TV news show, for the full hour.

Senator Whitehouse has brought out in the open for all to hear: “It may now be too late to prevent it. It may now be too late to wake up. But I hope not… We are on the verge of a major economic shock. But Congress is lost in the moment, not paying attention. When that economic shock hits, I want people to know how and why we failed to protect them. The shock is simple: Climate change makes property insurance unpredictable. So, insurance prices soar. Insurers withdraw from high-risk regions. And fake or flimsy insurance populates the market. As the insurance market goes, so goes the mortgage market… as mortgage markets fail, property values fall.”

Indeed, it’s already happening, for example, in Florida: “Many insurance companies are leaving the state entirely or staying and revoking policies, limiting coverage and raising premiums by double digits. The Florida homeowner’s insurance market is on the brink of a collapse. As thousands of homeowners are in the lurch, the situation is highly problematic.” (Florida is Undergoing an Insurance Crisis, The Zebra, June 24, 2025)

Moreover, the home insurance affordability crisis extends far beyond Gulf Coast states prone to hurricanes and flooding or California’s areas vulnerable to wildfires. Extreme thunderstorms with wind, rain, and hail are also causing billions of dollars in losses in states between the slopes of the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. Disasters are  driving up insurance premiums and forcing insurance companies to scale back coverage in risky areas or drop coverage altogether. Most Americans can’t get a mortgage without home insurance, and areas deemed too risky to cover will see property values drop.

America’s Government – the Epicenter of CO2 Emissions

As for America’s CO2 emissions, Senator Whitehouse’s speech walks through the various stages of fossil fuel industry control over energy policy that has suddenly leapt frontstage into the White House following hundreds of millions in donations to Trump at his request so he’d “do anything they want.” Effectively, the US government and fossil fuel producers have gone into an informal partnership to: (1) destroy renewables (2) cut regulations (3) open public lands to development. This guarantees nearly unregulated CO2 emissions blasting away like never before in the face of record-setting massive heatwaves on land and in the oceans as wildfires consume enormous swaths of land on every continent for the first time on such a large scale. (World Resources Institute)

Interestingly, in contrast to today’s failure of world leaders to effectively tackle climate change in the face of an avalanche of warnings by science, the world community came together quickly, effectively in 1987 with the Montreal Protocol to protect the stratospheric ozone layer (10-30 miles up) by phasing out ozone depleting CFCs. The British Antarctic Survey team at Halley Research Station discovered the ozone hole in 1985 and published their findings in a scientific journal. This groundbreaking discovery led to the connection of human-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to ozone depletion.

Today, the Trump administration budget proposal calls for cutting overall polar science funding by up to 70%. Fortunately, the UK didn’t cut polar funding in the 1980s. PM Thatcher, in a 1981 speech to the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee said that successful nations prioritize science not as a luxury but as “vital to national prosperity and international standing”. President Ronald Reagan, Feb. 27, 1985: “Despite the constraints of federal spending, our budget for the next fiscal year calls for a 6.7% increase for basic research in the physical sciences. I should add that we’re also planning to increase funding for science and technology and basic research through the end of the decade, and that’s because what you do is that important.”

The Montreal Protocol is widely considered one of the most successful environmental agreements of all time. And it is worthwhile mention of the fact that loss of ozone molecules (O3), creating an ozone hole in the atmosphere, in due course, would burn up life on the planet. Ozone serves as the planet’s sunscreen by blocking out harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

The Near Miss Extinction Event

Forty years ago, the expanding ozone hole would have caused human extinction if not for a handful of scientists who went up against Dupont, for decades denying that CFCs destroyed ozone molecules (O3), like fossil fuel industry denials today. But loss of the protective ozone layer collapses the food chain and destroys DNA via unfiltered ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Similarly, CO2 fossil fuel emissions today are starting to negatively dislocate the world’s climate system.

Indeed, climate change today is all about a massive dislocation of the climate system, not unlike the loss of ozone molecules 40 years ago. But there’s a difference in world leadership. Back then, Margaret Thatcher, who trained as a chemist, immediately responded to scientists’ warnings, and Ronald Reagan, who as a Hollywood star exposed himself to too much sun, experiencing a bout of skin cancer, also jumped on scientist’s suggestions to ban CFCs, ASAP. Thus, two strong Western nations led the world to accept the Montreal Protocol of 1987 banning CFC production. Human extinction was thus averted because persistent scientists identified the danger and demanded nation/state action to save civilization. To this day, it’s the biggest extinction “near miss” of all human time. Thanks to vigilant scientists.

Now, scientists are saying almost identical things about banning fossil fuel CO2 emissions. In a word, the consequences of failure are chilling. Meanwhile, the world’s strongest nation, the United States, decimates funding for science and destroys science data centers, and attacks academia. Additionally, of equal concern, where are the strong leaders needed to fight climate change à la the Montreal Protocol? They are missing in action. By all appearances, the extinction event has been granted a ‘free pass’.

Addendum, according to Bloomberg/Green**:** “The Trump administration is going to war with established climate science. Mass firings, regulatory rollbacks, program closures, and funding cuts across agencies have compromised the nation’s ability to gather and assess data on climate change, reducing the amount of high-quality information that policymakers and business leaders can use to guide their decisions, potentially for years to come. The assault has left hundreds of federal scientists out of work, but its impacts reach much further. Datasets that industries and policymakers depend on have gone dark.” (Lights Out: How Trump’s War on Climate Science is Weakening the US, Bloomberg Green, Sept. 8, 2025)

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