The Economy is Going to Break

Better Now Than Later

The Phoenix homeless population is particularly vulnerable to this record setting heat wave. Mark Henle/The Republic

From Southern California to the Atlantic coast of Florida, 100 million people in the US are living in life endangering heat, nearly one third of the nation, since of July 15. The states of Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and portions of South Carolina have been included in this wave, with no relief in sight. Las Vegas hit 117° F (47.2° C) on Sunday, tying its all-time record. Phoenix, broke records with its 19th consecutive day of temperatures at 110° F (43.3° C) or higher and hit 118° F (47.8° C) on Saturday, a new daily record. Only one cooling shelter there remains open overnight, risking lives of those without air conditioning.

The Climate Reanalyzer is an excellent tool for looking at the global weather situation on any given day.

In Italy, sixteen cities have been issued red alert warnings for the scorching Southern European Cerberus heatwave. Rome, Florence and Bologna are affected, with Sicily and Sardinia projected to experience temperatures as high as 49° C (120° F), the hottest ever recorded in Europe. Rome hit 41.8° C (107.2 °F) on Tuesday, breaking the previous record of 40.7° C set in June 2022. Sicily reached 41° C (105.8° F) and Sardinia 45° C (113° F). Neighboring countries France, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania are also in the danger zone. In Greece, thousands are fleeing their homes as fires rage. Last summer, the hottest on record to this point, there were 61,672 heat-related deaths across Europe as revealed by recently released research. This summer will likely be worse with El Niño, the warming cycle of the Pacific Ocean, back in charge.

A home near Athens, Greece burns. Photo REUTERS/Stelios Misinas

The heat wave afflicting Southern Europe is also ravaging North Africa. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria recorded some of the hottest temperatures in the world on Tuesday, as extreme heat spiked across the Mediterranean. The coastal region of Chlef recorded a high of 47.4° C (117° F), with other Algerian stations reporting highs exceeding 44° C (111° F). Faya station in Chad reached 45.8° C (114° F). Tozeur, an inland community in southwest Tunisia, recorded a high of 46.9° C (more than 116° F). The hottest places on the planet were in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and Iraq and Iran, with one reading at Al Ahsa in Saudi Arabia soaring to 50.5° C (nearly 123° F). Kharga, Egypt, reached 45.2° C (113° F).

A look at conditions for Southern Europe and Northern Africa during the current life-threatening heatwave.

China has been the victim of a series of climate disasters this year with ongoing heatwaves shattering records, extreme rainfall resulting in floods and landslides, and typhoon Talim making landfall on Monday. Air raid shelters have been opened for citizens to take refuge from the heatwave, and work is restricted. The remote township Sanbao reached 52.2° C (126° F). John Kerry has gone to Beijing to further talks on the #ClimateCrisis. Let’s hope the heat thaws our countries’ stupidly adversarial positions. China is meeting record energy demands by burning the worst of all fossil fuels, coal, in spite of being far more advanced than the US in renewable energy development.

Meanwhile, Canada continues to burn, I smell it often as I write in my dining room office in Buffalo. As of today, 880 fires are burning throughout the country, and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center says at least 580 are “out of control.”

The endless Canadian wildfires of 2023. The Alberta province continues to drill for dirty tar sand oil.

Here are some facts. This situation was foreseen 50 years ago by the oil industry. Exxon funded its own scientists to perform studies that predicted the crisis we’re in today with remarkable accuracy. Exxon's executives chose to minimize and hide this information, and our congress, bought by oil, couldn’t be bothered to look closer.

We also have a compromised, corporate owned mainstream press that wallows in routine sins of omission, and a murderous lack of urgency in reporting on the #ClimateEmergency. Finally, they’re forced to give it coverage, because the planet is thrashing before our eyes. What they won’t do, however, is tell you how to change the outcome.

I will. This doesn’t make me a genius. Reality is obvious. I’m just willing to stare the truth in the face, and I am not owned.

We live in a world that is now controlled by a handful of insatiable billionaires. They become richer by impoverishing the rest of us, and raping the Earth. They and our politicians are not going to save us. They are either oblivious to the destruction they are causing, don’t care, or have determined the only way to save the planet is to depopulate it. We have to save ourselves. The fastest way to do this, perhaps the only way, is to deprive them of money. We need to slow this economy down to a crawl, or be complicit in watching our world burn and drown.

It is time to sick out, protest, strike and walk out. I know it’s hard, I know it’s scary, I know it involves risk, but if enough of us do it, we can’t all be fired. We will gain the upper hand. It’s the only way. We can either sacrifice now, or sacrifice everything later, and it appears later is here.

Ethiopian farmer’s ruined harvest. Crop failures are on the rise from droughts and world grain supplies are low.

These heat waves, droughts and floods are destroying agriculture. If agriculture fails at scale, and it will if we stay on this path, societies will crash, massive inflation will rise, and hundreds of millions of people will migrate to escape death only to find closed borders. Infrastructure will break, including hospitals, medical care and medicines. Riots, military law, and governmental collapses will be in the daily news, if our power is on to see it. This is how the economy is going to break if we don’t act.

That is why it is better to break it now, rather than later, when it’s impossible because of uncontrollable anarchy.

The new economy needs to be based on #Degrowth, a scientifically reasoned plan to create a sustainable, equitable planetary economy that would also restore humanity and meaningfulness to our lives. I wrote about it here. We can attain this vision, but I can’t lie, it won’t be easy and there will be numerous fights and sacrifices to get there. Not all of us will see it through to the end. At 61, I may not, but that’s okay, fighting for what’s right is meaningful.

Some may find this article radical. I would disagree. We are witnessing the planet’s way of degrowing the economy. A system that destroys the Earth, our life support system, and bestows all the wealth and power to just a few is what’s radical here.