No. 54 of 108
August 6, 2025
Hong Kong just had the heaviest rainfall since 1884. The highest temperature ever in Japan was just recorded, 41.8 Celsius = 107 Fahrenheit. Over 53,000 Japanese were hospitalized for heat-related conditions this summer. Farmers worry over rice crops. Guangzhou, capital of the province of Guangdong, China had its second heaviest rainfall in this century, with record-breaking landslides. The province has experienced flooding and an outbreak of chikungunya disease, caused by mosquitoes thriving in stagnant water. Multiple wildfires are being fought across Turkey and Cyprus. The U.S. has frozen or defunded the majority of climate research efforts and reduced the staffing infrastructure of institutions like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency that actively monitor and interpret data on major weather and climate shifts. The National Weather Service recently received an exemption from mandatory staffing cuts and is seeking to refill its ranks of meteorologists, hydrologists, and radar technicians, including rehiring some of the over 400 that were forced out just before the hurricane season. NOAA has not been spared, so the information the National Weather Service will be able to use “will set us back almost a decade in forecasting capability.” The U.S. research, data, analysis and forecasting operations was not only the gold standard, but it was also one of the primary sources and sometimes the only source of information for governments, organizations and individuals throughout the world. European governments are ramping up their own systems to deal with the expected void.
The Earth is having a moment… a loooong moment. Will we rise to the challenge of the occasion? There is no control over climate and weather, only understanding, and harmonious adaptation. No country is doing it well. The U.S. was doing better than most, at least in the understanding part of the relationship if not the harmonious adaptation part. The two go hand in hand. If no single country is doing it well, perhaps many individuals within many countries may take up the work as part of vast quasi-institutional inter-related networks. Vastness rather than centralized seems to be the energetic strategy with the best opportunity in the fractious and threatening environment (of political ambitions, existential fear-fed sentiments, science denial, indigenous wisdom denial, after-the-disaster-blame). Vastness rather than centralized.