By William “Coty” Keller
“How bizarre that we, the most intelligent of all species, should be destroying our only home,” – Jane Goodall
The same misinformation playbook used by the tobacco industry has been used by fossil fuel corporations to deny, mislead and lie about the cause and impact of their greenhouse gas emissions. The result of this has been suffering and death around the globe, and more to come, as global temperatures and sea level rise, and the frequency and severity of storms, droughts and wildfires increases.
The current president has become a leader of this immoral and cruel effort with the repeated falsehood that climate change is a hoax. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that his administration has announced that the U.S. will stop tracking the costs of extreme weather fueled by climate change.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s work makes clear the causes of global warming – and that it certainly is not a hoax. NOAA’s report on the cost of climate impacts is not a pretty picture.
In 2024, there were 27 confirmed U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters: 17 severe storm events (tornado outbreaks, high wind, hailstorms), five hurricanes, one wildfire, one drought/heat wave and two winter storm/cold wave events. The total cost of these events was $182.7 billion.
The total cost of these kinds of events of the last 10 years (2015-2024) exceeds $1.4 trillion, while the costs for 403 events from 1980-2024 exceed $2.915 trillion. Considering the president is doing all he can to increase the use of fossil fuels and kill clean energy programs, we can see the devastating financial impact of the administration’s malfeasance.
This trend resembles the pattern of other NOAA reports displaying the rise of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions over time. The amount of damage is directly related to the amount of fossil fuel emissions. The president can’t have this on display, can he? Science and the truth don’t go well with the falsehood that climate change is a hoax.
Politicians throughout the nation echo and amplify the misinformation from our denier-in-chief. For example, in Florida, where increasing frequencies of super-strong storms and storm surge cost more and more lives and property values, elected officials have for years refused to even discuss the cause of the problem. State laws have been changed to delete any mention of the term “climate change.”
Misinformation is not only adding to global pollution and hastening the arrival of economic and humanitarian disasters, but it also aims to cheat us from the financial benefits of transitioning to zero-emission energy. Science and the truth have good news: Fossil fuels can be replaced with cost-effective energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gases. Increasingly, the investment in zero-emission energy pays a handsome financial return on top of its social value.
What can we regular people do to alter the path we are on and save our only home? First, we must seek and share the truth: Continued use of fossil fuels will make it impossible for a livable world. Suffering and death from rising temperatures and seas will accelerate to the point of global humanitarian and economic crisis.
Second, we must make recognition of this impending crisis a top political priority, over issues like the price of eggs, crime and migration. What we pay for groceries, policing policies and how people move across our borders are not insignificant issues. But they pale when compared to having a livable world.
Third, we must call out and replace the perpetrators of misinformation and injustice. By recognizing those in public office for the ruthlessness of their untruthful allegations and support for cruel and immoral policies, we can help people see how special interests, not the public good, are being served. It is past time to replace these tools of the fossil fuel industry with selfless and just-minded candidates.
But that will not be enough. We must abolish corporate personhood and reform campaign financing to permanently remove the unjust influence of corporations and the rich from our government. We must pass the We The People amendment so that corporations no longer enjoy the same rights as humans and that it will be illegal for someone like Elon Musk to spend $277 million to help an individual and his party get elected.
Until regular people act, armed with the truth and selfless motivation, we are doomed to continue mankind’s bizarre behavior. It’s time for regular people like us to exalt science and the truth, call out and replace the sycophants of the fossil fuel industry, and join the Move to Amend. The stakes are high. Without a livable world, all else is irrelevant.
William “Coty” Keller is an ecologist working to conserve and restore the natural relationships among living things and the environment (https://ecopapak.org/). He previously served in the U.S. Navy (commanding two ships and teaching national security affairs at the Naval War College) and taught college for two decades (mostly in graduate management). He lives and works in Port Charlotte, Florida, and Freeport, New York.
Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here. To support The Invading Sea, click here to make a donation. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Banner photo: An American flag stands in the wake of Hurricane Ian at Fort Myers Beach in 2022 (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Jesse Hanson).
This is very insightful analysis of the root cause of the problem. Somewhere in the universe is a planet where scientists and those with a Proactive or preemptive mindset had enough fetch to prevent the resource destruction that’s taking us to where we are today and simply remove blindly self-interested business and political folks from any positions of influence. Great write-up