The era of permanent climate disaster is upon us

For most of the late 1900s, people thought climate change was something that would happen in the future. Scientists wrote papers that warned about rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and worse storms, but the effects usually seemed far away—something that might happen slowly over decades. That way of thinking has since fallen apart. Climate change is no longer a slow change in the weather; it is a constant force that is changing economies, landscapes, and cultures all over the world.

The world is going through what can best be called a time of chronic climatic disaster. This includes terrible floods in South and Southeast Asia, long droughts in Africa, and heatwaves in Europe. Extreme weather events have become more common and severe in the last few years. Torrential rains have flooded towns that used to have normal monsoon cycles, and places that used to have steady rainfall patterns are now getting rain in different amounts. Floods happen sooner, storms get worse faster, and droughts last longer. The patterns that used to mark the seasons are going away.