2023 Widely Noted as Hottest in About 125,000 Years

A friend led boatbuilding crews overseas. He told me when someone said, “Don’t worry” it only meant one thing: “Worry.” This post’s headline, in a rational world, would be enough to topple Big Oil. Think about it.

The “125,000” year claim, or close versions, appeared in cbsnews.com citing “U.N.’s International Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading climate scientists,” and by Rebecca Hersher of NPR’s climate desk citing “official European Union temperature data,” European Union scientists noted by Kate Abnett and Gloria Dickie at reuters.com, and Syed Munir Khasru in South China Morning Post.

My September 13, 2020 post noted, “in the film I Am, the Dalai Lama said the most important meditation of our time is critical thinking followed by action.”

My December 14, 2023 post noted, “At least ‘130 nations’ [out of 198 parties at COP28 calling for phase-out of fossil fuels] is [a better number] than the reported ’80 countries’ from [COP27] last year, but out of respect for island nations and most vulnerable countries and nonhumans, progress must be faster and more.” I also wrote, “If 197 parties say yes, and one says no, that means no deal.”

This climate situation reminds me of when I was a salmon troller/charter captain on the Starfisher out of Depoe Bay, Oregon. The challenge of fishing in thick fog was when huge schools of salmon were biting in tanker and cargo lanes. Even if a tanker or cargo captain saw you visually or with radar, you were still dead because turning speed and radius of a big ship, like COP process, was too slow to avoid impact. No matter how good fishing was in tanker or cargo lanes, old-timers knew it wasn’t worth the risk in thick fog. It was better to accept smaller profits, as with renewable energy, to live to fish another day.

My favorite recent climate article is by Carly Dober in the January 12, 2024, issue of The Guardian, “As a psychologist I have witnessed a surge in climate grief. This is what I tell my clients.”

“This is the Starfisher KDX 3175 clear channel 80, and back to 16. Over and out.”