The thermometer read 126 degrees Fahrenheit when Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was forced to cancel more than 40 flights in June 2017. The extreme heat had pushed temperatures beyond the operational limits of regional aircraft. Passengers sat stranded in terminals, watching their travel plans dissolve in the desert heat.

Three months later, Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 60 inches of rain on Houston, flooding over 100,000 homes. Insurance claims exceeded $20 billion. Many homeowners discovered their policies didn’t cover the damage. Others watched their premiums skyrocket beyond affordability.

Those two events — separated by geography and season — represent different faces of the same crisis. America is experiencing a systematic breakdown of the infrastructure, economic systems, and social structures that modern society depends on. The collapse isn’t dramatic or sudden. It’s methodical, creeping, and already underway.

From coast to coast, extreme weather is making entire regions uninhabitable while the systems designed to help people recover are crumbling under repeated stress. The heat waves, hurricanes, floods, and droughts aren’t isolated disasters anymore — they’re the new normal, and American society wasn’t built to handle the new normal.

When the Heat Breaks Everything

The morning of July 19, 2022, London’s transportation network ground to a near halt as temperatures soared past 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Railway tracks buckled and warped under the unprecedented heat. Train services across the United Kingdom faced severe restrictions, with speed limits slashed to prevent derailments.

The physics are unforgiving. Steel expands in heat, and railroad tracks can bend, warp, or completely separate from their foundations when temperatures exceed design limits. In the United States, Amtrak routinely implements heat restrictions during summer months, forcing trains to crawl at reduced speeds when temperatures climb above 95 degrees.

We’re living within infrastructure that was designed for a different climate. These systems weren’t built to handle the kind of sustained, extreme heat we’re now experiencing regularly.

The ripple effects extend far beyond passenger inconvenience. Freight rail moves 40% of America’s long-distance freight, including food, fuel, and raw materials. When trains slow down or stop entirely, supply chains fracture. The delays compound throughout the system, creating shortages and price increases that ripple through the entire economy.

Heavy machinery faces similar heat-related failures. Construction equipment manufacturers now recommend shutting down operations when temperatures exceed certain thresholds — typically between 95 and 105 degrees, depending on the equipment. Concrete can cure too quickly in extreme heat, leading to cracking and structural weakness. Asphalt becomes too soft to work with safely.

Theme parks and outdoor entertainment venues now regularly close rides and attractions during heat waves. Six Flags and other major operators have established heat protocols that shut down roller coasters and other rides when temperatures or heat indexes reach dangerous levels. The rides aren’t just uncomfortable — they become genuinely unreliable as metal components expand and safety systems struggle to function properly.

But the real crisis begins when these individual failures start cascading through interconnected systems, creating breakdowns that threaten the basic functioning of society itself.

The Air Conditioning Trap

Perhaps nowhere is the heat crisis more evident than in America’s growing dependence on air conditioning. What was once a luxury has transformed into a life-or-death necessity across vast swaths of the country. The transformation has happened so gradually that most Americans don’t realize how completely dependent they’ve become on a system that’s pushing the climate crisis to even more dangerous levels.

Air conditioning accounts for nearly 20% of total electricity consumption in American homes. During peak summer months in hot climates, that figure can exceed 70%. The International Energy Agency projects global air conditioning energy demand will triple by 2050.

Here lies the cruel irony of climate adaptation. As temperatures rise, air conditioning use intensifies. That increased energy demand typically requires burning more fossil fuels — particularly in states that rely heavily on natural gas and coal for electricity generation. The very systems keeping people alive in extreme heat are accelerating the climate crisis that created the need for them.

Texas offers a stark example. During the February 2021 winter storm, the state’s power grid collapsed under extreme demand. But summer heat waves now pose an even greater threat. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has issued multiple emergency alerts during recent heat waves, warning that demand was approaching the limits of available supply.

We’re caught in a feedback loop. The hotter it gets, the more energy we need to stay cool. But generating that energy often produces more greenhouse gases, making the problem worse.

States with aging power grids face particular vulnerability. California’s rolling blackouts during heat waves have become increasingly common. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that much of the western United States faces elevated risk of blackouts during peak summer demand periods.

When the power goes out during extreme heat, people die. The 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed over 600 people, many of them in homes without air conditioning or in buildings where power failures left cooling systems inoperable. Coroners’ offices were overwhelmed. Morgues ran out of space.

When Infrastructure Surrenders

The quality-of-life disruptions represent just the opening act. As temperatures continue climbing, more fundamental systems begin failing in ways that threaten basic societal function.

Roads are buckling with increasing frequency. Asphalt becomes soft and malleable in extreme heat, creating dangerous driving conditions and requiring expensive emergency repairs. In 2018, several highways in the United Kingdom buckled during a heat wave, forcing road closures. Phoenix regularly sees pavement temperatures exceed 150 degrees during summer months. The cost of constantly repairing heat-damaged roads is becoming prohibitive for many municipalities.

Vehicle failures multiply exponentially during heat waves. Cars overheat more frequently, stranding drivers and overwhelming towing services. Electric vehicle performance degrades in extreme heat, reducing range and requiring more frequent charging. Even newer vehicles struggle when ambient temperatures push cooling systems beyond their design limits.

Glass presents its own set of problems. Building and automobile windows can crack or shatter when exposed to rapid temperature changes or sustained extreme heat. Solar panels, ironically, become less efficient as temperatures rise, reducing their energy output precisely when air conditioning demand peaks.

Urban heat islands amplify these problems. Cities can be 5-7°C degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas due to concrete, asphalt, and reduced vegetation. This creates localized zones where infrastructure faces even greater stress. The heat island effect means that urban areas experience conditions that are more extreme than the surrounding region, concentrating the breakdown in the places where the most people live.

Water systems strain under multiple pressures. Treatment plants require more energy to operate in extreme heat. Pipe systems can buckle or burst. Water demand skyrockets as people and businesses try to cool down, sometimes exceeding system capacity. When water systems fail during heat waves, the combination can be deadly.

The Insurance Market Exodus

While extreme heat breaks down day-to-day operations, the parallel crisis of extreme weather events is systematically destroying the financial foundations that allow people to rebuild their lives after disasters. The insurance industry — the backbone of recovery from climate disasters — is abandoning entire regions as losses become unsustainable.

Hurricane Ian’s $50 billion in damages in 2022 marked just the latest in a series of catastrophic losses that have pushed major insurers to the breaking point. State Farm, the nation’s largest property insurer, announced it would stop writing new homeowners policies in California due to wildfire risks. Farmers Insurance pulled out of Florida entirely after years of hurricane-related losses.

The numbers tell the story of an industry in retreat. In Florida alone, a dozen insurance companies have gone insolvent since 2020. Average homeowners insurance premiums have increased by more than 40% in the past three years in hurricane-prone states. But many homeowners can’t get insurance at any price.

We’re seeing the insurance market collapse in real time. When private insurers can’t price risk profitably, they leave. And when they leave, homeowners are left completely exposed.

The ripple effects are profound. Without insurance, banks won’t write mortgages. Without mortgages, people can’t buy homes. Property values plummet in uninsurable areas, wiping out wealth that families spent decades building. The housing market in climate-vulnerable regions faces systematic collapse.

Citizens Property Insurance, Florida’s state-backed insurer of last resort, now covers more than 1.2 million properties — triple the number from five years ago. The state-run program faces potential insolvency from a single major hurricane. When state insurance programs fail, homeowners have nowhere left to turn.

FEMA’s Breaking Point

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, designed to help communities recover from occasional disasters, is buckling under the weight of constant climate emergencies. FEMA now responds to more than twice as many major disasters annually as it did in the 1990s. The agency’s budget and staffing haven’t kept pace with the accelerating demand.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 exposed FEMA’s limitations. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 overwhelmed the agency again. The California wildfires of 2017 and 2018 stretched resources to the breaking point. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season — with 30 named storms — pushed FEMA past its operational limits.

“FEMA was designed for a world where major disasters were rare events,” said Dr. Alice Hill, senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations and former director for resilience policy on the National Security Council. “That world no longer exists. We now live in a world of permanent disaster response.”

The agency faces a structural impossibility. As climate change intensifies, the number and severity of disasters increase exponentially, but FEMA’s budget and capabilities grow linearly at best. The gap widens every year.

FEMA’s Individual Assistance program provides temporary help with housing, basic needs, and some property repairs. But the maximum assistance — currently $37,900 — doesn’t come close to covering the cost of rebuilding a destroyed home. Most disaster survivors receive far less than the maximum.

The agency’s Public Assistance program helps communities rebuild infrastructure, but the process is slow and bureaucratic. Many communities wait years for reimbursement. Some never receive it at all due to paperwork errors or disputes over eligible costs.

Meanwhile, the National Flood Insurance Program faces its own crisis. The program owes the U.S. Treasury more than $20 billion from past disasters and faces potential insolvency from future flood losses. Premium increases meant to address the shortfall are making flood insurance unaffordable for many homeowners.

The Housing Cascade

The combination of insurance market collapse and inadequate federal disaster assistance is creating a housing crisis unlike anything America has experienced since the Great Depression. But unlike the 1930s, this crisis has no clear endpoint — it will only accelerate as climate change intensifies.

Millions of Americans now live in homes they cannot insure and cannot sell. Their properties have become stranded assets — valuable on paper but essentially worthless in practice. When the next disaster strikes, these homeowners face complete financial ruin.

The crisis extends beyond individual homeowners. Entire communities are becoming uninhabitable as repeated disasters overwhelm local resources and drive away residents and businesses. Paradise, California, lost 85% of its population after the 2018 Camp Fire. Many residents never returned, unable to afford rebuilding or unwilling to risk another catastrophe.

Property tax bases erode as values collapse in high-risk areas. Local governments lose revenue precisely when they need more resources for disaster preparation and response. Municipal bonds backed by property taxes become risky investments, increasing borrowing costs and further straining local budgets.

The ripple effects spread throughout the economy. Construction workers, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and countless other professionals lose work as housing markets collapse. Businesses close when communities empty out after disasters. Schools shut down when there aren’t enough children left to educate.

“We’re seeing the beginning of managed retreat from climate-vulnerable areas,” said Dr. A.R. Siders, assistant professor at the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center. “But it’s not actually managed — it’s chaotic, inequitable, and devastating for the communities going through it.”

The Food System Under Siege

Agriculture represents the front line of climate breakdown, facing simultaneous attacks from multiple directions. Extreme heat destroys crops directly, but the secondary effects of climate change are proving even more devastating to food security.

The summer of 2021 saw unprecedented heat domes across the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures reaching 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland and 108 degrees in Seattle. The heat killed an estimated 1 billion marine animals in the Pacific Northwest and devastated agricultural production. Cherry crops were destroyed. Wheat yields plummeted. Livestock died from heat stress.

But extreme heat represents just one threat among many. Hurricanes and severe storms destroy crops and agricultural infrastructure. Flooding can contaminate farmland for years. Droughts make farming impossible across vast regions.

Wheat yields in the United States have stagnated or declined in major growing regions as temperatures exceed optimal growing ranges. Corn production faces similar pressures. A 2019 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that each degree Celsius of warming reduces global wheat yields by 6%, rice by 3.2%, maize by 7.4%, and soybean by 3.1%.

The livestock industry faces existential challenges. Dairy cows produce less milk when temperatures exceed 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat stress in cattle, pigs, and poultry leads to reduced fertility, lower weight gain, and higher mortality rates. The economic losses run into billions of dollars annually.

Food transportation and storage systems are equally vulnerable. Refrigerated trucks consume more fuel and work harder to maintain safe temperatures during heat waves. Power outages during extreme weather can spoil massive quantities of food in supermarkets and warehouses. Supply chain disruptions mean that even regions with adequate local production can face shortages.

The social implications are profound. Food insecurity leads to social unrest. When people can’t feed their families, political stability breaks down. History shows that food price spikes often precede major social upheavals and political revolutions.

Water: The Ultimate Constraint

Water scarcity represents perhaps the greatest long-term threat posed by climate change. Higher temperatures increase evaporation rates, reduce snowpack, and intensify drought conditions across major agricultural and population centers. Without adequate water, modern civilization cannot function.

The Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people across seven states, has experienced unprecedented low water levels. Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, has dropped to historically low levels for the summer months. The reservoir has lost more than 70% of its capacity since 2000.

Groundwater depletion accelerates during heat waves as farmers pump more water for irrigation and cities increase consumption. The Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water for agriculture across the Great Plains, is being depleted at unsustainable rates. Scientists estimate that 30% of the aquifer’s water has been consumed since large-scale irrigation began.

Municipal water systems face mounting pressure. Aging infrastructure struggles to meet peak demand during heat waves. Water treatment becomes more expensive and energy-intensive in extreme heat. Some communities have experienced complete system failures during extended heat events.

The competition for scarce water resources is intensifying into outright conflict. States are suing each other over water rights. Farmers and cities compete for the same limited supplies. International disputes over shared water resources are becoming more common and more contentious.

“Water is the ultimate constraint on human civilization,” said Dr. Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the Pacific Institute and a leading expert on water and climate. “As water becomes scarcer due to climate change, the conflicts will only intensify. We’re already seeing the early stages of water wars.”

Mass Migration and Social Breakdown

Climate change is creating the largest displacement of people in human history. In the United States, millions of Americans are being forced to abandon their homes and communities due to repeated disasters, unaffordable insurance, and deteriorating living conditions.

The numbers are staggering. Hurricane Katrina displaced more than one million people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Many never returned. Hurricane Harvey forced 39,000 people into shelters and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The 2018 California wildfires displaced more than 200,000 people.

These aren’t temporary evacuations — they’re permanent migrations. People lose their homes, can’t afford to rebuild, and are forced to start over elsewhere. The social fabric of entire communities unravels as people scatter to other states and regions.

Climate migration puts enormous strain on destination communities. Schools become overcrowded. Housing markets tighten. Social services are overwhelmed. Political tensions rise as longtime residents compete with newcomers for jobs and resources.

The psychological trauma of forced migration is profound. People lose not just their homes but their entire social networks, cultural connections, and sense of place. Mental health problems increase dramatically among climate migrants. Suicide rates spike in communities hit by repeated disasters.

The Financial System at Risk

The climate crisis threatens to trigger a financial collapse that could dwarf the 2008 housing crisis. As properties become uninsurable and uninhabitable, the mortgages backed by those properties become worthless. Banks holding those mortgages face massive losses.

The exposure is enormous. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that back most American mortgages, hold trillions of dollars in climate-vulnerable properties. A significant portion of these assets could become worthless as climate change accelerates.

Municipal bond markets face similar risks. Cities and counties in climate-vulnerable areas issue bonds backed by property tax revenues. As property values collapse and residents flee, those tax revenues disappear, making the bonds worthless. The municipal bond market — worth more than $4 trillion — faces potential widespread defaults.

Pension funds and insurance companies hold billions of dollars in real estate investments in climate-vulnerable areas. As these properties lose value, retirement security for millions of Americans is at risk. State and local government pension systems, already underfunded, face potential insolvency as their real estate investments become worthless.

Healthcare Under Siege

The healthcare system faces mounting pressure from multiple climate-related stresses. Extreme heat events send thousands of people to emergency rooms with heat-related illnesses. Hurricanes and floods disrupt medical facilities and cut off access to care. Air pollution from wildfires exacerbates respiratory conditions.

During the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome, Portland-area hospitals saw a 2,000% increase in emergency room visits for heat-related illness. Many hospitals had to set up cooling centers in parking lots and lobbies. Staff worked double shifts as the system was overwhelmed.

Hurricane Harvey flooded several major hospitals in Houston, forcing evacuations and transfers of critically ill patients. Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico’s healthcare infrastructure, leading to thousands of excess deaths from lack of medical care. The island’s healthcare system still hasn’t fully recovered.

Wildfires create their own health emergencies. Smoke from the 2020 California fires blanketed much of the western United States for weeks, creating dangerous air quality conditions hundreds of miles from the actual fires. Hospital admissions for respiratory problems increased dramatically across the region.

Climate change is also expanding the range of vector-borne diseases. Warmer temperatures allow mosquitoes, ticks, and other disease carriers to survive in previously inhospitable areas. Cases of Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and other climate-sensitive diseases are increasing.

Mental health impacts are equally severe. Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety rates spike after climate disasters. Suicide rates increase in affected communities. The mental health system, already strained, cannot handle the increased demand for services.

Education Disrupted

Climate change is systematically disrupting American education, creating learning losses that will reverberate for generations. School closures due to extreme weather are becoming routine. Students displaced by disasters often struggle academically for years after relocation.

Hurricane Harvey closed Houston-area schools for weeks, affecting more than 200,000 students. Many schools suffered extensive damage and took months to reopen. Some never reopened at all. Students who were displaced to other districts struggled to catch up academically and socially.

Extreme heat is making schools dangerous or unusable. Many schools lack adequate air conditioning. When temperatures exceed safe levels, schools are forced to close or dismiss students early. The problem is particularly acute in lower-income districts that can’t afford infrastructure upgrades.

Wildfire smoke creates its own educational disruptions. Schools across the western United States now routinely cancel outdoor activities and close entirely when air quality becomes dangerous. The 2020 California fire season disrupted education for millions of students.

The educational impacts compound over time. Students who experience repeated school disruptions due to climate disasters show significant learning losses. Achievement gaps widen as lower-income students, who are more likely to live in climate-vulnerable areas, face more educational disruption.

“Education requires stability and continuity,” said Dr. Sarah Woulfin, associate professor at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. “Climate change is creating chronic instability that undermines the educational process. We’re seeing an entire generation of students whose education is being disrupted by climate disasters.”

The Cascade Effect Accelerates

These individual system failures don’t occur in isolation. They compound and interact, creating cascade effects that can rapidly overwhelm society’s ability to respond. The interconnections mean that failures in one system trigger failures in others, creating a domino effect that can bring down entire regions.

Consider a scenario playing out with increasing frequency: A major hurricane strikes a metropolitan area. Millions lose power for weeks. Without electricity, hospitals struggle to operate. Food spoils in supermarkets and homes. Water treatment plants fail. Communications systems go down.

Insurance companies, already stretched thin, can’t handle the volume of claims. Many homeowners discover their policies don’t cover flood damage. Others find their insurers have gone bankrupt. FEMA is overwhelmed and can’t provide adequate assistance.

Property values collapse as people realize the area is uninhabitable. Banks face massive losses on worthless mortgages. The local tax base erodes as residents flee and businesses close. Municipal services break down due to lack of revenue.

The remaining residents, disproportionately poor and elderly, face deteriorating conditions with no way to escape. Social services are overwhelmed. Crime increases as institutions break down. The social fabric of the community disintegrates.

The Point of No Return

Climate scientists increasingly warn that society may be approaching tipping points beyond which adaptation becomes impossible and system collapse becomes inevitable. These aren’t distant theoretical scenarios — they represent plausible outcomes within the lifetime of people alive today.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that without rapid, far-reaching changes in energy, land, urban infrastructure, and industrial systems, global warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels within the next two decades. Many regions are already experiencing conditions that will become the new normal under that level of warming.

Beyond 2 degrees of warming — now considered likely without dramatic policy changes — the risks of societal breakdown increase exponentially. Food systems may face simultaneous failures across multiple regions. Water resources could become inadequate for large population centers. Insurance markets will collapse entirely in vast areas. Mass migration will overwhelm destination communities.

Infrastructure designed for the current climate will be obsolete. The economic costs of constant adaptation and repair will exceed society’s capacity to pay. Social institutions will buckle under repeated stress.

The feedback loops are accelerating. As societies weaken, their capacity to respond to climate change diminishes. This makes them more vulnerable to future climate impacts, which further weakens their response capacity. The spiral becomes self-reinforcing.

The Policy Vacuum

Despite mounting evidence of climate-related system failures and societal breakdown, American climate policy remains catastrophically inadequate to address the scale and urgency of the crisis. The federal government under the Trump administration has gone all in on fossil fuel projects while not only providing insufficient support for renewable energy, but terminating programs already in place.

State-level responses vary dramatically, but even the most aggressive efforts fall far short of what’s needed. Some states have implemented heat action plans and improved building codes for extreme temperatures. Others continue to resist acknowledging climate change as a significant threat to public safety and economic stability.

The political system appears incapable of matching the urgency of the crisis. Congressional action is stymied by partisan division and fossil fuel industry influence. Presidential administrations change direction every four to eight years, preventing sustained long-term planning. Local governments lack the resources to address challenges that cross jurisdictional boundaries.

The gap between what we need to do and what we’re actually doing continues to widen every year. At some point, that gap becomes too large to bridge.

Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to fight climate action while climate impacts accelerate. Oil and gas companies have shifted from denying climate change to promoting gradual, voluntary measures that are wildly inadequate to address the scale of the crisis. They continue to lobby against policies that would rapidly reduce emissions and fund climate adaptation.

The Path Forward

The scale of transformation required to prevent societal collapse exceeds anything attempted in peacetime. It requires treating climate change as the emergency it has already become, not as a future problem to be addressed gradually through market mechanisms and voluntary actions.

Immediate priorities include massive investments in renewable energy, grid modernization, infrastructure hardening, and emergency preparedness. Building codes must be updated for extreme heat and severe weather conditions. Urban planning must account for heat island effects and provide cooling centers and green spaces.

Water conservation and alternative sources become critical for survival. Agricultural practices must adapt to new temperature ranges or shift to different regions entirely. Supply chains need redundancy and resilience planning. Manufacturing must be relocated away from climate-vulnerable areas.

The financial system requires fundamental restructuring to account for climate risks. Mortgage practices, insurance regulations, and municipal finance must be reformed to prevent financial collapse as climate impacts accelerate. Managed retreat from uninhabitable areas must be planned and funded to prevent chaotic abandonment.

Social safety nets must be dramatically expanded to handle massive displacement and economic disruption. Healthcare systems need surge capacity for climate-related health emergencies. Education systems must be designed for flexibility and resilience in the face of repeated disruptions.

Most importantly, the political system must acknowledge the urgency of the crisis and act accordingly. Half-measures and voluntary programs are insufficient when faced with the breakdown of fundamental systems. The response must match the scale of the threat.

“We need a mobilization comparable to World War II,” said Dr. Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Penn State and author of “The New Climate War.” “The enemy is climate change, and the stakes are the survival of organized human civilization. We need to act like our lives depend on it — because they do.”

Time Running Out

The window for preventing the worst impacts of climate change is rapidly closing. Every month of delay makes the necessary changes more difficult and the potential consequences more severe. The systems that support modern society are already beginning to fail under climate stress.

The choice facing Americans is stark: Take immediate, aggressive action to address climate change, or watch society gradually collapse as basic systems break down under mounting stress. There is no middle ground, no gradual transition to a sustainable future. The physics of climate change and the interconnectedness of modern society don’t allow for half-measures.

The heat death of American society isn’t inevitable, but preventing it requires confronting the crisis with the urgency it demands. Every day of delay brings us closer to tipping points beyond which recovery becomes impossible.

The responsibility belongs to every American citizen who still has the power to demand action from their representatives. Call your congressman. Ask hard questions about their climate plan. Demand specific answers about how they intend to prevent the breakdown that’s already begun.

Ask them about their plan for when insurance markets collapse entirely. Ask them how they’ll help communities relocate when their homes become uninhabitable. Ask them how they’ll maintain food security when agricultural systems fail. Ask them how they’ll prevent financial collapse when trillions of dollars in real estate becomes worthless.

Ask them why they’re not treating this like the emergency it is.

Because the heat won’t wait for politics to catch up with reality. The hurricanes won’t pause for election cycles. The insurance companies won’t return to markets they’ve abandoned. FEMA won’t magically become capable of handling unlimited disasters.

The collapse is accelerating. The systems are failing. The time for gradual change has passed.

The question isn’t whether American society will face widespread breakdown from climate change. The question is how much of society will be left to save if we keep waiting for someone else to act.