There are so many angles to the climate topic that it's hard to organize it all. We've got the unraveling of the social fabric due to not being able to congregate in public, not from government overreach mind you, but from the climate itself; we've got the breakdown of the physical infrastructure, not because our country is 250 years old and literally falling apart, but because our bridges, roads, plumbing systems, and electrical grids weren't built to perform in temperatures too far above 100F; and the Great IMO 2020 Debacle, the first great comprehensive climate policy disaster of the 21st Century, which at the current time is almost entirely unknown to the general public, and just grew another head, because it's combined with the AMOC Collapse.
All that being said, you know you're screwed when the scientists, whose job it is to be neutral and unemotional, start using superlatives because the results they're seeing are so far out, they just can't use that neutral language anymore.
Why an immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists
May 2026, The Guardian
“I’m out of superlatives”
--University of Arizona scientist in response to high anomaly in the Pacific
And here's another one, for context:
In March, a remarkable land-based heatwave – what one meteorologist called “one of the most astounding global weather events of the century thus far” – sent late winter temperatures soaring more than 30F above seasonal norms to 88F (31C) or warmer in relatively temperate places such as Minnesota, Colorado and Idaho.
Climate change costs lives by breaking down social connection, says study
May 2026, phys.org
This has been happening in real time, definitely for a few years now, likely noticeable since covid, where even the winter events were attempted to be held at least partially outdoors. During that time, you could feel the strain, the pulling of the social fabric, as people were straight-up scared to hang out with their own friends and family. Now, the social strain is still there, but it's happening in reverse. People want to hang out with each other, but they can't. Most people don't own houses where they can invite all their friends. They rely on public space, which is almost exclusively outdoor space. But that space is increasingly immediately dangerous to life and health, because of the weather.* It's gotten to the point that you have to reconsider not just your kid's birthday party, but your cultural identity. As this is written, the United States' 250th celebration of the founding of the nation was supposed to take place on a Saturday, July 4th, but was cancelled, in the nations's capital of Washington DC, and in other significant cities such as Philadelphia, due to the heat. We had been stuck in a one week long heat wave with temperatures in the 100's, and that ended with severe thunderstorms knocking out power to hundreds of thousands. In other words, the 250th celebration of the nation's founding was in fact cancelled to due to climate change. Maybe we will learn the lesson before Labor Day. *Slight exaggeration, I don't think we use the "immediately dangerous to life and health" (IDLH) designation for temperatures, but if we do, it's around a heat index of 140F; we've got 110-115 now, so another 10-15 years before we see IDLH in our backyard. India and Pakistan saw this already in 2025.
Heat waves and air pollution are pushing people indoors and away from shared public spaces, while interruptions to school and work make it harder to maintain relationships. [At the same time that "loneliness" is declared more dangerous to our health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day!]
via University of Sydney: Marlee Bower et al, Climate change and social health, Nature Human Behaviour (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-026-02455-y
Television news coverage of climate policy is limited and polarized in the US, study finds
May 202,6 phys.org
Most television news segments about climate change don't cover policy. Researchers focused on 7 major television news networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC, and PBS — and identified news transcripts from April 2020 to April 2021 that contained the words "climate change" or "global warming" and identified whether each transcript mentioned climate policy and if it did, whether it supported, opposed, or presented a neutral view.
"This means that people might not hear anything about solutions when they hear about the climate crisis in the news. This in turn can shape what they think is normal or popular."
"That is a striking gap, because policy is where solutions live. But when policy is largely missing from coverage, so too are the pathways people can imagine for addressing the problem." [And it's because there is no problem; the richest 2,000 people in the world are getting richer, faster, every day. Why would we need solutions?]
via University of Colorado at Boulder CIRES Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences: Ekaterina Landgren et al, U.S. television news coverage of climate change policy is aggregately balanced but polarized, Environmental Research Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1088/2515-7620/ae6b10
Climate catch-22: Cleaning up air pollution could speed key Atlantic current decline
May 2026, phys.org
AMOC meets IMO
They ran a total of 80 simulations and looked at what happens across the globe and within specific regions between the years 2015 and 2050 under two key scenarios—one with strong air pollution controls and the other with weak controls.
Results? Cleaner air could be a problem.
Hopefully we already know what this is by now. They call this a Catch-22 (which is pretty nuts that for such a common phenomenon, all we have as a reference is this 1961 satirical war novel, which although it's often mentioned as one of the most significant novels of the 20th century, I'm not sure that I've ever heard people reference the novel itself, only the title.)
via University of California Riverside: Robert J Allen et al, AMOC weakening in response to global and regional reductions in aerosol emissions, Environmental Research: Climate (2026). DOI: 10.1088/2752-5295/ae63ef
Jersey Shore drawbridge closes to boat traffic due to extreme heat
Jun 2026, nj.com
The excessive heat has caused the expansion of some components of the bridge, which prohibits the bridge from opening. The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified and the Department of Transportation is posting warning messages on waterway signage.
Heat wave grips Europe, triggering alerts and disruptions
Jun 2026, DW
High temperatures strongly impacted the French rail network, with risks to overhead power lines and the possibility of tracks expanding in the heat.
Extreme coastal flooding surges worldwide as rising seas rewrite 100-year odds
Jun 2026, phys.org
Coastal flooding events expected only once every 100 years are now, on average, about 12 times more likely to occur. (This comes from Tulane University btw, for those who remember Hurricane Katrina. ...)
via Tulane: Sönke Dangendorf, Human-driven sea-level rise has quadrupled the frequency of coastal sea-level extremes since 1900, Nature Climate Change (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-026-02659-0.
