Last updated 7.2.25. (G)

Job One for Humanity published this article. Job One is a nonprofit climate change think tank and risk assessment organization founded in 2008. It is independent, 100% publicly funded, and uncensored by any government or corporation.

 

 

Prologue

This page contains and defines the major primary and secondary consequences of climate change. It will give you both a factual, comprehensive, and holistic sense of the climate future we all now face. At the end of this article is a section to help you decide what you want to do about the information in this article.

The following page helps explain why approximately half of humanity is expected to perish by around 2050. When you read it, please remember that the climate change consequences described below are not only destructive by themselves.

Most climate change consequences described below will also interact with and amplify other interconnected areas of climate change consequences. Then, these interacting secondary climate change areas will also experience amplification of their related climate change consequences. This is the alarming, escalating feedback cycle of climate change consequences interacting and amplifying one another. This interaction and amplification feedback cycle is one of the most unseen, unrecognized, and dangerous parts of our climate change nightmare and emergency.

While there is a lot of difficult news about our current climate change condition on our website, please do not think that we have given up hope in this challenging task, or that there are few amazing benefits that we will receive when we fix climate change. When you're done reading this page, be sure to read the following link first, then read this link, which will help you maintain the realistic hope and balance we will all need to get through the climate challenge together. (The second article has been read by several million people.)

 

Introduction

We are already experiencing many of the climate consequences. Over the next several decades, we will, unfortunately, experience many more of the following primary and secondary consequences of climate change.

This will happen simply because we are failing horribly in reducing our global fossil fuel use! Over the last four decades, as shown in the chart below, no national or global climate conference, government action, mass public protest, or educational movement by any climate or environmental group has had a genuinely effective impact on slowing or stopping the rapid increase of dangerous carbon in the atmosphere. In fact, the truth is that increased carbon in the atmosphere, which causes ever-rising global warming, has shifted from a gradual and linear rise to an exponential one. 

 

 

Atmospheric carbon (CO2) as measured in parts per million (ppm) is the simplest, best, and easiest way to tell if we are making real climate progress in reducing global fossil fuel use and if our current climate change reduction strategies are working. It is the most effective way to measure our climate management success due to the immutable laws of physics. These immutable laws dictate that if atmospheric carbon ppm continues to rise, the average global temperature will continue to rise as it has faithfully done since the fossil fuel-powered industrial revolution began. (Carbon was at about 270 ppm level before the Industrial Revolution. It had been at about the 270 ppm level for hundreds of thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution began in around 1770.)

 

 

As you can see from the charts above, the current exponential increase of carbon in our atmosphere (primarily from burning fossil fuels) signals the collective failure of 40 years of strategies to slow climate change and that the climate emergency is getting worse at an even faster rate! (See the steeper line slope in the charts above as they approach 2022.)  

The above charts help underscore the painful fact that, as time passes, the following primary and secondary climate consequences will most likely continue to increase in frequency, severity, and scale.

The most important thing to remember is that, as the following primary and secondary climate consequences converge, they will bring about additional, later consequences even faster due to intrinsic climate feedback loops, synergies, interdependencies, and tipping points. Worse yet, as time passes, these climate change consequences will suddenly get exponentially worse, both unpredictably and regularly.

This is because these consequences will feed into and collide with each other, and they will also be exacerbated by the worsening of the other 12 major global crises. As you will soon see for yourself, no government, global corporation, or global NGO will be able to keep up with the damage caused by these accelerating and interacting primary and secondary climate consequences listed below. These collective primary and secondary consequences, which accelerate and occur simultaneously, will create unimaginable global chaos.

Many of the following primary and secondary climate consequences are interconnected and interdependent. Some climate consequences also exist in transformative relationships and within interconnected linear and non-linear cause-and-effect processes that can amplify or multiply the consequences of others, and in effect, further disrupt our ability to predict or control these consequences.

Never forget that the primary and secondary climate consequences listed below are critical and powerful warning signs to watch for in the news, indicating that our climate change emergency is accelerating and worsening in your area. This is a call to action, urging you to take steps before it is too late. 

When reading the climate change primary and secondary consequence lists, keep in mind that the consequences listed earlier on the lists are either currently occurring or will occur first. The consequences listed near the end of the list will take longer to unfold.

And finally, no single global warming consequence listed below by itself creates global collapse, complete human extinction, or our doomsday entirely. But, cumulatively, synergistically, and over time, as the primary and secondary climate consequences below increase and unfold in continuous waves, if left unchecked, they will bring about Climageddon, our global warming doomsday, and extinction.

 

How will primary and secondary runaway global heating-related consequences unfold as disruptors and threat multipliers, accelerating and amplifying a globalized extinction and collapse process?

"Unfortunately, most people do not realize it is not just the ever-increasing global warming heat that is so dangerous to our future; it is also all of the other primary and secondary climate-related consequences that will make the future a nightmare if we do not fix this mess immediately!" Lawrence Wollersheim

We will experience the following primary and secondary consequences of runaway global heating because we are failing miserably in reducing our global fossil fuel use. As time passes, the following consequences will continue to increase in frequency, severity, and scale.

 

The most important thing to remember as these consequences converge is that they will bring about later consequences more rapidly due to feedback loops, synergies, interdependencies, and tipping points. Worse yet, these runaway global heating consequences will suddenly become exponentially worse, unpredictably and regularly.

This is because these consequences will feed into and collide with each other, and they will also be fed by the worsening of our other 11 global crises! No government, global corporation, or global NGO will be able to keep up with these accelerating and interacting consequences. These primary and secondary consequences, accelerating and collectively occurring simultaneously, will create unimaginable global chaos.

Many of the following primary and secondary consequences are interconnected and interdependent. Some also exist in transformative relationships and within interconnected linear and non-linear processes that can amplify or multiply the consequences of the other, and in effect, further disrupt our ability to predict or control these consequences.

No single runaway global heating consequence, by itself, creates global collapse, complete human extinction, or our doomsday. However, cumulatively and synergistically, as the primary and secondary consequences below intensify and unfold in continuous waves, they will bring about Climageddon, our runaway global heating doomsday, and ultimately, our extinction.

The primary and secondary consequences listed below are critical and powerful warning signs to watch for in the news, indicating that our runaway global heating emergency is accelerating and worsening in your area, and that you should act before it is too late. 

When reading the lists of runaway global heating primary and secondary consequences, remember that the consequences listed earlier are currently occurring or will occur first. The consequences listed near the end of the lists will take longer to unfold.

(For those interested in more detailed timeframes, temperatures, and triggering events on when and how the following runaway global heating consequences will occur, please see the six unique phases of the Climageddon Extinction Scenario.)

One last and important collapse perspective to consider comes from the Post Carbon Institute:

“In reality, there are degrees of collapse, and history shows that the process has usually taken decades and sometimes centuries to unfold, often in stair-steps punctuated by periods of partial recovery. Further, it may be possible to intervene in collapse to improve outcomes for ourselves, our communities, our species, and thousands of other species. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, medieval Irish monks may have “saved civilization” by memorizing and transcribing ancient texts. Could we, with planning and motivation, do as much?”

 

The primary runaway global heating consequences and warning signs to watch to protect your immediate and long-term future

While reading the following 32 mostly natural primary global warming consequences listed below, keep in mind that there are also secondary consequences and warning signals. This secondary set of consequences and warning signals (further down) will show you how the mostly natural global warming consequences will directly affect you and your loved one's future well-being and survival. In addition, the secondary consequences will illustrate what will happen to humanity as the runaway global heating consequences unfold and interact with the other 12 global crises. 

As you read through the primary and secondary consequences, it will become clear how our economic, ecological, social, and political systems are destabilizing and coming ever closer to collapse. Taken collectively, the primary and secondary consequences and warning signs of accelerating runaway global heating provide a high-level, meta-systemic view of humanity's future. 

Where applicable, for both primary and secondary consequences, we have also listed what we refer to as panic-worthy or mega-warning signs. Although we do not want you to ever panic, these particular mega warning signs indicate that things are worsening very rapidly, even exponentially, and you have very little time left to prepare and adapt.

 

 

The primary phase one mostly natural global heating consequences and warning signs:

The primary consequences of global heating have already begun. They will worsen exponentially once we reach the carbon threshold of 425-450 ppm.

Above 450 ppm, we enter into climate hell. As you read the following list of consequences, remember that the first nine primary consequences below will also have profound temporary and long-term effects on world travel, tourism, and world trade. 

 

 

1. increased atmospheric heating, which increases the average global temperature. (This increased heat will cause many more days each summer and a growing season that will be near or over 100 degrees. This increased heat will make all kinds of outdoor activities more difficult and less productive.)

Increased heat during winter seasons will also lead to more frequent rain in winter, as well as hazardous freezing rain and ice storms. These winter ice and freezing rain storms will bring down power lines and disrupt transportation, production, and daily life. (Increased heating also increases atmospheric turbulence and extreme wind events. Airplane rides will get a lot bumpier as global heating accelerates.)

2. extreme storms of all kinds (hurricanes, tornadoes, wind storms [Derechos,] rain bombs, bomb cyclones, etc.) Regarding hurricanes, if you hear we have had a category six hurricane or, worse yet, a category seven hurricane, this is a panic-worthy mega warning sign. It means that things have taken a very steep turn toward the worst-case scenarios. (A category six hurricane starts at a wind speed of about 180 - 185 mph. A category seven hurricane would have winds of at least 210 - 215 mph. By this scale, Hurricane Dorian was our first category six hurricane.)

Think of more runaway global heating like heat under a pressure cooker. The more heat the pot (Earth) gets, the more the contents inside our atmosphere become more turbulent and churn and "boil" into extreme storms of ALL kinds. 

Due to the direct and indirect churning and boiling-off effects of increasing global warming, there is now anywhere from 5 to 8% more water vapor circulating throughout the world's atmosphere than just a generation ago. This increased water vapor, combined with temperatures that are driving water up from the deep ocean in places where hurricanes typically form, has created the ideal potential for the next generation of monster hurricanes, for which we are unprepared. So when you start seeing category six hurricanes hitting different parts of the world, you will know the future of humanity is in deep peril.

Rain bombs (when days or weeks' worth of rain falls in hours or days) will start occurring everywhere. These rain bombs will be particularly destructive in cities with older street drainage systems, which will be quickly overwhelmed. These rain bombs will unexpectedly flood areas of cities that have never flooded before.

3. Droughts (many areas of the world are currently experiencing runaway global heating-aggravated mega-droughts that have lasted one or more decades.) 

4. Desertification,

5. Increasing wildfires: Global wildfires burn roughly 865 million acres of land each year —an area five times larger than the size of Texas. Wildfires are expected to become more frequent and intense, and fire seasons are projected to last longer.

In the United States, approximately 7 to 9 million acres burn each year. Some studies predict a 50- to 100-percent increase in the area burned in the United States by 2050, with the most severe changes occurring in the Western states. It is reasonable to project that global wildfires will also increase by 50 to 100 percent in areas burned. Global wildfires are expected to cost humanity approximately $1 trillion annually by 2050.

The greatest cost of global wildfires accelerating in terms of acres burned as runaway global heating intensifies is not financial. Instead, it will be in the millions of tons of carbon that these wildfires release into the atmosphere, exceeding the amount we already release annually due to our current fossil fuel use.

In 2019, global forest fires released about 7.5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. As global forest fires increase by 50-100%, the additional carbon released into the atmosphere will further accelerate the rise in global temperatures. This 50-100% increase in global forest fires is another panic-worthy mega-warning signal, particularly if you see global wildfires rising rapidly to 50-100% levels. 

6. Shrinking sea ice, ice shelves, glaciers, and snowpack (this further destabilizes seasonal climates and many biological systems.)

7. Increasing flooding and sea-level rise. (If we are very, very lucky and we keep crossing climate tipping points as we are doing now, sea levels will rise by only 2-4 or more feet (2/3 meter to 1 and 1/3 meter) by 2050 and 4-10 feet (1 and 1/3 meter to 3 and 1/3 meters) by 2100. 

Fifty percent of the global population lives at sea level. Based upon an unrealistically low 3-inch sea-level rise prediction, the chart below shows that hundreds of millions of people will be displaced. This displacement will create massive migrations that no country is prepared to absorb.

 

 

 

Sea levels rising by as little as one foot will cause immediate, massive property losses worldwide, followed by the sudden migration of hundreds of millions away from coastal areas. A sea-level rise of 2 feet or more will cause billions of coastal dwellers to migrate. Worse yet, we are unprepared to abandon many of the world's largest coastal cities.

The illustration below does not include compensating calculations for crossing any climate tipping points. This lack of allowance for climate tipping points means the cities illustrated below will flood far faster than is shown below. Many of the worst sea-level flooding catastrophes are now just a few decades away!

 

 

Moreover, should we not make radical global reductions in fossil fuel use soon, sea levels will eventually rise by about 230 feet over the next few centuries. If that was not bad enough, we have already baked in 60-100 feet (20-30 meters) of sea-level rise. This baked-in rise is due to the carbon and methane that have been released into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. 

Massive sea-level rise is the vast, slow-moving global mega-catastrophe barrelling toward us. Currently, sea levels are rising by about 2 inches every decade, which is double the rate of increase seen just one decade ago. Suppose we add all the climate tipping points that will be crossed soon. In that case, sea levels will continue to increase exponentially, rather than gradually or linearly. 

The illustrations below also do not factor in any crossed climate tipping points. As a result, its worst-case scenario in red is likely considerably underestimated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you see sea levels start rising by anything close to an inch per year, you have reached another panic-worthy mega-warning sign!

8. increased toxic air pollution and air pollution-related deaths and diseases from the global burning and use of carbon and methane-based fossil fuels and other greenhouse gasses. Additionally, wildfire smoke (full of the most health-damaging PM 2.5 particles will increase 50-100% over the next several decades due to increasing heat and droughts.

Air pollution, a key consequence of global warming, often receives the least attention in discussions about climate change. Yet, in many ways, it has the most significant impact on a personal level. This is because air pollution from fossil fuel burning is a slow and invisible cause of excruciatingly painful respiratory disease and death. It is also responsible for aggravating many other diseases.

Directly or indirectly, air pollution causes approximately 11 to 13% (about 1 in 8) of ALL global deaths each year. (About 60 million people die globally each year.) According to a recent World Health Organization survey, 40 percent of deaths linked to outdoor air pollution are from heart disease, another 40 percent from strokes, 11 percent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 6 percent from lung cancer (30), and 3 percent from acute lower respiratory infections in children. 

China has the highest number of air pollution-related fatalities, with nearly 1.4 million deaths annually. India has 645,000, and Pakistan has 110,000. To put this in perspective, air pollution kills more people yearly than malaria and AIDS combined! Because air pollution supports weed growth, it is also a major accelerator of allergy attacks. It has been directly linked to asthma. Over the past 20 years, a notable doubling of pediatric asthma prevalence has been observed. 

This toxic air pollution also exacerbates pre-existing health conditions such as bronchitis and emphysema. Air pollution from fossil fuel burning also dramatically increases national and international health costs, and the burden for those increased health costs falls squarely upon individual taxpayers. Paul Epstein, from the Harvard School of Public Health, found that the hidden costs of burning coal in the U.S. alone are $345 billion per year.

The worst news is that in the future, there will be many more than just the 1 in 8 global deaths attributed directly or indirectly to runaway global heating and fossil fuel-related air pollution. Do not be surprised to see a 1 in 7 to a 1 in 5 global death rate in the future. This increase in the death rate is likely related to the rise in fossil fuel air pollution, as greenhouse gas amounts (such as carbon and methane) continue to rise in our atmosphere.

9. Ever-increasing starvation worldwide. This starvation will primarily result from crop failures and reductions in crop yields. Crops will fail or be stunted because of runaway global heating, aggravated heatwaves, rain bombs, droughts, flooding, wildfires, out-of-season cold spells, hail, Derechos (severe wind storms), and other extreme weather or seasonal destabilization. 

Please note that the world's five principal grains (rice, wheat, maize [corn], millet, and sorghum) are particularly vulnerable to massive crop failure. This crop failure occurs when temperatures (heat waves) are near or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 30 days during their regular growing seasons.

This increasing starvation will lead to mass migration, which in turn will cause even more widespread starvation and soaring food prices. Additionally, increased mass migrations will likely generate more local, regional, and national conflicts, as well as economic instability. 

 

 

Mass global starvation resulting from crop failures and low harvests, along with its chain reaction of other downstream consequences, will be the primary driver of the die-off of much of humanity by mid-century. Mass global starvation and resulting mass migrations will also be significant underlying factors behind the increasing local criminality. People desperate for food and resources will always do what they must to survive.

The runaway global heating-triggered die-off of much of humanity will not occur all at once or suddenly around mid-century. It is happening already, and the runaway global heating-fueled die-off will continue to kill more people every year for the next ten years on a rapidly rising linear curve. After that, each year, annual deaths will start to go up exponentially until by mid-century, 50% or more of humanity is no longer alive. 

Another factor that will exacerbate global starvation is panic, excessive food buying, and hoarding. Panic buying waves would likely occur as more people witnessed major crop failures, soaring local food prices, or regional food distribution failures. 

Falling crop yields, growing local, regional, and national crop failures, and soaring food prices will lead to increased starvation on a scale never seen before. This food issue is a critical warning sign of rapidly rising instability in social and economic systems. Keep a very close watch on lowered crop yields and crop failures in the news, as well as in your grocery bills. 

10. Increasing deaths and debilitating illnesses from the toxic plastic by-products of fossil fuels. As plastics produced from fossil fuels decompose, they eventually break down into toxic micro-particles. These harmful microplastic particles are turning up in soils, water, and oceans to such a degree that they are found in most fish and much of the plants and animals we eat.

The microplastic particle explosion poses a significant threat to long-term human health. New studies show that these strange microplastic particles cannot be adequately processed by the body and are linked to an increased risk of cancer and other illnesses. As more research is done on our food and water supplies, this toxic microplastic by-product of fossil fuels may create more long-term problems than the poisonous carbon and other atmospheric pollution it produces when we burn fossil fuels.

 

 

Once we cross the 425 ppm carbon tipping point, we pass a point of no return, and we begin an unavoidable and continually worsening die-off of much of humanity by mid-century. If we continue as we are now, we are projected to reach the 425 ppm carbon level by 2025. (We did reach carbon 425 ppm in late 2024.)

 

 

 

Once we cross the 425 ppm carbon level, we will rapidly surpass the 2 degrees Celsius global temperature increase threshold, and we will be unable to stop ourselves from eventually reaching a 4 degrees Celsius global temperature increase level. (If you want all of the details on this first critical atmospheric carbon tipping point level, go to this pageand to the section called "The first extinction-accelerating tipping point that we will cross at or before 2025: the carbon 425-450 ppm tipping point.") 

The distinguished Professor of Meteorology, Michael Mann from the University of Pennsylvania, recently stated that once we reach a carbon dioxide level of 405 ppm in our atmosphere, a 2 degrees C average global temperature increase is already baked in. Once that happens, there is nothing we can do to stop it! 

(As of July of 2024, we are currently at about 425 ppm, adding an average of 3 new carbon PPM per year.) 

Because of global warming tipping points and positive feedback loops, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director emeritus and founder of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, believes that if we go much above 2° C, we will quickly get to 4° C anyway and, a 4° C increase would spell the end of human civilization.

Johan Rockström, the head of one of Europe's leading climate research institutes, warned that in a 4°C warmer world, it would be "difficult to see how we could accommodate a billion people or even half of that. Not even a rich minority world survive with modern lifestyles in the post-4°C-warmer turbulent, conflict-ridden world". 

Many other climate scientists have warned that once the climate warms 4 degrees C above our preindustrial average global temperature, human adaptation to these temperature levels will be all but impossible!

We have crossed the 425 ppm carbon tipping point, which will rapidly take us to a 4-degree Celsius warmer world and all its horrors. Also, take a look at the atmospheric carbon (CO2) ppm graph just below. This graph reveals our future runaway global heating temperatures and that we have made no progress in reducing atmospheric carbon levels, despite 40 years of valid scientific warnings.

This rise in carbon is also occurring despite the numerous past global climate conferences (29) and decades of international government agreements aimed at reducing global fossil fuel use. 

 

 

12. increased releases of methane from melting tundra and permafrost (methane as a heat-producing greenhouse gas is about 80 times more potent than carbon in the atmosphere). If you hear about a sudden massive increase in permafrost melting far beyond what was predicted, this is another mega-warming sign. 

The atmospheric methane (CH4) graph below is in parts per billion.

 

 

 

In addition to the methane time bomb, there is a permafrost and carbon time bomb, which is also going to make things a lot worse a lot faster than we have previously predicted. Click here to watch a short Public Broadcasting Service video that explains the permafrost and carbon time bomb.

13. Accelerating reef collapses around the world negatively affect fish spawning and feeding areas, leading to further collapse of global fish populations, which in turn causes increased human starvation worldwide. (This is because fish protein is a major source of food for up to 70% of the world's poorer populations.) 

14. new disease outbreaks, epidemics, and more COVID-19-like pandemics in areas where they have never been before. (This is due to loss of natural animal habitat, eating more wild animals, additional melting of the permafrost, overcrowding, less resilient health systems, and mass migrations. Because of accelerating runaway global heating consequences, we could soon be experiencing COVID-19-type pandemics as often as every decade.)

15. increasing economic losses. (Most nations will spend an ever-increasing percentage of their total gross domestic product (GDP) directly or indirectly paying for the many growing consequences of the runaway global heating emergency. (Estimates for how much of a nation's total GDP will be spent on dealing with rising runaway global heating consequences run from about 5% within a decade to as high as 30% within about 30 years.)

16. Increased ocean acidification (Ocean heating and ocean acidification from carbon from runaway global heating will eventually kill off much of the oceans' oxygen-producing plankton. These plankton are responsible for as much as 50% of all oxygen produced on the planet.) 

17. decreased albedo from reduced snow cover, ice, and sea ice extent. When sufficient sunlight and atmospheric heat reach the ice, it melts. This also causes increased Arctic, Antarctic, and global heat due to the lowered albedo effect resulting from the reduced presence of ice. This decreased albedo effect also increases the melting of ice, wetlands, or permafrost. (See Albedo effect illustration below.)

 

 

 

 

This is very bad because melting permafrost contains truly massive amounts of carbon and much worse than carbon methane gas that would also be released into our atmosphere, raising average global temperatures and pushing us much closer and far faster into a self-accelerating runaway global heating scenario.

Suppose you hear about far more arctic ice being melted, or melted far sooner or longer than expected. In that case, this is another significant warning sign because the presence of ice and its albedo effect have a profound influence on global weather, seasonal patterns, and critical ocean currents. Suppose you see the preceding happening faster than expected. In that case, you can rely upon all types of weather becoming more extreme, unpredictable, and frequent.

 

The primary phase three global heating consequences and warning signs:

18. as the preceding consequences occur, real estate prices will drop and then begin steeper declines in the areas most affected by global warming consequences. In areas most severely affected by the consequences of global warming, insurance coverage prices are expected to continue rising, and cancellations will also increase. 

How will you deal with the massive insurance cancellations, failures to renew, and exponential increases in home, business, mortgage, and crop failure insurance? (This is occurring already as local, state, national, and international insurance and reinsurance companies rapidly quit all global warming high-risk areas and export and externalize those anticipated climate losses onto unprepared governments and nonprofit organizations. 

The world's insurance agencies are already doing this due to the anticipated hundreds of trillions of dollars in climate consequence losses worldwide. Climate change consequences are predicted to cost nations soon 5% or more of their total GDP. 

Innovative insurance companies will not make themselves responsible for or expose themselves to out-of-control escalating climate risks because they know it will bankrupt all of them! Additionally, on renewal, many insurance companies are already adding new climate change exemption clauses to their existing policies. 

These new exemptions will specifically deny climate change-related damages for most extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, flooding, rain bombs, wind storms [Derechos], dust storms, wildfire smoke events, unseasonable cold spells, and other abnormal unseasonal weather. The rising result of more insurance companies declining more high-risk climate change-affected coverages will be many more homes, businesses, and farms suddenly losing all or most of their value because they could not be insured (or the rates for that insurance would be beyond affordability.)

Simultaneously, real estate prices will rise and continue to rise in the areas that will be least affected by the accelerating consequences of global warming. As the listed global warming consequences increase in frequency, severity, and scale, the described destabilizing real estate pricing and the unsettling insurance changes will increase at even faster rates. (For more information on worldwide insurance cancellations, denials, and soaring rates for climate change-related policies and risks, see our new article by clicking here.)

19. as the preceding consequences occur, home and business insurance rates will rise steadily in the areas most affected by runaway global heating consequences. At some point, insurance companies will begin canceling existing home and business insurance policies in all high-risk areas affected by runaway global heating. At the same time, home and business insurance rates will be more favorable in the areas that will be least affected by the accelerating consequences of runaway global heating. 

As more runaway global heating consequences occur, home and business insurance rates and insurance cancellations will increase even faster. When home and business owners can't get fire, flood, and other critical insurance at manageable rates, it becomes far more challenging to maintain or sell existing homes or businesses. This growing uninsurability eventually causes the resale prices of homes or businesses to crash. (For more information on worldwide insurance cancellations, denials, and soaring rates for climate change-related policies and risks, see our new article by clicking here.)

20. increased clean drinking water scarcity,

21. Forests that were a major stabilizing force absorbing carbon have become neutral in their carbon absorption. This means these forests will stop taking in carbon from the atmosphere. 

Some forest locations, such as the Amazon and the Boreal, are already releasing their vast carbon stores, which is pushing temperatures higher even faster. As runaway global heating worsens, many more forests will begin releasing carbon instead of absorbing it. (It is not just forests that take in carbon from the atmosphere. Other global vegetation can do the same thing. This new study estimates that the ability of our global vegetation to absorb atmospheric carbon will decline by 50% by 2040. This is decades ahead of earlier predictions.) This shift from forests and vegetation absorbing carbon to releasing massive amounts of carbon is another significant warning sign.

22. mass human migrations to the runaway global heating safer zones. In 2019, the United Nations estimated that 100 million individuals migrated from high-risk areas to safer countries or regions due to the deteriorating climate in their homelands. Look for future climate migrations to soar to billions of people over the following decades. These massive accelerating migrations will create a whole series of new problems and emergencies unseen in human history. (You will also hear about these mass migrations more frequently in the news. They will often be described as "conflict" migrations. These are mass migrations initially caused by the consequences of runaway global heating, which you are reading about, that will make living conditions impossible or unbearable. These dire conditions then cause the local population to react or rebel because of their many accelerating, runaway global heating-enhanced hardships.)

 

The primary phase four global heating consequences and warning signs:

23. The runaway melting of all global ice on Earth is the second major tipping point in global warming. It is estimated to occur when we reach a carbon level of 500 ppm sometime between 2042 and 2067. 

 

 

 

When we cross the 500 ppm carbon level, all ice and all glaciers on Earth will enter a near-unstoppable process of complete meltdown. Yes, you read that right! At a carbon level of 500 ppm, we begin the melting of all global ice.

Crossing the 500 ppm carbon threshold has, in fact, repeatedly occurred in Earth's geological history. When it occurred, the sea level inevitably rose to the 70 meters (230 feet) range. At our current annual carbon ppm emission rates, we will reach the catastrophic 500 ppm carbon range in just 20-25 more years or less. Worse yet, this global melting tipping point may not reverse itself for centuries to thousands of years once we stop carbonizing our atmosphere.

Suppose we cross that critical tipping point, passing the atmospheric carbon level of 500 parts per million (ppm). In that case, our average global temperature will eventually rise to 4°C (7.2°F). At 4°C, a large portion of humanity (hundreds of millions to billions) will die of runaway global heating caused by crop failure and other runaway global heating-related starvation, or die and suffer from increased heat's 19 other related consequences. Governments and society will collapse in most areas of the world between the 35th parallel north and the 35th parallel south.

Even though it will take many centuries for the seas to rise to the full 230 feet, there still will be shocking spurts of sea-level rise within those centuries where the sea level rises to 10 feet or more in just a few decades, as it also has done repeatedly in Earth's past. 

Please take a moment to visualize the seas eventually but steadily rising in spurts by 230 feet, and consider what this will mean for our coastal cities, national borders, and the generations that follow us. Please take a moment to visualize the ever-increasing massive crop failures worldwide, due to rising temperatures and the consequent widespread suffering from slow starvation, as we approach and surpass the 500 ppm carbon level.

To read the precise, detailed, and complex climate processes, steps, actions, and reactions that take place as we cross the carbon 500 ppm tipping point, please go to this page and go to the section called "The second global warming tipping point that we will cross as soon as 2042-2067 or earlier: It creates a runaway global ice melt." (We are currently in 2021 at about carbon 420, adding an average of 3 new carbon PPM per year.) 

Long before the world reaches the carbon 550 ppm extinction-accelerating tipping point, there will be smaller but key melting glaciers to watch for in the news. One of them is the Thwaites "Doomsday Glacier" in Antarctica, often called the Doomsday Glacier. Scientists recently predicted Thwaites could break away into the sea in as little as the next few decades.

Suppose Thwaites does soon cross key internal tipping points and break off and slide into the sea, and the glaciers behind it start breaking off into the sea. In that case, it will lead to as much as a 10-foot sea-level rise in just a matter of decades. 

Approximately half of the human population lives near a seacoast. If we experience a 10-foot sea level rise in a matter of decades, 4 billion people will be dislocated. This will create economic, real estate, and social chaos.

This 10-foot sea-level rise will not happen because of the immense size of the Thwaites glacier itself. Instead, it will happen because once the Thwaites glacier is in the ocean, it will no longer hold and prevent other large glaciers from sliding off the Antarctic mountains into the sea in an unstoppable chain reaction. 

When the Thwaites glacier slides into the ocean, we have crossed a major climate-destabilizing tipping point. When Thwaites breaks off, it is a major warning sign that runaway global heating consequences will worsen rapidly, and many other climate tipping points will soon be crossed. It is past your final warning to get your emergency preparations or relocation adaptations in order unless you want to try to prepare or adapt in the middle of an emergency when everyone else is also desperately trying to get whatever they need. Take a moment to imagine what a sudden 10-foot global sea rise over a few decades would do to coastal communities and cities worldwide. 

Please take the time to read this 8.5.22 update on the detailed consequences of the Thwaites "doomsday glacier." (If you are located anywhere near a coastal area, the consequences of the collapse of this one glacier (now estimated to occur about 2025-2028) will affect most of your future life business and survival plans.) 

There are other significant melting glaciers in Antarctica (Larson A or Larson B) and in Greenland, which, individually or collectively, can raise global sea level by several inches to several feet. These glacier events will also lead to an increase in global coastal catastrophes. 

When you hear about even these smaller glaciers reaching their tipping points, just about to break off, or actually breaking off, it is time to get very concerned. These events signal that the interconnected and interdependent "soup" of runaway global heating-related consequences you are reading on this page is about to get a whole lot worse very fast!

Giant melting glaciers sliding off their landmasses into the sea is likely the first and one of the most severe sets of crossed tipping points you will soon hear more about in the news. Worse yet, there is no fix for these sudden and glacier-driven unstoppable sea level rises once they occur.

 

(If you have not done so already, in alignment with the above illustration, please take the time to read about one very hazardous glacier collapse in particular. It is genuinely critical to your immediate and future well-being. Click here to read about the 2-3 foot quick and severe global sea level rise consequences of the Thwaites "doomsday glacier." It will describe our first truly global climate catastrophe. This soon-collapsing massive glacier will give you a powerful glimpse into the global economic, social, and political turmoil that just this one major collapsing glacier will create.)

It is essential to remember that whenever you hear about a tipping point being crossed in one part of the climate system, you can count on it feeding, pushing, and triggering other climate tipping points beyond their own tipping points. (For an overview of the 11 key climate tipping points and how tipping points occur and unfold, click here.

24. increased animal and insect migrations and the diseases that accompany such migrations, 

25. loss of biodiversity through more extinctions,

26. at some point, the "big single consequence," major crossed climate tipping point, or a group of runaway global heating consequences will occur. This group of runaway global heating consequences will be so enormous that the extinction emergency can no longer be ignored. It will take a single global warming catastrophe in a developed country that causes that society $ 500 billion to $1 trillion in total damages for the world to take this seriously and finally act.

When this $0.5 to $1 trillion catastrophe occurs, far more people globally will take notice and finally begin preparing for further predicted worsening disasters or migrating if needed. Once this single incident reaches a financially critical cost point, the facts of the escalating Climageddon that we all will face will no longer be able to be hidden from the average citizen.

Be sure to watch for this critical financial warning signal, as once it occurs, many aspects of managing runaway global heating and its consequences will begin to change at a much faster pace. However, unfortunately, it will likely be far too late to resolve the most severe threats.

 

 

 

27. Jet stream disruption (additional disruption of seasonal weather patterns). Shifting jet streams will significantly alter long-established weather patterns. This is already being observed in many parts of the world, where normal rainfall, snowfall, and seasonal temperatures are becoming increasingly unpredictable and extreme.

In what may sound like a paradox, runaway global heating will also produce cold waves in some areas due to the changing location of jet streams and ocean currents. In some places, winter storms have already become more frequent and intense.

28. Oceans are overheating, and instead of absorbing atmospheric carbon, they begin releasing it (which also further increases global heating, all of which results in more heat speeding up the whole process of more positive feedback loops, more points of no return, and more crossed tipping points.)

29. Soils overheating, and instead of absorbing atmospheric carbon, this will cause the soils also to begin releasing more carbon back into the atmosphere, further increasing heat.

30. Slowing continues in the Atlantic Current. This further destabilizes global weather patterns and our regular hot, cold, rainy, and seasonal cycles, including winter and summer. (8.6.2021 update: New research shows the Atlantic current has destabilized. This current destabilization will radically change stable weather patterns, particularly in Europe, but also in other areas near the current.) This is also a significant warning sign due to the radical weather and seasonal temperature changes that this current slowdown will bring. 

31. Increasing amounts of methane are already being continuously released from methane clathrate crystals on coastal shelves because of ever-warming oceans. This will be the third major tipping point in the global warming phenomenon. This third tipping point is also the point at which we begin the process of near-total extinction.

This methane release from methane clathrate crystals further increases heat and probable ocean current changes, which will result in even more extreme weather changes, all of which once again result in more global heat, speeding up the whole process of more positive feedback loops, more points of no return, and crossing more dangerous tipping points. 

The 600 ppm carbon level marks the beginning of a runaway mass methane release tipping point from methane clathrate crystals and the start of our near-total extinction. It is estimated to occur sometime between 2063 and 2072 (or sooner) or when we reach a carbon level of 600 ppm, whichever comes sooner. 

When we cross the carbon 600 ppm final extinction level, it will result in raising the average global temperature to 5°C (9 degrees Fahrenheit) and bring about even more massive methane clathrate releases from coastal ocean shelves as it has done before in the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago, and most notably the Permian–Triassic extinction event, when up to 96% of all marine species became extinct, about 252 million years ago. 

Please click here to watch a short video that brilliantly explains the methane extinction process once we start releasing methane clathrate from our coastal shelves. 

New research indicates that the new ocean shelf methane release process begins once we reach just 5°C, and by 6°C, it is in full bloom. 

To make matters even worse, additional methane releases from the permafrost will also increase at significantly faster rates at these higher global temperatures.) 

Because methane, when released as a gas from permafrost, coastal shelves, or fracking, is 86 times more potent than carbon as a temperature-increasing greenhouse gas, it will once again rapidly spike up the average global temperatures.

See how we have also radically increased the amounts of methane we have released into the atmosphere, just like we have done with carbon in the graph below. (CH4 is the chemical name of methane.)

 

 

The above graph (found at https://www.methanelevels.org) shows the exponential increase in total atmospheric methane levels from all sources, particularly over the last 50 years up to the current date and month. Increasing atmospheric methane may be the most alarming mega-warning sign that our governments are not adequately tracking or disclosing. 

(Please take the time to read the precise, detailed, and complex processes, steps, actions, and reactions that take place as we cross the carbon 600 ppm tipping point. Go to this page and go to the section called "The third global warming tipping point we will most probably cross as soon as 2063-2072 or earlier: It creates runaway methane releases accelerating the near-total extinction threat," or click the global methane level (CH4) image above. 

When massive methane clathrate releases from coastal ocean shelves begin to occur, we are looking at the beginning of near-total or total human extinction unfolding before or around 2070.

32. massive tectonic plate weight change from weight changes in melting ice and rising seas above the tectonic plates causing increased earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all of which, except the earthquakes and volcanoes, result in more heat speeding up the whole process of more positive feedback loops, more points of no return and crossing more tipping points.

33. The big runaway global heating, near-total extinction, and final global warming tipping point. This global warming extinction tipping point is estimated to begin when we reach a carbon level of 750 ppm, sometime between 2070 and 2090 (or sooner). (Please read the precise, detailed, and complex climate processes, steps, actions, and reactions that take place as we cross the carbon 750 ppm tipping point. Go to this page and go to the section called "The fourth and most dangerous global warming near-total extinction tipping point that we will begin crossing into sometime after 2070: It creates the runaway greenhouse gas effect global and near-total extinction," or click the image of the atmosphere being ripped off the planet below.

 

 

 

We strongly recommend that you copy the above runaway global heating emergency warning signs and consequences and post them on a wall. As you hear new media reports, you will be able to see the consequence patterns evolving, and this will assist you in adjusting your emergency preparations.

 

7. What happens when most of our 12 global crises "feed" into each other's consequences and are amplified by runaway global heating

Welcome to the rapidly unfolding first great mass human extinction and global collapse.

The future is not just a single global crisis getting worse. Most of the 12 crises are getting worse simultaneously, and these individual global crises are pushing other global crises faster and faster toward their internal tipping points. This cumulative and synergistic process, where most of the 12 interconnected and often interdependent global crises push each other over their internal tipping points, will produce a sudden and abrupt global collapse that will be almost impossible to recover from for nearly all existing nations.

This worsening situation means that those living today (and future generations) will face a cascading convergence of worsening global catastrophes. These accelerating and worsening catastrophes, collectively, will render the possibility of a stable, predictable, or livable future impossible.

If left poorly managed as they are now, hundreds of millions, then billions, will suffer and die from the cumulative effects of the primary and secondary effects of runaway global heating. Paradoxically, because so many will die, many of the above global crises will lessen dramatically or be radically reduced because there will be so many fewer people left competing or fighting for survival or using fossil fuels. Click here, and it will explain how Mother Nature's die-off "tough medicine" will save some of us from total extinction.

There also could be a point where most of the coming human die-off of about half of humanity will not be coming solely from starvation, direct global heating consequences, or the other 11 global challenges being worsened by runaway global heating. It will most likely originate from scarce resources or border conflicts that will first escalate regionally, then nationally, and eventually internationally, using traditional weapons. Eventually, as the extinction, collapse, and chaos continue, the conflicts will likely become nuclear, biological, or chemical as the remaining stable nations desperately try to protect their boundaries and survival. 

Take a few moments at this point. Ask yourself the following questions. How long do you think humanity can muddle on into the 21st century without effectively resolving the runaway global heating extinction emergency and the 11 other critical global challenges? Will we last until only 2040, 2050, 2060, 2070, or the end of the 21st century? Informed global climate change and other crisis analysts believe humanity will be fortunate to survive into the late 2040s or 2050s.

Now ask yourself: Are our leaders and governments effectively handing over all, most, or even any of these 12 critical global crises to our future? If you are having any trouble envisioning or understanding how the 13 global challenges will interact with each other and bring an unprepared humanity to the very edge of near-total extinction, we have created a special page with illustrations to help you see how this Climageddon Feedback Loop will unfold. Click here to go to that page.

The reality is that no existing emergency preparedness program, government, NGO, or international organization is even remotely prepared for or capable of recovering from the convergence of Earth's greatest global crises, fueled and accelerated by the great disruptor and keystone threat multiplier of accelerating runaway global heating. 

The "Great Convergence" of these 12 global challenges creates a whole planetary system-level emergency never before seen or experienced in human history. This "Great Convergence" is also the 'perfect storm of perfect storms' and the most likely spiraling initiator and combined cause for the extinction of the human species and the collapse of civilization within 3-7 decades. (The latest 2004 update of the Club of Rome study antici­pated that by around 2050, with a "business as usual" industry and the world population growth, over 70% of humanity could perish. Additionally, everyone left on the planet would be severely impacted.)  

To help you understand only the global warming side of "Great Global Collapse," review the following runaway global heating cascading meltdown illustration starting from the bottom up! Starting from the bottom, this illustration reflects the unfolding natural progression of ever-worsening and interacting consequences with tipping points and feedback processes that will occur as global heating continues to escalate, pushing us toward our extinction.

The top of the illustration shows you the later phase Climageddon Scenario extinction model consequences. The bottom shows you the earlier consequences. For now, get a general idea of all the runaway global heating consequences, tipping points, and human system factors that will be interacting and colliding, as well as amplifying and multiplying each other as the Climageddon extinction scenario unfolds in phases and waves. (Full explanations of each tipping point and consequence are found here, the 11 key global warming tipping points and here, the 20 worst global warming consequences.)

Remember to review this illustration from the bottom up, beginning with the heating effect of global warming escalating!

 

 

The above illustration helps to illuminate how the Great Global Collapse will likely unfold and how it will affect everyone in its path in one way or another, directly or indirectly, as the above list of heat-driven global warming-related consequences increases in severity, frequency, and scale (because we fail to meet the life-critical 2025 global fossil fuel reduction targets.)

Well, before we reach humanity's predicted climate change-driven mass extinction by about 2050, the likelihood that humanity will destroy itself near-totally in much larger multi-regional or global conflicts before 2050 is exceptionally high. Here's why.

After we have crossed our last chance atmospheric carbon 450 ppm threshold and tipping point, humanity's mass extinction by about 2050 will be driven mainly by starvation, mass migrations, and localized conflicts. But there is also an exceptionally high probability of much larger conflicts occurring due to climate change's many accelerating secondary consequences. 

These secondary consequences include intensifying smaller-scale localized resource conflicts, which will also create much larger-scale national, international, and global conflicts.

The many extinction-accelerating secondary consequences of climate change are described in full about halfway down this page. We strongly recommend reading about the secondary consequences of climate change, as it will help you to understand the suffering and death caused by these consequences on a visceral and intimate level. 

(Click here also to learn why human extinction by about 2050-2070 might be only near-total extinction, not the far worse total extinction, but only if we do not keep our atmospheric carbon levels below the carbon 450 parts per million. level.)

 

8. How the human system and interconnected secondary runaway global heating consequences will interact with, accelerate, and amplify our other 11 major global crises

The following more detailed secondary consequences will also occur as we grow closer to the extinction of about half of humanity and the collapse of global civilization. While you are reading the following secondary consequences, imagine how these consequences might also control or destroy essential areas of your life, family, business, or nation. 

Most of the following secondary consequences are contextually interconnected and interdependent. Some also exist in transformational relationships and processes, which can amplify or multiply each other's consequences or, worse yet, disrupt our ability to control these consequences.

Many of the following secondary consequences of runaway global heating are already occurring today to some extent. When reading the following list of secondary consequences of global collapse, keep in mind that the primary consequences listed earlier are already occurring or will occur first. The secondary consequences listed near the end of the following list will take longer to unfold.

The secondary consequences of the human system listed below are also critical warning signs to watch for in the news, indicating that the global collapse process is worsening or accelerating in your area. 

Many of the following secondary consequences of runaway global heating are powerful drivers that will accelerate mass migrations from high-risk areas. 

What people seldom realize about the primary and even the secondary consequences of global warming is that they not only affect the area in which they occur, but also have broader impacts. They often will cause massive disruptions in areas surrounding where the consequences occurred. Expect significant disruptions in the distribution of food, medicine, and other products vital to day-to-day life in the surrounding areas. 

It is crucial to say that well before we reach the mass extinction point (driven mainly through starvation, mass migrations, and localized conflicts by about 2050,) once we have crossed the carbon 450 ppm tipping point, the likelihood that humanity will destroy itself near-totally in much larger multi-regional or global conflicts and wars is exceptionallyhigh. This unusually high probability of much larger conflicts and wars is directly due to the many accelerating secondary consequences of climate change, which will naturally trigger larger-scale conflicts and wars. (These dangerous secondary consequences of climate change are described fully about 1/2 way down  this page.)

 

9. The secondary, more dangerous, quality-of-life runaway global heating consequences, warning signals, and predictions for your immediate and long-term future

For most people, it is painful and challenging to grasp that "as bad as the primary consequences of runaway global heating are (listed above,) the secondary consequences below (driven directly or indirectly by accelerating runaway global heating) will be far worse!" This is because the secondary consequences will more directly affect and destabilize your day-to-day personal life. 

Many of these secondary consequences are already occurring or will occur concurrently with many of the later primary consequences as they unfold! Imagine your worst visions of an expanding Mad Max-like dystopian world as the mass human extinction deepens. Imagine a world where police, mental health, prison, medical, governmental systems, and governments are collapsing or have collapsed.

Imagine roaming warlords, criminal gangs, and starving people fighting for survival, taking whatever they want whenever they want. That is a small glimpse of the descending hell of the worsening secondary consequences that will unfold as the primary, runaway global heating consequences also unfold. 

One of the most significant cumulative effects of the primary consequences occurring concurrently with the secondary global heating consequences will be the rapid deterioration of the rule of law that holds modern societies together. Once the cumulative global heating consequences disrupt the rule of law (and order,) national economies will fall, and then the national political systems will be affected. One could argue that any politician not working to mitigate global heating and its numerous disruptive consequences may be considered to be acting in a manner that is treasonous to the existence and stability of their nation. 

 

Here are the secondary and indirect consequences and warning signals of accelerating climate change:

1. Due to increased global warming and other global challenges, as well as work disruptions and stresses, the total human capacity to work outside enclosures and even inside will decline significantly. This will lead to more business and product distribution interruptions, increased business and personal uncertainty, unemployment, and homelessness. 

2. As we experience the worsening of climate change-related consequences as described on this page, there will be more shortages of necessary raw and manufactured resources. Due to increasing climate-related work interruptions and other climate consequences listed on this page, the dependable production and distribution of food, medical supplies, and other essential goods will continue to be significantly reduced or disrupted entirely. 

The critical thing to understand about shortages of raw and manufactured resources is that they bring out the worst in people. Resource shortages in populations have been shown in numerous studies to lead to increased competitiveness, aggression, polarization, "othering," and blame. When a population faces the duress of resource shortages, they often look for scapegoats to blame for their conditions and frequently target those who are perceived as "othered" for severe retribution. These reactions to natural resource scarcity will further exacerbate living conditions considerably. 

Social, economic, and political polarization, which is already significant and widespread worldwide, may, of and by itself, use other worsening consequences on this page as a trigger for initiating massive civil disorder long before the worst climate consequences can unfold. To say the world is highly volatile right now and that many of its existing economic and political systems (listed above in the global crises section) are already weakened, and that it won't take much of a match to explode global societal stability is a vast understatement.

 

 

 

As a result of the anticipated resource shortages and other problems listed, individuals, businesses, and nations will need to store significantly more emergency backup supplies, become more resilient and adaptable, and, in many cases, begin directly producing their food and other critical supplies locally. (During the COVID pandemic, we saw this resource supply and distribution crisis occur globally, nationally, and even locally in manufacturing, supply, and distribution chains.)

3. There will be less food available from failed and shrinking food crops due to the accelerating and escalating consequences of climate change. The factors that will wreak havoc on crops are extreme heat lasting 30 days or more during the growing season; hail; wildfires; droughts; fields flooding for extended periods after planting or during the growing season due to rain bombs; high wind events like Derechos or hurricanes; nonseasonal weather; and other extreme weather which will continue to increase in frequency, severity, and scale. It cannot be emphasized enough that starvation will be a leading and ever-escalating cause of increasing human death as we approach mid-century beyond anything we can envision today.

4. Due to prolonged droughts, long-held water rights will be lost to emergency government regulations as sporadic and long-term droughts affect vital areas of nations. Despite existing water rights and laws, governments will be compelled to intervene and seize those rights to provide water for their citizens and other essential uses.

5. Food prices will rise considerably more than the normal cost-of-living increases. Most food costs will go up by an estimated 30% or more in the next 3-9-7 years! (For example, fish prices will rise considerably as the remaining over-stressed fish stocks are depleted to near extinction.

6. More and more people will be starving worldwide. No charity, NGO, or government agency responsible for emergencies and disaster recovery will ever be able to keep up with the costs of the food, housing, medical, or other needs created by continuously escalating climate catastrophes as they continue to increase in frequency, severity, and scale.

This starvation and increasing shortages of medical and other critical supplies will drive people to unfathomable violence to meet their survival needs. There will be intense anger because those who previously had adequate food and other essentials will no longer have access to these basic needs and stability. These starving individuals will also begin violent attacks on any groups, businesses, or governments they blame for their predicament.

7. The cost of living for repair, maintenance, building, or rebuilding in the minimal global warming safer areas will continue to rise significantly. There will be more homelessness everywhere.

8. There will be an increase in and more frequent pandemics, disease outbreaks, and epidemics as conditions worsen and health services become increasingly strained.

9. Due to the worsening of both primary and secondary consequences outlined in this document and the steadily increasing percentage of GDP that countries must allocate towards addressing global warming consequences, local, regional, and national banks in weaker nations will ultimately fail. Next, banks and national reserve banks in stronger nations will also fail. Finally, even the largest multinational banking institutions will fall as smaller banks fail. As we approach the end, not even the World Bank, the IMF, or the richest national sovereign wealth funds and reserves will remain stable. 

10. There will be rapidly increasing mass migrations of hundreds of millions. Billions of starving, sick, and unemployed people will flee from the many growing climate consequences and an ever-increasing number of unstable or collapsed economies or nations. (These individuals will soon accelerate their migrations out of Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia as temperatures continue to rise and conditions worsen faster in those areas.) 

11. There will be widespread, survival-driven criminality by larger and larger portions of the starving, unemployed, poor, homeless, or migrant population. Imagine increasing numbers of desperate individuals and groups trying to stay alive by any means possible. Now, imagine your favorite dystopian movie, such as Mad Max. This will give you a small taste of what the future struggle to stay alive will be like, as most of the global challenges mentioned earlier continue to worsen.

12. Climate change-related crimes will rise significantly during this period. Governments will have to create larger police forces, courts, and jails to handle the rising crime as society becomes more unstable due to the accelerating loss and damage caused by climate change. Increasing numbers of climate change-displaced individuals, whose resources have been severely depleted by climate change-related loss and damage, will turn to crime to stay alive.

13. Because of the growing survival-driven violence and criminality, migrations, and social and political chaos, governments will impose states of emergency, new draconian migration regulations, and martial law, resulting in increased severe restrictions, suffering, and the loss of many hard-won human rights. Nations will be forced to become more nationalistic, military, and totalitarian in their control of the population to deal with the growing starvation, chaos, and shortages of essential resources. Political societies will likely regress to more authoritarian or tribal and warlike leaders and governments as fear and its related consequences intensify. 

As the runaway global heating continues, nations above the 45th parallel will increasingly fortify their borders with walls and other defensive barricades to keep them safer. They will enhance and expand all possible methods to keep the ever-rising hordes of starving, desperate climagees from crossing their borders. Do not be surprised to see in the news that safer nations start enacting increasing fines and prison sentences for anyone aiding, sheltering, or employing illegal climate refugees.

It is essential to recognize that democracies can only thrive and flourish with an environmental surplus or sufficiency. Due to the numerous accelerating consequences of global heating, democracies worldwide will likely be compelled to become less democratic and more authoritarian. This political change in democracies is likely to occur because global warming will continue to deplete valuable resources and exacerbate instability. With more destroyed or unusable resources, the world's population will also become significantly more competitive, aggressive, and even more polarized than it is now. 

Consider accelerating climate change consequences as democracy's and human rights' worst enemy!

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14. As social, economic, and political chaos spreads, it will trigger numerous regional, national, and international conflicts and conventional wars. Governments will eventually declare martial law as things deteriorate, and more human rights will be suspended. People in fear will rally behind any "strongman" or dictator who promises them food and security. In this chaotic environment, injustices and inequities will rise exponentially, further exacerbating the atmosphere. (Think of almost any current injustice or inequity and imagine what will happen to them in an even more unstable and resource-scarce social climate.)

After governments break down, warlords, tribes, clans, and criminal gangs will take control, and chaos will grow even greater. 

As conflict conditions worsen, it is also highly probable that remaining regional, national, or international conflicts will also become nuclear, biological, or chemical conflicts. These conflicts will be directly due to increasing food and other resource scarcity, the scarcity of land suitable for global warming, unstoppable mass migrations, and the many other consequences listed on this page. Desperate nations' nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare will probably end humanity long, long before the worst global warming extinction consequences can fully unfold from 2050-2070. 

Intensifying global conflicts due to the direct or indirect effects of global warming is another critical mega-warning sign.

15. Things will get so bad that remaining national and international courts worldwide will begin convicting and severely punishing individuals, corporations, and even governments of acts of commission or omission that directly or indirectly caused, contributed to, or enabled the ongoing climate change-related financial losses and mass human and biological extinction.

16. When all of the above items are considered collectively, it will cause even the strongest nations' economies and political systems to begin the process of economic and political collapse. 

17. Once many of the national governments have collapsed, the nuclear reactors, chemical and biological weapons, and their manufacturing, service, and storage facilities will become compromised. This is because there will be no or few functioning national governments to maintain basic safe operations or security for these sites. Hundreds of millions will sicken and die as nuclear reactors go critical and melt down, spewing toxic radiation worldwide. Millions more will sicken as they die from the additional releases of insecure biological weapons and toxic industrial chemicals. If too many nuclear reactors go critical and melt down, the resulting radiation circling the planets will kill off everything.  

18. As all of the above intensifies, human suffering and global deaths will continue to rise exponentially! Human deaths will eventually reach mass extinction and begin approaching near-total extinction levels. What we have known to be national or global civilizations will collapse. 

19. If there are any unlucky survivors after the Great Global Collapse, they will most likely enter a new Dark Age. But, this will not be like the Dark Ages that occurred during the Middle Ages. It will be far worse because most of the natural resources that were available during the original Dark Age will already have been depleted, and much of the planet will be toxic. And finally,

20. If we do not experience total extinction in a complete runaway global warming event, and we make it through the post-collapse new Dark Ages. In that case, it will take centuries to thousands of years for nature and the climate system to return to balance. Only then will the conditions suitable for humans to thrive once again exist-- if any humans are left at that time. 

Hopefully, at this far-distant time, any surviving bands, clans, tribes, or communities that are still functioning will have learned the first great global collapse lessons and changed their behaviors. They will now model the necessary new behaviors, such as the principles of sustainable prosperity and the principles of evolutionary success, among other potential policies, to ultimately resolve all the issues raised in the global challenges described above. 

Suppose these survivors have genuinely learned the lessons from the first great global collapse of civilization. In that case, they will develop a new worldview and fairer economic, political, and social systems. This new worldview will provide the tools and opportunity for a tremendous new rebuilding and reboot of humanity. 

Humanity will have the opportunity to experience a unique renaissance, where humankind and nature come into balance, allowing both to flourish once again. Whatever is left of humanity will, once again, restart the greatest evolutionary adventure in our history.

No one in their right mind would even want to try to survive all of the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma that the above climate consequences will rain down on those unlucky enough to survive the first levels of this extinction process. The above is not survivable in any way one could call living, and the above will become unsurvivable and unbearable long before the worst consequences occur.

Yet, despite everything you have read so far, some ultra-wealthy individuals still believe they can somehow survive all of the above global heating-triggered or climate-interconnected consequences. Click here to see the special place of suffering in the global heating hell that these foolish individuals will be creating for themselves!

 

 

Fasten your seat belts. Strap on your shoulder harness and put on your helmets. We are entering the extreme turbulence of the beginning of a global collapse process.

Unfortunately, it is going to get a whole lot worse before our governments take our current emergency seriously and act! The baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are likely to be the last generation to experience any near-continuous measure of stability, security, and safety during their lifetimes. But even they will have a very rough ride as they approach the end of their years.

One could easily call all of the primary and secondary consequences of the runaway global heating emergency a perfect definition for the new emotional malady many are calling a feeling of climate doom. And finally, we strongly recommend that you copy these global climate change signs and consequences and post them on a wall. As you hear new media reports, you will be able to see patterns emerging, which will help you adjust your emergency preparations. This will help manage any feelings of climate doom you might be feeling.

The famous Club of Rome's global predictions have also considered many of the primary and secondary climate-related consequences, as well as the consequences of our other 11 major global crises described previously. The Club of Rome's illustration below shows the critical timeframe (about 2040) when they believe the global collapse process is likely to begin. 

At Job One One, we predict the global collapse process is likely to begin about 2025-2031. This is when we will cross the atmospheric carbon threshold of 425-450 ppm and pass beyond the first global warming extinction-triggering tipping point. After 2031, the global collapse processes will accelerate considerably as more global heating tipping points are rapidly crossed in a cascading domino process.

The illustration below illustrates the potentially hazardous convergence of population growth, resource depletion, shifting industrial output, pollution, and food production, as predicted by MIT and the prestigious Club of Rome. (For more information on the creation and current validity of the predictions in the illustration below, see our three-part series on the factors, timeframes, and probabilities of a Great Global Collapse by clicking here. Please also note that the timeframes predicted in the illustration below have shortened considerably due to new research on accelerating climate change.)

 

Here is the Job One for Humanity updated graph with current climate change condition information added and where humanity does not get close to the 2025 global fossil fuel reduction targets. As you can see, when climate change is added to the equation, major problems for humanity begin to occur as various factors converge around 2030, considerably sooner than in the MIT studies that exclude climate change. 

 

10. How will the primary and secondary consequences affect your financial future and the national and global economy

The cumulative financial impact of more primary and secondary consequences (above) coming online faster will be financially devastating to individuals, businesses, and nations long before the worst climate consequences lead to mass extinction. The primary and secondary climate consequences will ultimately lead to numerous critical commodity shortages. Moreover, those essential shortages of commodities will result in soaring commodity prices globally.

Soaring global commodity prices will cause your local personal and business costs to rise steadily. Consequently, food costs for people experiencing poverty and the middle class could soon rise to 50% or more of their salary or monthly budget.

The scariest aspect of the following estimates and timetables for climate-related financial losses is that almost no accurate compensatory loss calculations are being used by the world's governments or the largest investment banks, hedge funds, national reserve banks, and other financial institutions in their financial decisions and projections. This failure to plan for these well-predicted climate losses in the budgets of individuals, businesses, and nations is the recipe for individual, national, and global financial unpredictability, instability, and disaster. 

How the costs of the primary and secondary related consequences of runaway global heating will affect your finances: 

a. Food costs will rise steadily with failed crops and reduced crop yields. In 10-20 years, the average middle-class family will be spending 50-60% or more of its total budget on food.

b. Homes prices in global warming safer areas will soar. Home repair and maintenance costs will become unaffordable in many areas at high risk of climate change damage due to global warming.

c. As more people realize the dangers of the runaway global heating extinction emergency, emergency preparation and critical adaptation supplies will cost dramatically. Supplies of these items will be in continual short supply.

d. Medical and energy costs will rise significantly because these services and products will be impacted by manufacturing and distribution problems, as the consequences of runaway global heating make it increasingly difficult to conduct business as usual.

e. People will have serious and expensive health problems after climate change catastrophes (such as breathing and respiratory problems after breathing in wildfire smoke and other health problems after flooding due to chemicals, sewage, and molds in the flood waters).

f. Insurance companies will raise rates or cancel their insurance for homes or businesses in climate change high-risk zones. They will abandon the previous 100-year floodplain, wildfire, and extreme weather risk charts and look to create new 1,000-year floodplain, wildfire, and extreme weather charts. These new charts will better compensate them for the accelerating consequences and risks of global warming.

g. Individuals and businesses will lose wages, sales, and productivity due to delays or repairs needed after climate change-driven weather events. (It will be the poor and middle class that will be hardest hit financially by the endless stream of accelerating climate-related disasters.)

People will continue to accumulate deeper and deeper debt and experience bill-paying problems after being impacted by a climate change-driven extreme weather event, especially since most of the damages will no longer be covered by government emergency relief organizations, as the sheer number and severity of these climate catastrophes continue to rise.

How the costs of the primary and secondary related consequences of runaway global heating will affect global finances: 

a. Currently, all global warming-related consequences are costing the world about 2-3% of the global GDP. (Gross domestic product [GDP] is a monetary measure of the value of all goods and services produced in a given period [quarterly or yearly].)

b. By 2030, all global warming-related consequences are expected to cost the world an estimated 4-5% of global GDP.

c. By 2035, all global warming-related consequences will cost the world an estimated 6-7% of the global GDP. (Sometime shortly after 2030, runaway global heating consequences go from accelerating in a steadily rising linear line to climbing in a rapidly increasing exponential curve.)

d. By 2040, all global warming-related consequences will cost the world an estimated 8-12% of the global GDP.

e. By 2045, all global warming-related consequences will cost the world an estimated 13-17% of the global GDP.

g. By 2050, all global warming-related consequences will cost the world an estimated 18-23% of the global GDP.

g. By 2060, all global warming-related consequences will cost the world an estimated 24-29% of the global GDP.

h. By 2070, all global warming-related consequences will cost the world an estimated 30% or more of the global GDP.

i. By 2100, if we are still around, runaway global heating-related consequences will cost the world most of its global GDP.

It will be all but impossible for any individual, business, or nation to function sustainably, with costs from runaway global heating-related consequences rising as described above. But, on the other hand, it is not unreasonable to believe that a global economic collapse fueled in part by the rising damages caused by global heating could slow down global fossil fuel use so much that it could paradoxically also save humanity from near-total extinction.

Other Members-only pages of this website will provide additional financial details and clearer timelines on how accelerating runaway global heating, if left unresolved, will slowly but steadily create economic chaos and ultimately collapse the global economy.

 

10a. What our accelerating climate consequences will do to democracies and progressive nations

Most people are unaware of and unprepared for the numerous intensifying consequences of global warming, which will significantly impact our political systems. As the climate consequences worsen, eventually, all governments worldwide will have to declare martial law. The human rights many take for granted will have to be rescinded because of the swift action the accelerating emergency will demand and require. 

Our democracies will declare martial law and become more autocratic (dictatorial) because their population will be stressed out and in fear, as more climate consequences shatter and scatter their lives. As has happened many times before in history, fearful people will accept and even demand dictatorial strong-man leaders, solutions, and behaviors they would never accept under normal living conditions.

This all occurs because the core nature of progressive democracy requires:

a. abundant and adequate resources for a large portion of their population and 

b. a high degree of relative stability for a democracy to even exist. 

Under the continuing stresses of escalating climate consequences, democracies will all rapidly devolve into authoritarian nations. As global warming consequences worsen, critical resources will dwindle, and you will not have anything like previous normal social, economic, or political stability. The constantly worsening climate disasters, mass migrations, and numerous other climate consequences will also intensify or cause new conflicts, ultimately destroying anything that resembles our current normal democratic stability. (Non-democratic states may devolve because of escalating climate consequences even further into warring clans or gangs.) 

How can we expect democracies not to devolve into authoritarian nations? When survival is at stake in an emergency, drastic, immediate action must be taken. 

You can trust that our global democracies, just like the existing dictatorships, will take all the extreme measures needed to preserve their power and do the unthinkable to maintain order in the climate chaos. The scariest part of this climate devolution fact is that existing right-wing nationalist and conservative political movements (as well as existing dictatorships) may intentionally ignore fixing the climate for as long as possible. 

They will do this to create the very deteriorating conditions within the nation that will enhance their power and influence. Eventually, a fearful population will call upon them for their brand-simplistic solutions to the climate emergency. The people will then willingly surrender their human rights and freedoms in the hope of feeling safe again. 

The harsh reality of this devolution of democracies means that to maintain the world's democracies, we must find a way toresolve the runaway global warming extinction emergency before it creates more authoritarian dictatorships where centuries of hard-won human rights will be lost. If you want to live in a police state under draconian martial law, do little or nothing to fix our current runaway global heating extinction emergency. 

You will eventually get your police state in the next phase of global climate destabilization and collapse. Worse yet, it is doubtful that more authoritarian governments will ever be able to create and support the essential international cooperation required to prevent humanity's next phase of near-total extinction from runaway global heating consequences. 

 

11. Can you finally now see why about half of humanity will go extinct by mid-century? 

It is not just the:

a. soaring temperatures, 

b. failed or low-yield crops and mass starvation, 

c. growing climate migration, 

d. climate-consequence-related essential resource and distribution shortages and 

e. climate-related land and resource conflicts.

It is also the many other climate-related or climate-triggered primary and secondary consequences listed above. These consequences will intensify, randomly (or periodically) growing more frequent or covering larger areas, which cumulatively and collectively in total effect will eventually be the complex cause of the extinction of about half of humanity by mid-century. 

Cumulatively and collectively, the combined effect of many of the above-listed consequences could just as easily cause humanity's near-total to total extinction. After one comes to understand the above-accumulating implications, the only rational option is to get as close to the 2025 global fossil fuel targets as possible to limit humanity's damages to about only the extinction of half of humanity by mid-century.

"There can be no margin for error whenever there is a real and imminent threat of total human extinction." Lawrence Wollersheim

 

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What can you still do about what you have just read

If you have experienced any damages to your home, business, or farm from climate change-related consequences, you need to begin a lawsuit against all related parties ASAP. There are wealthy companies that have either directly caused the climate change emergency and the damages you have experienced or that should have informed you of the relevant climate change risks. 

The number of court cases focused on the global climate change crisis and its consequent damages has doubled since 2015, bringing the total number to over 2,000, according to a report led by European researchers last year. More than two dozen US cities and states are suing big oil, alleging the fossil fuel industry knew for decades about the dangers of burning coal, oil, and gas and actively hid that information from consumers and investors. 

If you have just experienced a climate change-related extreme weather event involving any heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes and cyclones, flooding, rain bombs, wind storms (Derechos), dust storms, wildfire smoke events, unseasonable cold spells, and abnormal unseasonal weather and, you need to begin the process for financial recovery and restitution by reading this page as soon as possible due to time limitations on filing for restitution from harmful acts. This page will connect you to successful law firms handling this specialty.

 

If you still have doubts about what you are reading...

For many visitors to our uncensored climate change think tank's website, their biggest question after reading our climate change consequences and timetable forecasts is, "Why are your climate change forecasts so much worse than almost everything I hear in the media from my government, the educational environmental and climate change organizations, or the former world's leading authority on climate change, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC)? Click here for the five critical reasons that will fully answer your "why are our forecasts so much worse" question.

 

For More Consequence Information

Click this page for the specific climate change consequence predictions for this year.

Additional References

Reference Topic 1: We have been given far lower incorrect global fossil fuel reduction targets by fossil fuel-compromised "trusted" authorities. Learn why you can't believe the so-called world's leading authority on climate change (the UN IPCC) for legitimate global fossil fuel reduction targets or their consequence predictions and timetables:

Click here to understand the long-term history of the IPCC underestimating the consequences, timeframes, and the needed global fossil fuel reduction targets by as much as 20-40% or more.

Click here to see the eleven key climate change tipping points that have been mostly excluded from the IPCC calculations on how much fossil fuel use we must reduce each year globally. 

Click here to see the four key reasons why the IPCC's 26 global climate conferences have failed to produce results or legitimate global fossil fuel reduction targets.

Click here to see the REAL 2025 global fossil fuel reduction targets and why we must get close to a 75% reduction in total global fossil fuel use (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.) by 2025, not the far, far less net-zero emission levels they have pledged by 2050 or 2040! (In the technical notes at the bottom of the 2025 fossil fuel reduction specification page, you will see each calculation and compensation for the various factors that make up the required correct global fossil fuel reduction numbers.)

Click Here to learn about the IPCC's most dangerous of all deficiencies, called the climate change computer modeling Perfect Day problem.

Click here to see precisely how the IPCC "cooked the books" and grossly skewed the current IPCC global fossil fuel reduction calculations by including unproven and non-existent "carbon-sucking unicorn" technology into their projections. 

To see the many mass mobilization actions our governments must now take to reach the 2025 global fossil fuel reduction targets and save humanity from near-total extinction, click here.

 

Reference Topic 2: How can the probability (or even the possibility) of a soon-arriving near-total human extinction be accurate? 

Click here to see a detailed "big picture" catastrophic meltdown of our global warming consequences and tipping points. Their interactions with our other 12 major global crises will result in widespread starvation and extinction for much of humanity by mid-century, and near-total extinction beginning as soon as 2070.

Click here to see the four major global warming extinction-evoking tipping points and how close we are to crossing them. The first tipping point, at 425-450 ppm of carbon, will precisely explain why climate change consequences will start growing exponentially in about 3-9 years.

Reference Topic 3: What governments must do to save the future

It is time to also call for global warming legal accountability, the immediate termination of all global fossil fuel subsidies, and the placement of a worldwide price on all corporations for their carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. 

Click here to learn more about the Fee and Dividend carbon pricing and other critical actions our governments and corporations must immediately take to reach the 2025 global fossil fuel reduction targets.

 

Reference Topic 4: The deep causes of this whole climate catastrophe mess

To understand the most profound reasons behind our current global warming emergency and the 12 other most pressing global crises, please read the book Overshoot. In it, you can learn about the concept of the Earth's carrying capacity (the land and sea acreage available and needed for any given population's critical survival needs.) 

Click here for global warming migration information and information on the safer global warming areas.

 

Reference Topic 5: Miscellaneous 

Click here to see the 10 most important facts about climate change.

Click here to see the 10 most misunderstood and dangerous facts about climate change.

Click here and read our Job One for Humanity policy on the necessary disruption of all false or dangerous climate, global warming, and environmental acts or ideas.

Please continue to educate yourself about these life-critical climate issues by exploring the documentation and analysis found on this website.

To help address the climate change and global warming emergency, click here.

 

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