{"id":4083,"date":"2026-08-24T17:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=4083"},"modified":"2026-08-24T17:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:06:20","slug":"the-world-inches-toward-catastrophic-climate-events-bigger-shocks-are-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=4083","title":{"rendered":"The world inches toward catastrophic climate events: \u2018Bigger shocks are on the way\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…<\/strong><\/div>

By PETER PRENGAMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 In the opening scene of American writer Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s \u201cThe Ministry for the Future,\u201d a heat wave combined with a breakdown of the electrical grid in India kills 20 million people. The devastation causes the world\u2019s nations to unite to combat climate change.<\/p>

Read more Congo\u2019s Ebola outbreak records one of its highest weekly death tolls yet<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists have long warned that the world will experience more intense extreme weather events like heat waves, storms, floods and droughts. But what once seemed like the realm of fiction is now discussed as a possibility, even an inevitability.<\/p>\n

Warning about an \u201cextreme of extremes\u201d or the \u201cOther Big One,\u201d a play off the California reference of a big future earthquake, can be fraught. After all, nobody can say for sure when a weather catastrophe may happen. But in the last few years, the planetary ingredients needed for a massive disturbance have been building. And alarm is growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk is that people just think you are exaggerating,\u201d said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the California Institute for Water Resources. \u201cIt\u2019s the \u2018Boy Who Cried Wolf\u2019 problem. Sometimes wolves are real. If it\u2019s outside the door, wouldn\u2019t you want to know?\u201d<\/p>\n