2 Peter 3:10-18 of the New Testament is the source of the Christian belief that unlike Noah’s flood, which nearly destroyed humanity because of its desecration of God’s work, the next cleansing of wickedness from the Earth will be by fire. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
It now looks like “fire” and “water” are working jointly in a deadly response to human-caused climate change.
It was cold this winter and early spring in the Northeast and Midwest, but California and the Southwest experienced record breaking heat waves. The same climate change caused atmospheric Jet Stream irregularities that produce “valleys” allowing arctic weather to shift southward produce elevated “peaks” that allow equatorial heat to shift north. Meteorologists and local officials are urging millions of people living in the Southwest and on the California coast to limit outdoor activities that threaten health and could have a deadly impact.
The National Weather Service office in San Francisco warned of temperatures in the Bay area in the nineties, unheard of for the month of March, and because this was a historic occurrence, many homes in the Bay area were not air-conditioned. Meteorologists reported multiple new temperature records including overall highs for the month of March and the earliest 100-degree days of the year in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Los Angeles, libraries and recreation facilities were designated as safe havens from the heat. Scientific evidence blames these types of heat waves for drying out forests, grasslands, and shrubs, increasing the likelihood of wildfires decimating the area.
2023 and 2024 were the hottest in Earth's recorded history. Average global temperatures in 2024 was 1.5° C, a little more than 2.5° F, above preindustrial levels which is the threshold scientists believe is the point at which the worst effects of climate change can no longer be avoided. Meanwhile, the rate of global warming and climate change appears to be accelerating. A recent study reported the acceleration in global warming since 2015 was 98% certain. Many climate scientists are predicting that 2026-2027 will see a potentially record breaking “Super El Niño” exacerbated by climate change. El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a global climate phenomenon that regularly occurs because of changes in ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. This could mean intense storms in parts of California and the southern United States this winter with flooding risk, severe wind damage, and deadly droughts and wildfires in the Southern Hemisphere. Weather in the Northeastern United States this winter is expected to be warmer and significantly wetter.
As for water, scientists have now recognized that they may have been underestimating coastal high water levels and the homes of hundreds of millions of people are close to being washed away. A study in the journal Nature reported that coastal sea levels are on the average eight to twelve inches than predicted earlier on maps. Ninety percent of earlier hazard assessments assumed coastal sea levels based on outdated models, rather than actual sea-level measurements. The errors are greatest for Southeast Asian and Pacific nations because ocean dynamics there are more complex. Hundreds of millions more people in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia are living closer to sea level than previously assumed. Governments and policymakers will have to adjust to the new findings.
The Earth’s oceans absorb over 90% of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere. Each year for the past eight years set a record for ocean heat with the rate of warming doubling over the last two decades. This explains the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic icecaps and the rising sea levels.
By 2050, over 800 million people will be living in over 570 coastal cities at risk flooding because of rising seas. In the United States, coastal floods now occur three times more often than they did in the 1990s and by 2050, floods are expected to happen ten times more often than they happen today. Florida, New Jersey, and New York have the most people and homes at risk from a severe coastal flood with Nassau County especially at risk. In New York City, the southern tip of Manhattan is a flood-prone area with real estate valued at over $100 billion.
Other areas of the world with large urban populations in the tens of millions include Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Jakarta in Indonesia, Manilla in The Philippines, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong in China, and most of Bangladesh.
