A Winter Solstice Birthday and Reflection...
A year-end perspective on our climate, a warning and a glimmer of hope for 2026.
This is my closing post for the year. I appreciate you all hanging with me as I near the end of my first year on Substack and writing with the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. I am looking forward to some great stories in 2026.
Thank you Subscribers and those who support my work with water quality efforts at the Iowa Great Lakes, and with climate issues, both local and global. Your paid subscriptions are put to good use at the great Iowa Lakeside Laboratory.
It’s my birthday. It always falls during this dark, cold time of year at the Winter Solstice. I love it. I am a child of the cold and it has shown up consistently in my work as I have explored the frigid, remote corners of the planet, mostly by expedition sailboat. Yes, I’m that crazy sailor from Iowa.
The Winter Solstice is special because it signals a return of hope, as we immediately transition into the New Year. The magical, rhythmic daylight increases incrementally with each new dawn. New projects, adventures and creative ideas surface and we vow to follow through. Sometimes, as with all of you, I even act on those thoughts and some rewarding experiences happen in return.
As I reflect nearing the end of 2025 my feelings are quite different than in years past. I have never worried about losing our Democracy or witnessing a transition to authoritarianism in my own country before. I’ve watched it happen to other countries but never thought I would see it happen here. At the same time, I am seeing a war on science taking place threatening not only human health, but the health of the entire planet in general. Everything is happening so fast, my mind cannot keep up.
This is exactly what I am feeling as I begin my 66th voyage around the sun. I believe I can easily speak for the majority of us to say there is a general feeling of being overwhelmed by this year’s events. Every single day there is a new threat. From Arts and Humanities to Medical and Climate Science, ALL American institutions that we care about (and truly make America great) are under constant pressure and assault.
We all care about something, family, church, writing, music, arts, politics, sports, etc, etc. We dedicate our time, our lives, to the things that are important to us. For me, this means the environment, conservation, water quality, public lands and waters, outdoor recreation, clean energy and of course, climate change. When everything that you care about is under attack all at once it is so easy to be distracted while the GOP’s cruelty and elimination campaign grinds America’s greatest institutions into a layer of sediment.
There is so much happening in the field of climate science, and in real-world climate disruption, it is hard to know where to commit the focus. I have been studying climate science for over twenty years and 2026 is where the rubber meets the road. We have reached the climate tipping points, physical thresholds that if crossed, cannot be returned to for millennia, if ever.
Either we win the midterms or Planet Earth burns. Take your pick, it is that serious. Trump and his sycophants are colluding with Big Oil and Tech to ensure it is the latter. Can we defeat the MAGA movement and the dark influence of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world?
This week, the Trump administration moved to break up our nation’s premier weather and climate institution, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), based in Boulder, Colorado. Trump’s director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, delivered the bad news and falsely claimed NCAR is one of the country’s largest sources of “climate alarmism.”
Full stop. What? We humans live on a planet hurtling through space at 67,000 mph with an atmosphere often described to be as “thick as the skin of an onion” which shields all life on planet earth below. Climate scientists at NCAR, and at every scientific institution in the world, have stated in unison that humans burning fossil fuels are damaging the atmosphere and forcing global warming into the system.
Colorado leaders responded quickly. Gov. Jared Polis said the state hasn’t heard directly from the White House, but if it dismantles NCAR, “public safety is at risk and science is being attacked.” This is the naked truth and our media are failing us for not calling out the lies and holding our leaders accountable.
One would think that the leader of the free world would want the best minds making damn sure that we keep our atmosphere in tact for future generations. Is it “alarmism” to tell the truth that we humans are damaging our biosphere - that there is a need to slow and stop the pollution and let the system repair? Guess so. In Trump’s transactional reality show, Big Oil pays a shit ton more than a bunch of genius scientists that are working for the public good and future generations.
This is where we are folks. There is a war on science being waged by the Trump Administration on behalf of planet-killing corporations and dark, private interests. As someone who has explored the polar regions of the earth, I can tell you that climate change is happening fast, it’s happening now, and we are on an unsustainable trajectory towards ecological collapse. Scared yet? You should be…
If you have listened to our Three Degrees Podcast this year we have had some very distinguished and interesting guests as we discuss the truth about planetary climate change. One guest was Admiral Michael Franken, a brilliant and enlightened Iowan who unfortunately lost a close US Senate race to Chuck Grassley. Podcast Link He discussed the national security threat the climate issue presents LINK and the looming $Trillion-dollar storm that is simmering just over the horizon. It is not a matter of if, but when.
With $Billion-dollar climate disasters happening every 2 1/2 weeks in the United States it doesn’t take much imagination to think of a Cat 5 hurricane mowing across population centers in Florida or other US Gulf States. There were a record three Cat 5 Atlantic hurricanes this season but we were very lucky they were deflected away from Florida by persistent weather systems. Record warm sea/ocean waters are providing the fuel to drive these new super climate storms. They will not stop.
There is also hope over the horizon.
We can make informed decisions to reject the current anti-science, anti-expert thinking that is protecting the status quo. We have the most important midterm elections of our lifetimes in the autumn of this year. Vote for those who support science. It doesn’t matter if that is a Democrat or Republican, but if they are not supporting peer-reviewed science, do not support them, period.
In closing, here is a short science story which gives me hope.
The year is 1985, atmospheric scientists in unison sounded an alarm around the world as an enlarging “ozone hole” was forming over Antarctica. The danger was the excessive UV radiation would damage human health, impair photosynthesis in plants and damage phytoplankton in the seas and oceans. If left unchecked this excess radiation would destroy human life and cause catastrophic ecological collapse.
What was causing the expanded ozone hole? Excessive Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were being emitted into the atmosphere from industry manufactured refrigerants prevalent at the time. Scientists discovered the link and presented their findings to political leaders around the globe.
The President of the United States at the time was Republican Ronald Reagan, hardly known as being an environmentalist. In 1987, Reagan had listened to the scientists, measured the risks and acted to push through a global treaty called the “Montreal Protocol.” The treaty aimed to phase out the use of CFCs worldwide and allow the ozone hole to self-repair. It worked.
The earth’s atmosphere was being damaged by human-caused actions. Scientists sounded the alarm, politicians listened to the experts and then acted on behalf of their constituents. Reagan’s leadership turned good science into public policy and proved that global cooperation could be used to solve a threat to the earth’s atmosphere and protect life on the planet at all levels.
Today the threat is excessive CO2, and other greenhouse gases, collecting in the atmosphere and causing global warming. This warming will continue until we humans collectively stop burning fossil fuels and change the way we produce energy. This is a very tall task, but just as with human-produced CFCs, there is a blueprint available to tackle the issue with a positive outcome. There is a choice.
So I end 2025 with reflection, a warning and some hope for 2026. My fellow citizens, we have a lot of work to do but failure is not an option. Pick your issue, fight for protecting it, keep your focus and know that all of us are doing the same. Together we will win, divided we will fall.
To spin an old sailors term, it is “all hands on deck” to right the ship and keep us moving forward from the darkest night into the new dawn with light and hope.
Happy Solstice. Happy Holidays and New Year. Let’s go!
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Great Solstice reflection. I never liked Ron Regan. To add to the story of the ozone shield healing, kudus to Maggie Thatcher, PM of Great Britain. She was a chemist, understood the data and got her friend Ron to agree. She earned karma points there.
Keep up the good fight! It’s such a frightening time.