David Voigts.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last year, President Trump said that all the predictions about climate change that have been made by the United Nations and many others were wrong. While this blanket statement was not specific, it is useful to examine some of the predictions that have been made.

One prediction was that extreme heat will reach dangerous levels. There have been a number of severe heatwaves across the world that are testing the limits of our endurance. For example, in 2024 more than 1,300 people died at the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia where temperatures hit 125 degrees Fahrenheit. This year there have been an estimated 10,000 heat related deaths in Europe. Even more grim, the World Health Organization has calculated that heat now kills at least half a million people every year. This prediction was correct.

Beyond heatwaves, there were predictions that other intense extreme weather events would be more frequent. There have been recent record-breaking floods in Europe, Asia, Brazil, and the United States, and there have been devastating droughts in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and the United States. This prediction was correct.

Another prediction was that global crop production would decline. A comprehensive study published in Nature found that crop production declines by approximately 120 calories per person per day for every increase of one degree Celsius in the global mean surface temperature. This prediction was correct.

Coastal flooding also was predicted, and Al Gore and others predicted catastrophic flooding as the world warms. While these were generalized, indefinite predictions, there have been other more definitive predictions. For example, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a sea level rise of six and a half feet by the end of the century. Already, Miami Beach and other coastal cities are flooding on a such a predictable basis that it is difficult to get mortgages and insurance for coastal homes. This prediction was correct.

With the overwhelming evidence that these and other predictions of the devastating effects of a warming climate were correct and are happening now, our President and other politicians should end their denial and seriously address climate change.

David Voigts is a retired ecologist and the current Conservation Chair for the Prairie Rapids Audubon Society. He is a Tama County native, graduating from Dinsdale High School, and lives in rural Jesup on his wife’s family farm.