CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

An Unsettling Climate Warning for Homeownership

Image by Breno Assis.

Earth’s climate system has suddenly shifted to a new phase of global warming acceleration that few saw coming. This ups the ante for risks of severe climate-related disaster scenarios following a record-shattering year in 2025. This directly impacts American homeownership, whether it is compatible with current U.S. energy/climate policies.

Global Warming Acceleration 2023-24-25 Set All-Time Records

“The last three years are indicative of an acceleration in the warming. They’re not consistent with the linear trend that we’ve been observing for the 50 years before that,” according to Robert Rohde, chief scientist at the Berkeley Earth monitoring group. (Scientists Call Another Near-Record Hot Year a ‘Warning Shot’ From a Shifting Climate, NPR, January 16, 2026)

Ever since 1850, commonly used as a starting point for global warming calculations, nothing compares to the sudden shift over the years 2023-24-25. Global warming is accelerating at a rate not experienced in 175 years of measurements. And it’s not a one-off event; it’s solid; it’s 36 months of acceleration. Five-t0-ten years ago nobody predicted this sudden lift off, but it’s happening.

Global temperatures have increased a brisk 42% since 2015. This is a record rate of increase. Interestingly, “Even as the United States languishes under a frigid cold snap, the rest of the world is still experiencing unusually warm temperatures. Nuuk, Greenland, for example, saw temperatures in January more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit above average. Parts of Australia, meanwhile, have seen temperatures push past 120 degrees Fahrenheit amid a record heat wave.” (Scientists Thought They Understood Global Warming. Then the Past Three Years Happened, The Washington Post, Feb. 11, 2026)

According to Samantha Burgess of Copernicus: “The overwhelming culprit is clear: the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.” Burgess made note of an extraordinary number of ‘heat waves’ in 2025 that broke local and national records for absolute temperatures. With a warmer world, every weather event turns more intense, e.g., atmospheric rivers with massive quantities of moisture bring devastating flash floods.

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