Image by Brendan O’Donnell.

Global Warming (“GW”) is winning, and it is gaining. Obstacles to hotter temperatures are falling to the wayside, allowing GW to go for more intense heatwaves along with much, much higher sea levels. Alas, the greenest of green countries are turning tail and de-emphasizing commitments to fight climate change. Several of the 196 countries subject to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at the Paris Agreement (2015) are behaving like they’re “okay with global warming”. Trump’s smiling.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Extreme Heat is Breaking Records Worldwide.” (UN News August 7, 2025). But this current trend of killer heatwaves is likely only an early preview of much more to come.

Greta Thunberg’s “Sweden is falling back from its environmental progress. Last year, its fossil fuel emissions saw their biggest increase in 15 years.” (Sweden, an Early Climate Leader, is Retreating from Its Environmental Commitments, Part of an EU Trend, Inside Climate News, August 3, 2025).

Indeed, part of the reason for Sweden’s increasing emissions is global warming’s inexorable drought sequences and clearcutting and wildfires destroying forests, thus reducing carbon uptake, measurably, cut in half. Fifteen years ago, Sweden’s 87 billion trees, soils and wetlands stored almost 62 million tons of carbon each year, which was more than the country’s total fossil fuel emissions. In 2024, it fell by half to 31 million tons. Such a steep drop indicates increased clearcutting and years of severe drought, due to severe global warming, with wildfires, beetle infections and weak soil nutrition.

Additionally, Sweden’s political swing to the right has slashed investments in climate actionable projects. “Researchers say Sweden’s policy shifts, and its evolving role as a frontrunner indeed is now contributing to the weakening of Europe’s climate agenda,” Ibid.

Sweden’s EPA claims it will miss all national climate targets for the next 20 years.

The EU’s trumpeted “Green Sextet” nations driving climate action for the EU in a positive direction is collapsing. Five of the six nations are reducing their climate policy objectives: “Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, and........

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