The hottest year in human history

2023 was just a taste of what’s to come. [Bloomberg]( This is the Theme of the Week edition of [Bloomberg Opinion Today](, a digest of our top commentary published every Sunday. New subscribers to the newsletter can [sign up here](; follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [X](, [Threads]( and [Facebook](. ’Tis the season for self-reflection! The dozens of Spotify Wraps you saw on Wednesday were just the beginning: In a matter of days, you’ll be inundated with nostalgic, FOMO-inducing end-of-year posts on social media: Here are the grainy videos from all the concerts I went to in 2023! Here’s every plate of food I ate this year! Here’s all the loads of laundry I did! Kidding about that last one. But plenty of people will be scouring their camera rolls to find something, anything, to placate humanity’s relentless desire to feel accomplished. In honor of that, Bloomberg Opinion will be doing its own version of self-reflection. Each Sunday, until the ball drops us into the vast unknown of 2024, we’ll be dedicating this newsletter to the work of one of our columnists. To start us off, we’ve got [climate maestro]( Mark Gongloff, who really needs no introduction if you’re a long-time subscriber of [this newsletter](. In [a special video]( for our social channels, Mark takes us through the year in climate. In it, he says the past eleven months have put us in [hot water](, quite literally. Just look at Europe’s “gobsmackingly bananas” [record temperatures]( and you’ll know why: [Wildfires](, [heat waves](, [nightmare hurricanes](, [floods](, [droughts](, [blizzards](, [boiling oceans](, [grumbling volcanoes]( and more: The climate news in 2023, the hottest year in recorded human history, just kept going from bad to worse. Even more terrifying, at the rate we’re burning fossil fuels and pumping carbon into the atmosphere, we’re eventually going to look back at 2023 as the good old days. We still have time to prevent a grim future of a planet so hot that much of it’s too dangerous to inhabit. But it will take political will. More importantly, it will take money. How much money are we talking? Try at least [$200 trillion]( between now and 2050, and the highest spending would have to occur within the next 15 years. $200 trillion is [the low end of estimates]( of how much we need to invest in switching the global economy to clean energy and sustainable practices. Now, Mark knows what you’re thinking: hundreds of trillions of dollars? That’s a LOT of money. But it’s not nearly as much as what we’ll lose if we don’t invest that much. past four years have been among the six busiest for billion-dollar disasters on NOAA records going back to 1980. [Climate disasters]( alone could shave 4% from global GDP every year. That’s trillions of dollars right there. Throw in the spread of disease, climate refugees, wars over resources and more, and that $200 trillion looks like a bargain very quickly: Thanks to El Nino, the world is about to experience something like [time travel]( to the year 2050. The warming spike won’t be pleasant. Young humans urgently need to learn how coming changes to the climate will affect every aspect of their lives and what they can do to resist and adapt. But older humans responsible for [such education]( aren’t always helpful: Polls [show]( most of us want to stop global heat waves from becoming the new normal. We have the power. We just need to fix it. Notes: Have thoughts or questions about the climate? Please send your feedback to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](