What is Climate Science for?

There is only one strategy for mitigating climate change: to divorce ourselves from fossil fuels. By this metric—the only one that matters—science programmes in the US have been remarkably unsuccessful. An impressive 15 per cent of Americans, among the largest share of any rich country, deny the existence of climate change. Astonishingly, so does nearly a quarter of US Congress. US emissions and fossil fuel production continue to reach record highs. Climate change has never been more deadly or costly, particularly for lower-income American households. Disasters like hurricanes, droughts and forest fires now occur every two weeks in the US. In 2023 and 2024, climate and weather-related disasters exceeded $1 billion in damages on 55 separate occasions.