Llewellyn King: New weather reality will change America and unhinge politicians

Flooding in Montpelier, Vt., in 2023.

WEST WARWICK, R.I.

I have never done political consulting. So it was novel to me when a candidate in the midterms asked me what he should be worried about in 2027. I repeated what Harold Macmillan, British prime minister from 1957 to 1963, is believed to have said, “Events, dear boy, events.”

Actually, I had a little list of crises that I have been gathering and that will come to bear on the political establishment — and we the people. Topping the list is one that is already at hand: the climate, which I call the “new weather.”

We have had weeks of atmospheric disturbance resulting in catastrophic floods, power outages, flight cancellations, oppressive heat and fires. Weather disruptions have been the first or second stories on the networks’ evening newscasts, pushing back the news on the Iran and Ukraine wars, and news from the White House.

Television stations like to tell viewers they have “news you can use.” The new weather is news that will abuse you. It knows where you live and it may call. It has called in Europe and across North America. It is a new reality.

The Southwest is parched and the Colorado River, that life channel, is running dry, severely affecting people in seven states. It also affects the food supply, as much farming depends on the bounty of the river. Even Mexico gets some of the dwindling Colorado water supply through a treaty with the United States.

Hundreds of thousands have lost their electricity for hours or days, and others may be making a choice between keeping on the air conditioning and spending on other necessities. 

Sustained heat of over 110 degrees is a killer and electricity for air conditioning is a lifesaver. Every year, more than a thousand people die from heat. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the number of heat-related deaths in the nation. The worst year was 2023 with 2,325 deaths, as measured by death certificate analysis. 

But heat-related fatalities are hard to collect. I would wager that the real death toll is much higher. 

Liberal politicians will blame the fossil-fuel industries – coal, oil and natural gas — for continuing to drive up greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere; conservatives will blame regulation and lack of infrastructure building. 

Local politicians will attack the data centers and the utilities. 

President Trump has called global warming a hoax. But “say it ain’t so” doesn’t work when it is too hot for kids to play outside or streets are rivers, and when the flow of food from farm to supermarket is interrupted.

Huge infrastructure projects will be proposed at a time when there is a growing awareness that the budget deficit is out of control and there is no way America will grow out of it on its present tax trajectory.

If my candidate makes it to Congress, he or she will find it is easier to say no to new expenditures than it is to say yes to new taxes. 

Nonetheless, great pipelines will be proposed to move water from areas of water plenty to water-starved states. Some of those, such as Texas, drunk on its recent Mecca-like impact on business, will have difficulty accepting that people won’t come if there is no water and, as like, inadequate electricity. 

Heat, not economics, could curtail the North to Southwest flow of people which has been the population realignment in recent years.

How to live with the new weather will definitely be a new priority not easily dealt with by politicians. It doesn’t fit behind a political slogan. It does favor infrastructure repair and enhancement, from boosting the electric grid to planting water-frugal crops to serious concern about where people live and how they pay their electric bill — a matter of keeping cool and staying alive.

But for the political establishment, there are other issues forming, each competing with the weather for attention. For a start, there is integrating artificial intelligence into our economy without severe disruption, and dealing with a broken health-care system, and care that is beyond the reach of people who are dealing with higher prices for other survival services and products, like electricity and water.

Easier to say your opponent is a rascal, the other party is fascist or communist, and to worry about the use of AI on cellphones in classrooms.

We all have the weather to deal with, Democrat or Republican, and it is still an issue for governance.

Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com , and he’s based in Rhode Island.