Summer of 2026 – ClimateCode Red for Humanity?

While it’s not over yet, as I write this in late August 2026, this summer has already delivered a series of stark reminders that climate change is not a distant threat but a present reality. While no single weather event can be attributed solely to climate change, scientists have concluded that human-caused warming is making many types of extreme weather more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting.

Europe has seen five record-breaking heat waves, with many national temperature records broken and temperatures sometimes exceeding 41°C (106°F). The heat has contributed to deaths, drought, crop losses, reduced water supplies, and lower agricultural productivity.

There have been massive wildfires in Europe and North America. A recent scientific attribution study found that climate change has approximately doubled the likelihood of the hot, dry conditions that fueled these fires. Because of wildfires in Canada, smoke spread across much of North America, affecting air quality hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Scientists point to prolonged drought and extreme heat—conditions made more likely by climate change—as major contributors.

These events increase concern about future climate catastrophe for several reasons. The speed and severity with which some climate impacts are unfolding should leave little room for complacency. Climate models have long projected increasing extremes, but many of the predicted impacts are now appearing decades earlier than the public once assumed. Records are being broken repeatedly. Instead of isolated record temperatures, many locations are breaking records year after year, suggesting that yesterday’s extremes are becoming today’s normal

Multiple disasters are occurring simultaneously. Heat waves, droughts, floods, and wildfires increasingly happen at the same time or in rapid succession, straining emergency services, health-care systems, food production, and infrastructure.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the world may be rapidly approaching an unprecedented climate catastrophe, so severe that it could severely affect human and non-human life before the end of this century unless major positive changes occur soon.

Climate groups have been issuing increasingly dire warnings of the seriousness of climate threats. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization composed of climate experts from many countries, warned that “unprecedented changes” were needed by 2030 for the world to have a chance to avert a climate catastrophe. Despite that warning, atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to rise, indicating that the world is still heading in the wrong direction on climate change.

Because of  many stark warnings, like the ones above, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that “the climate situation is a ‘Code Red for Humanity.’

Facts on the ground reinforce the warnings. Every decade since the 1970s has been hotter than the previous decade.  All 26 years in this century are among the hottest 27 years in recorded history. Glaciers worldwide, Arctic ice sheets, and permafrost have been melting rapidly. Sea levels are rising rapidly, with “sunny day” flooding from higher tides already occurring in some coastal cities. The frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods have increased significantly..

Israel is especially threatened by climate change because the Middle East is becoming hotter and drier than most areas, increasing the potential for future violence, and the coastal plain where much of Israel’s population and infrastructure are located could be inundated by a rising Mediterranean Sea.

As devastating as recent climate events have been, prospects for the future are even more frightening, for four very important reasons:

• While all the recent severe climate events have occurred at a time when the global temperature has risen about 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the start of the Industrial Revolution, climate experts project that this can at least double by the end of this century, triggering far worse climate events.
• While climate experts believe 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon dioxide is a threshold to avert the worst effects of climate change, the world has reached 432 ppm, and it is increasing at 2–3 ppm per year.
• Climate experts fear that self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles) could lead to an irreversible tipping point, causing global warming to rise uncontrollably with catastrophic results. One example is that as ice caps melt and darker soil or water is revealed, less sunlight is reflected back into space and more of the sun’s heat is absorbed by land and water.
• Security experts warn that climate change could displace tens or even hundreds of millions of people fleeing severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, and other climate events, promoting social and political instability, terrorism, and war. Climate-related drought and resource scarcity can intensify migration, political instability, and conflict, potentially increasing the risks of terrorism and war.

Because of the above factors, averting a climate catastrophe must become a central focus for civilization today. Every aspect of life should be considered in terms of reducing “carbon footprints.” Positive steps include shifting away from fossil fuels to solar, wind, and other renewable energy; designing more efficient cars, lightbulbs, and other items; improving public transportation; recycling; and composting.

However, as president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of “Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism,” I have concluded that one essential approach is a major shift to plant-based diets. Such a shift would result in far fewer cows and other farmed animals emitting methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. It would also reduce the current hazardous atmospheric CO2 level by allowing reforestation of the over 40% of the world’s ice-free land currently used for grazing and growing feed crops for animals.

Bottom line: To give future generations a chance at a decent, habitable, environmentally sustainable world, we must make a major shift toward vegan diets. A Utopian dream? Perhaps, but as the title of a book by Buckminster Fuller puts it, we may have a choice today between “Utopia or Oblivion.” And it would not be utopian if people became aware that the climate situation is a “Code Red for humanity,” with all of life threatened, and that plant-based substitutes increasingly provide the taste, texture, and culinary experience that many consumers seek from animal products   

We must “choose life” by shifting to plant-based diets that benefit our health, animals, and our precious planet. This aligns with the Jewish mandate to be a “light unto the nations” and could inspire others to make similar dietary changes, helping shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. It would also align with basic Jewish mandates to preserve our health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help the hungry, and pursue peace.

Summer 2026 should be a wake-up call. “Code Red for Humanity” should not be a prediction of our fate but a warning and message that we still have time to change it. Dietary changes are essential because there is no planet B. Nor is there an effective Plan B.