December 10, 2025
Fossil-fuel combustion isn’t just environmentally destructive — it is the single most expensive human activity in the global economy. The illusion of “affordable energy” collapses the moment you account for the actual economic costs: healthcare burdens, lost productivity, infrastructure damage, climate-driven disasters, agricultural losses, ecosystem collapse, and trillions in government subsidies that mask the true market price of oil, gas, and coal.
When you add these direct and indirect costs together, the losses outweigh the benefits by trillions of dollars every single year.
Yet Donald Trump continues to weaponize disinformation, promoting anti-economic, white-nationalist energy policies built entirely on propaganda—not reality. And the data proves it.
Energy Prices: What Actually Happened
Trump repeatedly claims he “made energy cheap” and “brought prices down.”
That is a lie.
Here are the actual numbers:
Gasoline
- January 2016: $1.70/gallon
- December 2025: ~$2.99/gallon
➡️ ↑ 76% increase
Natural Gas (Henry Hub Spot)
- January 2016: ~$1.60 per MMBtu
- December 2025: ~$5.08 per MMBtu
➡️ ↑ 217% increase
The truth is blunt:
Fuel prices are dramatically higher today than when Trump first took office—and that volatility is a direct consequence of policy choices, not some inevitable market swing. The biggest financial hit isn’t just at the gas pump, but on every electric bill in the country. Natural gas is still the backbone of U.S. power generation, so when its price spikes, electricity costs rise right along with it.
Trump made the situation dramatically worse by opening U.S. natural gas to heightened global demand, driving domestic prices even higher. And instead of strengthening the most affordable, stable, and sustainable energy sources—solar and wind—he’s actively undermined them. The result is a manufactured energy crisis that harms households, businesses, and the long-term health of the U.S. economy.
Trump’s Economic Agenda: A Blueprint for Collapse
Modern economic debates have been hijacked by emotional rhetoric and short-term political wins. But basic economics tells us:
- Protectionism and tariffs shrink economies.
- Nationalism and anti-immigration policies reduce labor supply, innovation, and GDP growth.
- Populist attacks on institutions increase risk, weaken currency stability, and scare away investment.
- Deregulation of fossil fuels amplifies long-term costs while accelerating climate-driven economic shocks.
These are not theoretical risks.
They are happening right now.
Capitalism Is Becoming Uninsurable
Perhaps the most alarming warning comes from Gunther Thallinger of Allianz SE, one of the world’s largest global insurers:
The pace and scale of climate-related destruction is beginning to exceed the insurance industry’s ability to function.
Insurance is the keystone stabilizer of capitalism.
If insurers can no longer price risk:
- mortgages fail
- banks collapse
- property markets implode
- businesses cannot operate
- governments cannot finance disaster recovery
- investment markets unravel
This is how capitalism collapses from within — not through ideology, but through mathematical certainty.
Climate Change: A Cascading, Nonlinear Health Crisis
Climate change is not just melting ice sheets.
It is unraveling the biological, ecological, and medical systems humans depend on.
Warming temperatures trigger reinforcing health feedback loops:
- extreme heat → cardiovascular deaths → weakened population resilience
- air pollution → chronic disease → higher mortality + healthcare costs
- food system instability → malnutrition → reduced cognitive development
- ecosystem collapse → infectious disease spread → rising pandemics
- infrastructure failures → water contamination → chronic illness
These loops interact, amplify, and accelerate one another.
They are nonlinear, meaning each degree of warming creates exponentially greater harm.
This translates directly into:
- shorter life expectancy
- declining quality of life
- skyrocketing healthcare costs
- reduced labor productivity
- shrinking economic output
- destabilized communities
- massive, permanent losses in human capital
The Bottom Line
Trump’s fossil-fuel agenda isn’t just anti-science.
It is anti-economic, anti-health, and anti-American.
By clinging to the most expensive and destructive energy system ever created, we are:
- sabotaging our economy
- accelerating financial collapse
- undermining national security
- destabilizing global markets
- shortening human life
- destroying the conditions necessary for civilization to function
A livable future — and a stable economy — requires recognizing that clean energy is not a cost.
It is the only economic path that ensures survival.
* Our probabilistic, ensemble-based climate model — which incorporates complex socio-economic and ecological feedback loops within a dynamic, nonlinear system — projects that global temperatures are becoming unsustainable this century. This far exceeds earlier estimates of a 4°C rise over the next thousand years, highlighting a dramatic acceleration in global warming. We are now entering a phase of compound, cascading collapse, where climate, ecological, and societal systems destabilize through interlinked, self-reinforcing feedback loops.
What Can I Do?
The single most important action you can take to help address the climate crisis is simple: stop burning fossil fuels. There are numerous actions you can take to contribute to saving the planet. Each person bears the responsibility to minimize pollution, discontinue the use of fossil fuels, reduce consumption, and foster a culture of love and care. The Butterfly Effect illustrates that a small change in one area can lead to significant alterations in conditions anywhere on the globe. Hence, the frequently heard statement that a fluttering butterfly in China can cause a hurricane in the Atlantic. Be a butterfly and affect the world.
→ “Solutions to the Fossil Fuel Economy and the Myths Accelerating Climate and Economic Collapse.“
The Climate Crisis: Violent Rain | Deadly Humid Heat | Health Collapse | Extreme Weather Events | Insurance | Trees and Deforestation | Soil | Rising Sea Level | Food and Water | Updates
Tipping points and feedback loops drive the acceleration of climate change. When one tipping point is toppled and triggers others, the cascading collapse is known as the Domino Effect.
The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment
