WASHINGTON DC, December 15 (IPS) – As every Christmas approaches, one track permeates the airwaves throughout america and elsewhere: White Christmas. In accordance with the Guiness Ebook of World Information, “White Christmas” is the #1 promoting bodily single of all occasions with over 50 million copies bought.
Many know these iconic opening lyrics:
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
Identical to those I used to know.”
This American vacation basic, written by Irving Berlin and recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942 through the depths of World Struggle II, conveyed in its time the nostalgia of a less complicated previous and the hope for a greater future.
However contexts change and, with them, so can meanings. In the present day, we face a brand new and completely different kind of world menace, extreme local weather change which, in response to a current World Financial Discussion board report, may lead to an extra 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in financial losses by 2050.
What may quickly stand out most concerning the lyrics of White Christmas is the nostalgia for an precedent days when there was really snow on the bottom in late December, an expertise which is now projected to change into rarer in lots of areas due to local weather change.
Clearly, not this December 2025 in america which resides via the blistering chilly of a polar vortex. However different components of the globe are seeing their warmest December in many years amidst what is ready to be the world’s second hottest 12 months on file as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations pushed by greenhouse gasoline emissions observe upwards, altering our local weather.
And whereas there could also be Christmas snow on the bottom in 2026 or 2027 or 2028, that will, in response to present local weather predictions, change into rarer and rarer over the medium to long run. A snowy Christmas could be one thing that fades right into a reminiscence in lots of locations if we don’t keep away from extreme local weather change.
Consequently, the track White Christmas presently conveys a brand new message. These lyrics initially written to invoke a sense of nostalgia and hope ought to now be learn extra actually. “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, identical to those I used to know” is a warning about the necessity to scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions to keep away from the aberrations and destruction that extreme local weather change would trigger.
White Christmas, this vacation basic from the previous, ought to at the moment be heard as a clarion name for local weather change motion.
Philippe Benoit is managing director at World Infrastructure Advisory Providers 2050 specializing in local weather change.
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