Climate catastrophes are no longer right around the corner—they’re here now.

A new report reveals that the economic losses from major climate-related disasters in the United States already reached record levels in 2023, with months left to go in the year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that there have already been at least 15 weather disasters that each caused at least $1 billion in damages this year. That news follows on the heels of the European climate monitoring agency’s confirmation that July was officially the hottest month on record globally, by a wide margin.

Losses have been so extraordinary that the global insurance industry is calling high alarm. They pointed to a total of $34 billion in insured losses from waves of thunderstorms alone in the U.S. in the first half of this year, and link the increasing extreme weather events to climate change. “The effects of climate change can already be seen in certain perils like heat waves, droughts, floods and extreme precipitation,” Swiss Re Group Chief Economist Jérôme Jean Haegeli said in a prepared statement. “Besides the impact of climate change, land use planning in more exposed coastal and riverine areas, and urban sprawl into the wilderness, generate a hard-to-revert combination of high value exposure in higher risk environments.”

To rational observers, the reality of catastrophic climate change in progress now has become undeniable—which, sadly, has not stopped problem politicians from continuing to deny it. That leaves the burden on rational voters to defeat and replace those politicians.