Extreme weather is one of the most pervasive and persuasive manifestations of climate change. We have seen decades of data that conclusively demonstrate the world is warming. This was evident in 2019 and into 2020. In some places life is becoming impossible due to the extreme heat.
Polls indicate that extreme weather is helping Americans to accept the veracity of global warming. It also helps to provide context for those who doubt the seriousness of the threat posed by climate crisis. "Climate change shifts us into an era of sustained elevated risk from extreme weather and climate events," American meteorologist Dr. James Marshall Shepherd told the New York Times. Dr. Shepherd is a professor at the University of Georgia's Department of Geography and the director of the university's atmospheric sciences program.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND COVID-19
A warming world threatens to unleash a host of diseases and other threats to human health. Carbon Brief explored how climate change and biodiversity disturbance, including habitat loss and human-animal conflict, could influence the risk of diseases being transmitted from animals to humans. An August article published in PHYS.ORG suggests climate change could unleash new epidemics.
The federal government's mismanagement of the pandemic in the U.S. has contributed to the deaths of more than 190,000 people. In the absence of a coordinated federal response forecasts suggest that we will see 410,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. by the end of the year. COVID-19 is undeniably deadly, and while it may be exacerbated by a warming world, the host of impacts associated with climate change will kill many more people than this pandemic. According to a report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, climate change will kill far more people than all other infectious diseases combined.
Many people including Bill Gates have warned that climate change is far worse the the coronavirus. Lise Kingo, the executive director of the UN Global Compact describes COVID-19 as a fire drill for climate change.
Climate change kills forests, animals and the full spectrum of biodiversity including humans. We have known that climate change is deadly for many years. A 2014 report from the World Meteorological Organisation explored the mortality risks associated with climate change and concluded that climate change is indeed deadly. Other reports including one by Medact and another by Lancet clearly outlined the health risks associated with climate change. We have also seen scientific papers that show that there is a deadly connection between water scarcity and climate change. Attribution science has also reaffirmed that climate change is deadly.
WILDFIRES
There may be no better illustration of the climate crisis than the rise of wildfires. Smoke from wildfires can make the coronavirus worse as evidenced by studies of influenza and other viruses that show smoke can increase the risk of deep-lung infections like pneumonia, which occurs in severe cases of Covid-19.
There was an epidemic of wildfires in 2019 and in the U.S. the average wildfire season is growing (it is now 78 days longer than it was in 1970). In parts of the southwest heat and drought are driving wildfires this year just as they did last year and the year before. While Colorado and Oregon have been hit hard this year, no state has been hit harder than California.
In 2019 almost 260,000 acres of California burned leaving thousands homeless and millions of people without power. But that was nothing compared to 2018 when wildfires in August through November scorched 1.8 million acres. In 2017 more than 1.2 million acres burned. However, 2020 has already set a record for the biggest one year burn in the state's recorded history. As of September 7, a total of 2,283,169 acres have burned in the Golden State. To make matters worse, we are only halfway through fire season and there are 28 big fires that are still burning and dozens of smaller ones. Stanford University climate scientist Michael Goss said the wildfires in California will "continue or get worse".
According to FEMA, fires killed 3,655 people in 2018 including 85 people who died in the Camp Fire. Last year 5 people died and this year eight people have died so far.
STORMS, HURRICANES & TORNADOES
Warmer seas fuel stronger storms and this may explain the increase in Atlantic hurricanes in recent years. Last year there was Hurricane Dorian, in 2017 there were three powerfully destructive hurricanes: Harvey, Irma and Maria. However, 2020 is already the worst hurricane season on record.
This year has set records for being the first Atlantic hurricane season in which 9 tropical storms formed before August. It is also the first year that 13 storms formed before September. We are only halfway into the season (the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30) and we have already seen 22 tropical storms. As of September 8, 2020, there have been 17 named storms and five (Hanna, Isaias, Laura, Marcos and Nana) became hurricanes. Other records that were broken in 2020 include the 6th straight season with two pre-season storms. (Arthur and Bertha) and the record for the earliest formation date for several named storms. There were a record-tying 2 named storms in May and 5 named storms in July as well as 6 record-breaking tropical depressions in July.
Early this year scientists at NOAA predicted "above-average" storm activity but they were quickly forced to upgrade their forecasts to "extremely active" and shortly thereafter, "one of the most active seasons on record." The updated outlook indicates that we may see as many as 25 named storms and six major hurricanes (category 3 or higher). At least 30 people have died in the U.S. this year as a result of Hurricanes
Finding evidence for a causal relationship is no easy feat in science and this is particularly true of meteorology. However, advances in attribution science have made it possible to directly link climate change to both Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence.
Deadly tornadoes are a common corollary of hurricanes and 2020 has been one of the most deadly years for tornadoes on record. So far in 2020 a total of 78 people have been killed by tornadoes including one of the deadliest tornadoes on record (Tennessee, March 3). According to data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, there were 1,520 preliminary tornado reports in 2019. This was well above the 1991-2010 U.S. annual average of 1,251 tornadoes. The number of tornadoes so far this year is not anomalous, but the increase in the number of strong tornadoes in the US over the past few decades suggests a discernible trend. Although the evidence linking tornadoes to climate change is far from definitive, it nonetheless supports earlier research.
The other cataclysmic impacts of climate change include, coastal flooding, drought, mass migration, famine, riots, conflict, violence, war, anoxia, and species extinction. Even if we ignore these impacts it is clear that the deadly confluence of COVID-19, extreme weather, and wildfires offers a foretaste of what life will be like as we suffer through the multiple impacts of climate change.
No comments:
Post a Comment