Michael Smolens: Even routine heat waves bring warnings of climate change
Hot weather covering much of the West again brings focus to global warming impacts — and how they're getting worse The triple-digit heat in the West has been reported across the West, but there is a disconnect between San Diego and coastal cities, where a low-pressure system at sea has kept coastal cities mild and chilly. Meanwhile, San Diego is forecasted to rise from 71 to 74 degrees by the end of the week, according to a report by X (formerly X). Meanwhile, desert communities in the Central Valley and Borrego Springs experienced significant heat, with temperatures reaching 107 degrees and 103 degrees. The United Nations Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned that climate change is rapidly increasing and that it's "climate crunch time" for action. The level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has reached all-time highs and Earth has experienced its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat. Recent developments suggest a climate-changed future, such as the narrowing of alternative tunnel routes to move train tracks in Del Mar and the growing phenomenon of "climate refugees".
نشرت : قبل 10 شهور بواسطة Michael Smolens في Environment
The view looking west at Blair Valley in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
The triple-digit heat that has descended upon the West again has made national news.
There’s been something of a disconnect in much of San Diego, however, where a low-pressure system at sea has kept coastal cities mild, even chilly at times.
Some shrugged at the heat wave; others were a bit smug about it.
“Meanwhile San Diego is forecasting temps to zoom up this week from 71 on Monday all the way up to 74 by the end of the week,” one smart aleck wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Their residents better get a fish taco and a couple cold beers to deal with this sizzler.”
Meanwhile, folks in desert communities (Borrego Springs was hovering around 107 degrees on Thursday) and the Central Valley (Redding was around 103) take this heat seriously. The temperatures weren’t so much the issue as the timing — it’s early for this.
But this week is a marker that the heat season is upon us. “Cool zones” were opened at libraries and other locations across San Diego County, as health officials issued precautions about being in hot weather.
Invariably, the weather generated more discussion about the continual warming of the globe and its increasingly devastating impacts. For the most part, flooding, hurricanes and wildfires aren’t new phenomena, of course, but climate change has made them more intense, frequent and destructive.
Yes, this all is a variation of what’s been said before. But if anything bears repeating, it’s what climate change might do to life on Earth if dramatic changes aren’t made.
There’s been much action and talk aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, but the results have not been encouraging.
“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said during a speech in New York on Wednesday. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver.”
The level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has reached all-time highs and Earth recorded its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat.
Those statistics are among recent developments locally and worldwide that point to a climate-changed future: the narrowing of alternative tunnel routes to move the train tracks in Del Mar away from the bluffs crumbling into the sea, early wildfires in California and the growing phenomenon of “climate refugees.”
“This is the face of adapting to climate change,” Keith Greer, the deputy director of regional planning for the San Diego Association of Governments, said this week regarding the tracks threatened by sea-level rise, according to Phil Diehl of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
On a much broader level, so is this: For years, scientists have warned that climate change will displace millions of people. The World Bank has estimated that more than 216 million people could be driven from their homes by sea level rise, flooding, desertification and other effects of rising temperatures, according to The Washington Post last week.
The Institute for Economics and Peace said the figure could reach 1.2 billion people.
Much depends on whether global warming continues according to projections. Regardless, people seeking refuge elsewhere increasingly will be citing climate factors in addition to more typical concerns of political and religious persecution, poverty and violence.
The current hot weather has been the main climate topic of the moment, just as floods, fires and major storms have been in the past and will be again.
Among other things, there’s been debate about whether the West is experiencing a heat dome or heat wave. There is a difference, as the Los Angeles Times points out. Beyond meteorological distinctions, heat domes tend to last longer and, thus, are more dangerous.
“An infamous heat dome occurred in 2021, when triple-digit temperatures stifled the Pacific Northwest for 27 days, contributing to hundreds of deaths and spawning multiple research studies,” wrote Hayley Smith of the Times.
Experts have discussed nightmare scenarios that some have dubbed a “Hurricane Katrina of Heat,” referring to the catastrophic hurricane that struck Louisiana in 2005.
Such projections aren’t intended to simply create a hopeless climate doom loop, but to encourage action on how to prepare — along with reinforcing the need to combat climate change.
Portions of the country — from Florida to New York and Houston to Chicago — could get so hot that humans would not be able to withstand the heat if the planet continues to warm past 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a study released in October by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Earth already has surpassed, at least temporarily, the 1.5 degree Celsius climate change “tipping point” that could create a domino effect and trigger critical ecological changes that reinforce rather than reduce warming, according to the World Economic Forum.
Jeff Goodell is the author of “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.” In a New York Times column this week, Goodell focused on last month’s windstorm in Houston that knocked out power for nearly a million customers. Five days later, 100,000 residences and businesses were “still marooned in the heat and darkness.”
The temperature was in the mid- to low-80s. Things might have been different if the outage happened days later when Houston hit 96 degrees, with a heat index as high as 115.
Climate researchers at Georgia Tech modeled the health consequences for residents in Phoenix, Detroit and Atlanta in a two-day, citywide blackout during a heat wave, with electricity gradually restored over the next three days. The results were shocking, particularly for Phoenix, Goodell wote.
About 800,000 people — roughly half the Phoenix population — would need emergency medical treatment for heat stroke and other illnesses. The people seeking care would overwhelm the city’s hospitals. More than 13,000 people would die.
Last year, Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, experienced 645 heat-related deaths. Starting this year, the Phoenix Fire Department is employing a new tactic — immersing heatstroke victims in ice on the way to the hospital, according to The Associated Press.
Goodell suggested long-range risks could be reduced by building cities with less concrete and asphalt and more trees and parks, while identifying the most vulnerable residents and coming up with targeted emergency responses and long-term heat management plans. Strengthening power grids and building backup systems also could be lifesavers.
While there’s still hope efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and address other climate-warming factors will start turning things around, the need to adapt is paramount.
It’s going to take a lot more than tacos and beers and ice immersions to — as Guterres put it — find “an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”
المواضيع: Climate Change, ESG