So, This Is What The End Of The World Looks Like, Right?
So, This Is What The End Of The World Looks Like, Right?
Climate change is real, and it's not spectacular.
Extreme weather is devastating the US this summer, and the New York Times reports that while “climate disasters are getting worse,” they are apparently “losing their shock value.” I disagree, as the global climate crisis isn’t Courtney Love in the late 1990s.
The Times even tweeted, "Catastrophic floods in the Hudson Valley. An unrelenting heat dome over Phoenix. Ocean temperatures hitting 90 degrees Fahrenheit off Miami's coast. A deluge in Vermont. These events are happening simultaneously."
Yes, that's still shocking.
When alerting New Yorkers to flash flooding in the Lake Champlain region near Vermont, Gov. Kathy Hochul declared, "Make no mistake: This is our new normal. We are the first generation to feel the impacts of climate change & the last generation with a shot at doing anything about it."
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Hochul sounds like the governor in a disaster movie for good reason: Smoke from Canadian wildfires has blocked out the sun in major cities like that scene from The Matrix. Temperatures in Texas peaked at 119 degrees, leading to speculation over whether the state might soon become too hot for human life. Severe storms and damaging winds buffeted Oklahoma. Torrential rains flooded Chicago. Baseball-sized hail pummelled Colorado.
That was all during the past month.
WFLA News Channel 8's Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Jeff Berardelli told the Times, "It’s not just a figment of your imagination, and it’s not because everybody now has a smartphone. We’ve seen an increase in extreme weather. This without a doubt is happening.”
Florida is also hotter and swampier than usual, with extreme lightning storms. Water temperatures off the coast of Florida were soaring into the mid-90s. Alas, Gov. Ron DeSantis can't just pack up extreme weather and ship it to Martha's Vineyard (otherwise, he totally would).
The Venusian temperatures are a result of another "heat dome" — a ridge of high pressure bringing hot, dry, sinking air — that's currently hovering over New Mexico and growing in size. By the end of the week, it will have extended from California and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula to the Deep South. Temperatures will steadily increase through the weekend, breaking triple digits, and impacting almost 100 million people in the US. Once you hear Rod Serling's somber narration, you'll know you've overheated.
Rod Serling predicts the “heat dome.” #twilightzone #climatechange #heatdome.
This year, El Niño’s back, bringing “warmer than average” surface temperatures to the Pacific Ocean and fueling even more severe weather globally. Joining El Niño is La Niña, which causes “stronger than usual” trade winds and pushes warm water toward Asia. Bottom line: We can expect drought in the Southwest US, more precipitation and flooding in the Pacific Northwest (yay), and a more ferocious hurricane season in the Atlantic.
Climate scientist Michelle L'Heureux warned that El Niño can and (likely will) "lead to new records for temperatures, particularly in areas that already experience above-average temperatures during El Niño.”
Prolonged dangerous heat could persist throughout the summer. Heat is an especially insidious killer: More than 60,000 people died heat-related deaths last year during Europe’s heat wave, which was the hottest summer on record. The deceased were predominately the elderly and women.
After the last unprecedented deadly heat wave in 2003, which killed 30,000 people, Europe spent the next 20 years trying to adapt to a hotter climate but global warming has outpaced its best efforts.
“In an ideal society, nobody should die because of heat,” said Joan Ballester, a research professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and the study’s lead author.
But it’s not an “ideal society.” It’s one filled with flat-earth climate deniers and money grubbers who have fought against any serious efforts to address the climate crisis. Now we roast … or drown.
That’s not a “new normal” I wish to welcome.
[ New York Times / CBS ]
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