Commuters make their way through a flooded street after heavy monsoon rains in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 21, 2020. Munir Uz Zaman / Getty Images
By Ajit Niranjan
World leaders and businesses are not putting enough money into adapting to dangerous changes in the climate and must "urgently step up action," according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
<p>Last year was the joint-hottest year on record and disasters struck every continent. Smoke-belching wildfires burned through communities from Australia to the Arctic. <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-storms-cyclones-hurricanes-typhoons-explained/a-55521226" target="_blank">Extreme storms</a> battered coastal cities from the Philippines to Nicaragua, while floods put a third of Bangladesh underwater and covered entire villages in Nigeria.</p><p>Extreme weather and climate-related disasters have killed more than 410,000 people in the past 10 years, almost all of them in poorer countries, according to the <a href="https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201116_WorldDisasters_Full.pdf" target="_blank">International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent.</a></p><p>"The hard truth is that climate change is upon us," said UNEP Executive Director <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-we-are-close-to-the-point-of-no-return/a-56122609" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inger Andersen</a>, in the foreword to the report. "Its impacts will intensify, even if we limit global warming. We cannot afford to lose the race to adaptation."</p>
Adaptation Has a Long Way to Go
<p>The Adaptation Gap Report, now in its 5th year, finds "huge gaps" between what world leaders agreed to do under the 2015 <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/5-years-paris-climate-agreement/a-55901139" target="_blank">Paris Agreement</a> and what they need to do to keep their citizens safe from climate change.</p><p>A review by the Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative of almost 1,700 examples of climate adaptation found that a third were in the early stages of implementation — and only 3% had reached the point of reducing risks.</p><p>Disasters like storms and droughts have grown stronger than they should be because people have warmed the planet by burning fossil fuels and chopping down rainforests. The world has heated by more than 1.1 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution and is on track to warm by about 3°C by the end of the century.</p><p>If world leaders <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-performance-index-how-far-have-we-come/a-55846406" target="_blank">deliver on recent pledges</a> to bring emissions to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/joe-bidens-climate-pledges-are-they-realistic/a-56173821" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">net-zero</a> by the middle of the century, they could almost limit warming to 2°C. The target of the Paris Agreement, however, is to reach a target well below that — ideally 1.5°C. </p><p>There are two ways, scientists say, to lessen the pain that warming will bring: mitigating climate change by cutting carbon pollution and adapting to the hotter, less stable world it brings.</p>The Cost of Climate Adaptation
<p>About three-quarters of the world's countries have national plans to adapt to climate change, according to the report, but most lack the regulations, incentives and funding to make them work.</p><p>More than a decade ago, rich countries most responsible for climate change pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 in climate finance for poorer countries. UNEP says it is "impossible to answer" whether that goal has been met, while an OECD study published in November found that between 2013 and 2018, the target sum had not once been achieved. Even in 2018, which recorded the highest level of contributions, rich countries were still $20 billion short.</p><p>The yearly adaptation costs for developing countries alone are estimated at $70 billion. This figure is expected to at least double by the end of the decade as temperatures rise, and will hit $280-500 billion by 2050, according to the report.</p><p>But failing to adapt is even more expensive.</p><p>When powerful storms like cyclones Fani and Bulbul struck South Asia, early-warning systems allowed governments to move millions of people out of danger at short notice. Storms of similar strength that have hit East Africa, like <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/zimbabwe-after-cyclone-idai-building-climate-friendly-practices/a-54251885" target="_blank">cyclones Idai</a> and Kenneth, have proved more deadly because fewer people were evacuated before disaster struck.</p><p>The Global Commission on Adaptation estimated in 2019 that a $1.8 trillion investment in early warning systems, buildings, agriculture, mangroves and water resources could reap $7.1 trillion in benefits from economic activity and avoided costs when disasters strike.</p>Exploring Nature-Based Solutions
<p>The report also highlights how restoring nature can protect people from climate change while benefiting local communities and ecology.</p><p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-fires-risk-climate-change-bushfires-australia-california-extreme-weather-firefighters/a-54817927" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>, for instance, could be made less punishing by restoring grasslands and regularly burning the land in controlled settings. Indigenous communities from Australia to Canada have done this for millennia in a way that encourages plant growth while reducing the risk of uncontrolled wildfires. Reforestation, meanwhile, can stop soil erosion and flooding during heavy rainfall while trapping carbon and protecting wildlife.</p><p>In countries like Brazil and Malaysia, governments could better protect coastal homes from floods and storms by restoring <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mudflats-mangroves-and-marshes-the-great-coastal-protectors/a-50628747" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mangroves</a> — tangled trees that grow in tropical swamps. As well as anchoring sediments and absorbing the crash of waves, mangroves can store carbon, help fish populations grow and boost local economies through tourism. </p><p>While nature-based solutions are often cheaper than building hard infrastructure, their funding makes up a "tiny fraction" of adaptation finance, the report authors wrote. An analysis of four global climate funds that spent $94 billion on adaptation projects found that just $12 billion went to nature-based solutions and little of this was spent implementing projects on the ground.</p><p>But little is known about their long-term effectiveness. At higher temperatures, the effects of climate change may be so great that they overwhelm natural defenses like mangroves.</p><p>By 2050, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/rising-sea-levels-should-we-let-the-ocean-in-a-50704953/a-50704953" target="_blank">coastal floods</a> that used to hit once a century will strike many cities every year, according to a 2019 report on oceans by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the gold standard on climate science. This could force dense cities on low-lying coasts to build higher sea walls, like in Indonesia and South Korea, or evacuate entire communities from sinking islands, like in Fiji.</p><p>It's not a case of replacing infrastructure, said Matthias Garschagen, a geographer at Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany and IPCC author, who was not involved in the UNEP report. "The case for nature-based solutions is often misinterpreted as a battle... but they're part of a toolkit that we've ignored for too long."</p>From Your Site Articles
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Phoenix, Arizona is a prime example of a city facing heat stress as the climate warms. Art Wager / Getty Images
While cities bear a heavy cost from the climate crisis, they could also lead the way in implementing climate adaptation strategies.
<p>A<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00958-8" target="_blank"> recent study</a> published by Nature Climate Change found that cities are at a greater risk than suburban and rural areas for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/heat-wave" target="_blank">heat stress</a>, water scarcity, air pollution and energy insecurity due to their design and population density, <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210104114105.htm" target="_blank">Science Daily reported</a>.</p><p>Until recently, the ability to predict these future climate scenarios in cities remained unclear. </p><p>"Incorporating these types of small-scale variables into climate modeling is crucial for understanding future urban climate," Lei Zhao, a University of Illinois Urbana Champaign engineer and lead researcher of the study told Science Daily. "However, finding a way to include them in global-scale models poses major resolution, scale and computational challenges."</p><p>The team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Princeton University approached this "urban-to-global information gap" by combining a broader-scale process that predicts how greenhouse gas emissions impact the global climate and a statistical model that copies a model for urban landscapes, according to Science Daily. </p>
<p>By applying this technique to data from 26 global climate models, the researchers were able to make projections on temperature and humidity changes in cities through the end of the century.</p>
<p>"The model predicts that by the end of this century, average warming across global cities will increase by 1.9 degrees Celsius with intermediate emissions and 4.4 C with high emissions," Zhao told Science Daily.</p>
<p>"Our findings highlight the critical need for global projections of local urban climates for climate-sensitive urban areas," Zhao added. "This could give city planners the support they need to encourage solutions such as green infrastructure intervention to reduce urban heat stress on large scales."</p>
<p>In 2019, the <a href="https://www.maricopa.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4959" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Maricopa County Department of Public Health</a>, in Phoenix, Arizona, reported 197 heat-related fatalities. </p>
<p>"It was the highest number of heat-associated deaths on record for the county, and the fourth year in a row of record-setting heat deaths there," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/climate-solutions/phoenix-climate-change-heat/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. "Those numbers are only expected to increase as the climate changes."</p>
<p>This year, Phoenix recorded its two hottest months in July and August. Building tall structures that trap heat and paving over the natural desert, which absorbs heat, are some of the ways in which the city's development has made it even hotter, the article stated. </p>
<p>"We talk about climate… as something mysterious and ambiguous that comes from the sky. But it is also something we are driving with the way we are paving our streets," David Hondula, a sustainability scientist at Arizona State University told The Washington Post. "Urbanization is a critical part of the story."</p>
<p>Solutions like Nature's Cooling Systems, a project aiming to implement green design in communities, could alleviate heat stress in Phoenix's <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/arizona/stories-in-arizona/city-heat-air-quality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">neighborhoods</a>. </p>
<p>The project, a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Arizona State University and the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, is designed to "revolutionize urban design by inverting the traditional top-down approach in which city planners dictate design from air-conditioned high-rises, routinely failing low-income areas," <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-phoenix-is-working-to-beat-urban-heat/" target="_blank">Scientific American</a> reported. "The program — along with a handful of other revitalization projects burgeoning around the country — views locals as experts on their neighborhoods."</p><p>Implementing shade coverings in neighborhoods, returning to traditional adobe building materials and designing courtyards that feature cooling towers are a few ideas being considered, according to Scientific American.</p><p>While communities in Phoenix adapt, hotter temperatures are a reality for more than just Arizonans. California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah also recorded their warmest Augusts on record this year, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/summer-2020-ranked-as-one-of-hottest-on-record-for-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to NOAA</a>, making adaptation strategies a necessity for a warming country. </p><p>"We understand that necessity breeds invention," Kate Gallego, Phoenix's mayor, told The Washington Post. "And we hope… that we will produce the innovations that make it possible for people to adapt."</p>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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A boy looks at a portion of the Berlin wall in front of the U.S.-Mexico border wall on Nov. 16, 2019 in San Ysidro, California. The 2.7 ton wall section was brought to the border by Initiative Offene Gesellschaft, a group dedicated to promoting ideas for an open society. Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
The remains of at least 214 people who died attempting to cross the Mexico-Arizona border have been recovered so far in 2020, and advocates blame extreme heat, The Associated Press reports.
The figure is just 10 shy of the overall annual record from 2010, according to the nonprofit Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office, which together map recoveries of human remains. This year saw extreme heat — a hallmark signal of human-caused climate change — across the American West. Phoenix, Arizona endured its hottest summer on record with 144 days in triple digits and an average daily temperature around 110°F throughout July and August.
Those months were also the state's driest on record. Trump's border wall also likely contributed to the uptick in deaths. "The wall has sent a lot of people to rough terrain in our area," Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada, a critic of the president and advocate for greater compassion in immigration policy whose jurisdiction includes Nogales, Arizona, told The Associated Press. "It's like driving livestock into a canyon where they ultimately die."
As reported by The Associated Press:
In southern Arizona, No More Deaths and similar humanitarian groups leave water jugs and other provisions in remote places. The group gained national attention when one of its members was tried and acquitted last year of harboring migrants.
[Tony] Estrada, the Santa Cruz County sheriff, said he's worried officials may see higher numbers of deaths next year if big groups of migrants surge to the border, hoping Joe Biden's administration is more welcoming.
"These people will keep coming because most of them have nothing back home," Estrada said.
For a deeper dive:
The Associated Press; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves
For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, sign up for daily Hot News, and visit their news site, Nexus Media News.
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A home burns during the Bear fire, part of the North Lightning Complex fires in Butte County, California on September 9, 2020. Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images
Wildfires burned more acres this year in the U.S. than ever before in modern records, E&E reports based on data published by the National Interagency Fire Center.
<p>Extreme heat, fueled by climate change caused by extracting and burning fossil fuels, dries vegetation and turns vast swaths of forest into a tinderbox. </p><p>"In 2020 we saw some of the hottest months on record, and large portions of the western U.S. were in severe drought," University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch told E&E. </p><p>California, also hit by two exceptionally severe heat waves this year, more than doubled its previous record of acreage burned and its ecosystems will likely be changed for centuries. </p><p>"We can no longer ignore the link between warming and wildfires. We will see more fire seasons like 2020 in the future," Balch told E&E. </p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p>National record: <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2020/12/22/stories/1063721269?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_dSsiWevat5tQoh4RR94AyJNygqvnOLRtpj8bu0avKAdXXS6BQCmevXm-o1eiuc8FSEMyCA0Y2n4agiqS_jqHGbaKnqeSkQBhWz0r5S5UMC75Y6qE&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">E&E;</a> California future: <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-21/worst-california-wildfire-season-has-altered-forests-for-centuries-to-come?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_UmBJzs4IFz8ZjWoLpXqLOO60dqrAObwVzcgt2EEC49PRPehJ-Lyezq6F7ZbOdXyQjEvQo8FMlFxVoZ6OZJVtrhQAtj8eDmJJti-kmZRiyA3xLDeM&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">LA Times</a>; Climate Signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--Ggr5dWFtsPI1VZCxeNbMQ0vWyHk8BUfumwyTDeef4JG8vCHIJtxVFqflPNftOwJNiX5M2UHAjc6aW5esfl_k20H927H3PBrph6Axp4_QYwANjEhg&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/western-wildfire-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9PGLNy8YV5zwvLWOBYCNxwMMdPTEUI_AN61JCsnc-q-RrKP2KOxjxi8wSUkacIwzFnBful1f-MQRkIjA5x3haIRJbicZHBX4_cgli3wdvLCQKRf-g&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">2020 Western wildfire season</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/i-heart-climate-voices/living-with-smoke-and-fire-in-the-era-of-climate-change-87713856f271" target="_blank">Living with Smoke and Fire Webinar</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
- California Wildfires Burn 10,000 Acres in a Single Day - EcoWatch ›
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Hurricane Iota is the latest category 5 storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, with the aftermath seen here in Cortes, Honduras on November 19, 2020. Orlando SIERRA / AFP / Getty Images
By Jeff Masters, PhD and Dana Nuccitelli
Calendar year 2020 was an extreme and abnormal year, in so many ways. The global coronavirus pandemic altered people's lives around the world, as did extreme weather and climate events. Let's review the year's top 10 such events.
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f24930d9e63f791dd2d2c80873d1dd77"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gjQS48xT2RA?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
1. Hottest Year on Record?
<p>The official rankings will not be released until January 14, but <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateOfGavin/status/1338518056457396226" target="_blank">according to NASA</a>, Earth's average surface temperature in 2020 is likely to tie with 2016 for the hottest year on record, making the last seven years the seven hottest on record.</p><p>Remarkably, the record warmth of 2020 occurred during a minimum in the solar cycle and in a year in which a moderate La Niña event formed. Surface cooling of the tropical Pacific during La Niña events typically causes a slight global cool-down, as does the minimum of the solar cycle, making it difficult to set all-time heat records. The record heat of 2020 in these circumstances is a demonstration of how powerful human causes of global warming have become.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk5MDEyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjY2ODU3NX0.KU1_aeaWbfXh5ZtQIYIArT1qqOI01KFE-yRXqqgecCs/img.jpg?width=980" id="da971" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4b9e666e12bd344a3db3815c6c63c6bc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2048" data-height="1038" />
Figure 1. The eye of category 5 Hurricane Iota on November 16, the strongest hurricane of the 2020 season, as seen by the Sentinel-2 satellite. Image credit: Pierre Markuse
<h4>2. The Wild 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season</h4><p>The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season produced an extraordinary 30 named storms (highest on record), 13 hurricanes (second-highest on record), and six major hurricanes (tied for second-highest on record): more than double the activity of an average season (12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes).</p><p>The 2020 season was notable not only for its record number of named storms (after breaking into the Greek alphabet by the ridiculously early date of September 18), but also for its record number of rapidly intensifying storms (10), record number of landfalling U.S. named storms (12), and record number of landfalling U.S. hurricanes (six). Every single mile of the mainland U.S. coast from Texas to Maine was under a watch or warning related to tropical cyclones at some point in 2020. U.S. hurricane damage exceeded $37 billion, according to insurance broker Aon, the eighth-highest annual total on record.</p><p>Two catastrophic category 4 hurricanes hit Central America in November: Hurricane Iota, the latest category 5 storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, and Hurricane Eta, the deadliest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2020, with at least 274 people listed as dead or missing. At least seven hurricanes from 2020 will be worthy of having their names retired: Iota, Eta, Zeta, Delta, Sally, Laura, and Isaias – although there is still <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/17/greek-letter-hurricane-names-retire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">no official mechanism</a> for retiring storm names from the Greek alphabet. The record for most names retired in one Atlantic season was set in 2005, when five hurricanes had their names retired.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk5MDEyNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDUxODI5N30.XnYLzKRhXOlT6sbQUTUpHbmaobQCc14ApUzPHj99kKg/img.png?width=980" id="21ac3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="00d3b41ac2fa9641bf0f6fcd62c2e730" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="900" data-height="781" />
Figure 2. Global energy-related emissions (top) and annual change (bottom) in gigatons of carbon dioxide, with projected 2020 levels highlighted in red. Other major events are indicated to a give a sense of scale. Image credit: Carbon Brief, using data from the Global Energy Review
3. Record-High Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels Despite Record Emissions Drop
<p>As a result of restrictions taken to curb the coronavirus pandemic, carbon emissions to the atmosphere in 2020 declined by 9 to 10% in the U.S. and 6 to 7% globally, although some of those reductions were offset by carbon released by wildfires. Those are the largest annual carbon emissions declines since World War II and far more than the 1% global and 6% U.S. emissions drops brought about by the 2008 Great Recession.</p><p>Nevertheless, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose by 2.6 parts per million from 2019 to 414 ppm in 2020. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere will not decline until human emissions reach net zero. Moreover, as coronavirus restrictions were lifted during 2020, global carbon pollution nearly rebounded to pre-COVID levels.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk5MDEyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MDA5NTg4Nn0.ypENT7I4ZfF4LOwG9o9kFXU97xnPicniu65cuchVJRE/img.jpg?width=980" id="e2dec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1b5f508352cc34f6eb10ea76744f7c35" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2047" data-height="1039" />
Figure 3. A wildfire in the Sakha Republic, Arctic Circle, Siberia, Russia creates smoke and pyrocumulus clouds on July 9, 2020. A record heat wave in Siberia during June led to the Arctic's first-ever 38.0°C (100.4°F) temperature and helped drive the Arctic's worst wildfire season on record. Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data via Pierre Markuse
<h4>4. An Apocalyptic Wildfire Season</h4><p>The year 2020 brought record levels of fire activity to the U.S. and Arctic, but unusually low levels in Canada and tropical Africa, resulting in a below-average year for global fire activity, according to the <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/wildfires-americas-and-tropical-africa-2020-compared-previous-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service</a>. According to Insurance broker Aon, the global direct cost of wildfires in 2020 was $17 billion, ranking as the fifth-costliest wildfire year, behind 2017, 2018, 2015 (major Indonesian fires), and 2010 (major Russian fires).</p><p>The Australian bushfire season ending in early 2020 (due to seasons in the Southern hemisphere being the reverse of those in the Northern hemisphere) was also <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/01/how-climate-change-influenced-australias-unprecedented-fires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a record-breaker</a>, having burned more than 46 million acres and destroyed more than 3,500 homes.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Interagency Fire Center</a> reported that U.S. wildfires burned 10.25 million acres as of December 18, 2020, the highest yearly total <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">since accurate records began in 1983</a>. The previous record was 10.13 million acres in 2015. <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/regional/time-series/109/tavg/3/10/1895-2020?base_prd=true&begbaseyear=1901&endbaseyear=2000&trend=true&trend_base=10&begtrendyear=1895&endtrendyear=2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The hottest August through October period</a> in Western U.S. history, combined with severe drought and a once-in-a-generation offshore wind event, conspired to bring about an apocalyptic western U.S. wildfire season. Total U.S. wildfire damages in 2020 were $16.5 billion, said Aon, ranking as its third-costliest year on record, behind 2017 ($24 billion) and 2018 ($22 billion). Wildfires caused at least 43 direct U.S. deaths. But the indirect death toll among people 65 and older in California alone during the period August 1-September 10 – due to wildfire smoke inhalation – was likely between 1,200 and 3,000, researchers at Stanford University reported in <a href="http://www.g-feed.com/2020/09/indirect-mortality-from-recent.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a September 11 study</a>. The 4.2 million acres burned in California in 2020 was more than double the previous record set in 2018.</p><h4>5. Super Typhoon Goni: Strongest Landfalling Tropical Cyclone on Record</h4><p>Super Typhoon Goni made landfall near Bato, Catanduanes Island, Philippines, on November 1 with sustained winds of 195 mph and a central pressure of 884 mb, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, or JTWC. Goni was the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone in world recorded history, using one-minute average wind speeds from the National Hurricane Center for the Atlantic/Northeast Pacific and one-minute average winds from JTWC for the rest of the planet's ocean basins.</p><p>Goni killed 31 people, damaged or destroyed 250,000 homes, and caused over $1 billion in damage, tying it with Typhoon Bopha in 2012 and Typhoon Vamco in 2020 as the Philippines' second-most expensive typhoon on record, adjusted for inflation. Only Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 ($11.1 billion) was more damaging.</p><p>Ominously, seven of the 10 strongest landfalls in recorded history have occurred since 2006.</p><h4>6. Hottest Reliably Measured Temperature: 130°F in Death Valley</h4><p>Death Valley, California, hit an astonishing 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4°C) at 3:41 p.m. PDT, August 16, 2020, at the Furnace Creek Visitor's Center. This reading was rounded to 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSWPC/status/1295137837361139712" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">daily summary from NOAA</a>. According to weather records experts Christopher Burt, who wrote the comprehensive weather records book "Extreme Weather," and Maximiliano Herrera, who tweets under the Twitter handle, <a href="https://twitter.com/extremetemps?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Extreme Temperatures Around the World</a>, the observation may be the hottest reliably recorded temperature in world history, breaking the 129.2 degrees Fahrenheit readings <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/historic-heat-wave-reponsible-for-death-valleys-129f-gradually-weak.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">at Death Valley in 2013</a> and <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/eastern-hemispheres-alltime-temperature-record-kuwait-fries-in-54.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in Kuwait in 2016</a>.</p><p>The World Meteorological Organization is conducting a review of the site's observing equipment. "If the observation passes an investigation (instrument calibration, etc.) then, yes, this is a new reliably measured global extreme heat record," Burt wrote by email. However, the <a href="https://wmo.asu.edu/content/world-meteorological-organization-global-weather-climate-extremes-archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">official world record</a> will remain a 134 degrees Fahrenheit measurement taken at Death Valley on July 10, 1913, a record <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/death-valley-california-may-have-recorded-hottest-temp-in-world-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">widely viewed as bogus</a>.</p><h4>7. Most Expensive 2020 Disaster: Flooding in China Causes $32 billion in Damage</h4><p>Seasonal monsoon flooding in China in June through September killed 278 people, damaged or destroyed 1.4 million homes and businesses, and did $32 billion in damage, according to insurance broker Aon. EM-DAT, the international disaster database, ranks that total as the third-most expensive non-U.S. weather disaster since accurate records began in 1990 (adjusted for inflation), behind 1998 flooding in China ($48 billion) and 2011 flooding in Thailand ($47 billion).</p><p>In a September 2020 study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, "<a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/bams/article/101/8/E1464/345591/Each-0-5-C-of-Warming-Increases-Annual-Flood" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Each 0.5°C of Warming Increases Annual Flood Losses in China by More than US$60 Billion</a>," researchers found that annual average flood losses in China during the period 1984-2018 were $19.2 billion (2015 dollars), which was 0.5% of China's GDP. Annual flood losses increased to $25.3 billion annually during the period 2006-2018. The study authors predicted that each additional 0.5 degrees Celsius of global warming will increase China flood losses by $60 billion per year.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk5MDEzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTQ3MzUwOX0.oao5yK9yRRggMbMxirT8h4SicN9QSGMi72cm5KDxiYU/img.jpg?width=980" id="e5190" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9ad394b10d6702921de5c865a0786dc0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="974" data-height="545" />
Figure 5. Arctic sea ice age near the time of the annual minimum in 1985 (left) and in 2020 (right). There is very little old, thick ice left in the Arctic, increasing the chances of a late-summer ice-free Arctic by the 2030s. Image credit: Zack Labe
<h4>8. Near-Record Low Arctic Sea Ice</h4><p>Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum on September 15, 2020, bottoming out at its second-lowest extent and volume ever recorded, behind 2012. A <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/10/warmer-climate-and-arctic-sea-ice-in-a-veritable-suicide-pact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new study suggests</a> that the 2012 record hasn't been broken despite ever-rising temperatures because the rapidly-warming Arctic has altered the jet stream, leading to cloudy summer Arctic conditions that have acted to temporarily preserve some of the sea ice. However, long-term global warming will inevitably win out, and scientists expect the Arctic to be ice-free in the summer beginning sometime between 2030 and 2050. Overall, three-quarters of the volume of summer sea ice in the Arctic has melted over the past 40 years.</p><p>The Northern Sea Route along the northern coast of Russia finally froze shut on November 3, after being open a <a href="https://twitter.com/RARohde/status/1323746737316679680" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">record 112 days</a>, and 2020 was the busiest shipping season ever for natural gas tankers in the Arctic, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-12/melting-arctic-ice-means-longest-lng-sailing-season-in-northern-sea-route" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to Bloomberg</a>.</p><h4>9. U.S. Withdrawal From Paris Climate Accord and Election of Joe Biden</h4><p>The U.S. officially withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/covid-19-put-u-s-back-on-track-with-reneged-paris-targets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the day after the November 3, 2020 election</a>. But Joe Biden, who won that presidential election, has announced his intent to immediately rejoin the Paris agreement on the day of his inauguration: January 20, 2021.</p><p>President-elect Biden considers tackling climate change a top priority and has proposed a plan to invest $2 trillion over four years in deploying climate solutions. He has <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/12/heres-the-team-tasked-with-carrying-out-bidens-incredibly-ambitious-climate-plans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">assembled a team</a> tasked with carrying out that plan, including several climate-focused cabinet member-nominees and the first national adviser on climate change.</p><p>It's a dramatic change from the previous administration's record of <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/most-trump-environmental-rollbacks-will-take-years-to-be-reversed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate and environmental protection rollbacks</a>.</p><h4>10. A Near-Record Number of Global Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters</h4><p>Through the end of November, 44 billion-dollar weather disasters had occurred globally in 2020, <a href="http://thoughtleadership.aonbenfield.com/Pages/home.aspx?reportcategory=impact%20forecasting" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to the November 2020 Catastrophe Report</a> from insurance broker Aon. The record in the Aon database is 47, set in 2010, and 2020 could challenge that record when the final tallies are announced on January 25, 2021.</p><p>The United States suffered 25 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2020, surpassing Aon's previous U.S. record of 20 in 2017. The record number of U.S. disasters led to the American Red Cross's providing record levels of disaster sheltering in 2020, according to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/2020-is-a-record-year-for-disaster-shelters-red-cross-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a December 2 article</a> by E&E News.</p><p>An <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">October 13 report</a> by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction found a "staggering" rise in climate-related disasters, including extreme weather events: those nearly doubled, from 3,656 in 1980-1999 to 6,681 in 2000-2019. The number of major floods more than doubled, from 1,389 to 3,254, and the incidence of destructive storms increased from 1,457 to 2,034.</p><p>The report blamed human-caused climate change as a significant factor in the increased disasters. It warned: "It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction, despite the science and evidence that we are turning our only home into an uninhabitable hell for millions of people." The U.N. report authors called attention to "industrial nations that are failing miserably on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels commensurate with the desired goal of keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius as set out in the Paris Agreement."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/the-top-10-weather-and-climate-events-of-a-record-setting-year/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649628910#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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Hospital workers evacuate patients from the Feather River Hospital during the Camp Fire on Nov. 8, 2018 in Paradise, California. People in 128 countries have experienced an increased exposure to wildfires, a new Lancet report finds. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
The climate crisis already has a death toll, and it will get worse if we don't act to reduce emissions.
<p>That's the warning from the latest Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, an annual <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> report <a href="http://www.thelancet-press.com/embargo/climatecountdown.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_a4k1xKrc4iQK5UG0pgWB-t3pa1Jt2r8ygJQx_Q6eEw3Ex7v3n470_GZ8yKLSRc2lhjD2LJgE8M4eWcjcjuKrnzya4hg&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">released Wednesday</a>.</p><p>"This past year, we have seen the harms of our converging crises — COVID-19, climate disasters, and systemic racism; it's been a preview of what lies ahead if we fail to urgently make the necessary investments to protect health," <a href="https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/19364/Renee-Salas" target="_blank">Renee Salas</a>, lead author of the U.S. Lancet Countdown Policy Brief, said in a statement reported by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/2020-just-a-preview-if-we-dont-fix-climate-change-the-lancet.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_q0ii1o9A1XUEYGGfwsCbUnhzEoZ6MBWNMdhJ193M2NK1JOwrCCsu5fPc_zFsIiNkpX8vNt1nCVdmDLwxSUdNcYH4qjg&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNBC</a>.</p>
<p>Wednesday's report was the work of more than 100 experts from 35 institutions or universities including the World Health Organization and University College London (UCL). The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change has been running since 2015, when the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a> was negotiated, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/covid-pandemic-offers-chance-to-act-on-climate-report-says?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--gcNgs9GFu8_wOcYinzepbFuzmlWytO9wqVQ9TJbowk-QSdSkvXnqxsWJnJQMGgx7gloJpBKi2AaTqqwHblzUgtfnz7g&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian pointed out</a>. However, this year, the health impacts of climate change were their "most worrying" since the report began. All 16 health indicators monitored in the report are worsening, according to <a href="https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/2261184-health-impacts-of-climate-change-have-reached-worrying-levels/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--ZcLh0Q6ozgSQetEAzToko4gEB-3DVWhTRKmSRTvlnd07ArL3U2Pa99bp1XsUAqWlnjJ47GXG-oTk9ykBE_eywbIHiMw&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New Scientist</a>.</p><p>"Climate change-induced shocks are claiming lives, damaging health and disrupting livelihoods in all parts of the world right now. That means no continent or community remains untouched," Ian Hamilton of UCL told New Scientist.</p><p>For example, the number of people over 65 who died prematurely because of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/heat-waves" target="_self">heat waves</a> increased by almost 54 percent between 2000 and 2018 to reach 296,000, mostly in Japan, China, India and Europe.</p><p>The number of people exposed to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfire</a> risk also increased in 128 countries when 2016 to 2019 were compared with 2001 to 2004.</p>
<div id="97b40" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bd1b9e4c781bce94f654197bd26031cf"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1334439131938762756" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The #COVID19 pandemic and #ClimateChange represent converging crises. Wildfires and tropical storms in 2020 have tr… https://t.co/LbZRp9te5i</div> — The Lancet (@The Lancet)<a href="https://twitter.com/TheLancet/statuses/1334439131938762756">1606990056.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The report found that the health impacts of the climate crisis were unevenly distributed and disproportionately impacted the people who had done the least to contribute to the crisis. However, this does not mean that wealthier countries are immune.</p><p>"A nation's wealth offers no protection against the health impacts of even a 1.2C global average temperature rise," Hugh Montgomery, Lancet Countdown co-chairman and a UCL intensive care medicine professor, said in a statement reported by the <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201202230439-fiytx/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101740057&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_rNCyinSosAHluXOeDjnopyyWWrdIJKs_cH4rHOLV7Zd96HJjRSmO37Meums4COi3x8dvAzdmFsjHhHw9aRlhrb8KrQA&utm_content=101740057&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Thomson Reuters Foundation</a>. "Flames, floods and famine do not respect national borders or bank accounts."</p><p>In the U.S., for example, heat waves killed 19,000 people over 65 and pollution claimed more than 68,000 lives, according to CNBC.</p><p>However, these effects were also distributed unequally within the U.S. itself.</p><p>"In the U.S., we see clear evidence of how certain communities are more burdened by pre-existing inequities," Dr. Jeremy Hess, author on both the global report and the U.S. breakout, told CNBC.</p>
<p>The report authors put forward specific policy recommendations for the incoming Biden administration, including an end to subsidies for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>, supporting public transportation and reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/climate/climate-change-health-risks.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>.</p><p>"The overarching theme I stress to the incoming administration is making health central," Salas told reporters. "Climate action is a prescription for health."</p><p>Globally, the report authors recommended that governments use the recovery from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic as an opportunity to also fight climate change and meet the goals of the Paris agreement.</p><p>"The only way you can meet the Paris agreement is by taking advantage of this moment … by combining the recovery from COVID-19 with the response to climate change," report coauthor and chief sustainability officer for the UK's National Health Service Dr. Nick Watts told The Guardian.</p>
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Wildfires are seen burning out of control on November 30, 2020 on Fraser Island, Australia. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services / Getty Images
The world's largest sand island has been on fire for the past six weeks due to a campfire, and Australia's firefighters have yet to prevent flames from destroying the fragile ecosystem.
<p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_blank">wildfires</a> on <a href="https://fido.org.au/moonbi/backgrounders/49%20Fraser%20Fauna%20Backgrounder.pdf" target="_blank">Fraser Island</a>, also called by its Indigenous name K'gari, have burned almost <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/australia/australia-bushfire-fraser-island-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">200,000 acres </a>of its unique habitat, including large sand dunes, swamps and rainforests. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-environment-july-2639073995.html?rebelltitem=1" target="_blank">Fraser Island</a> is near Brisbane on the northeastern coast, where dingos, swamp wallabies, sugar gliders and more than 60 reptile species call the island home. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992.</p><p>Several tourists visiting the island had to be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bushfires/bushfires-threaten-tourist-areas-on-australias-fraser-island-idUSKBN28C05U" target="_blank">evacuated</a> as conditions worsened, Reuters reported.<br></p><p>"I think it's frustrating for everybody, the fact that a campfire has started this fire. Having the impact that it has had, it started in a very, very remote part of the island… really difficult to access," Queensland Fire and Emergency Services deputy commissioner Mike Wassing told CNN affiliate Nine News, according to Reuters.</p><p>Since Saturday fire crews have dropped more than 200,000 gallons of water and flame retardant on the island, Reuters added. </p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/01/catastrophic-bushfire-on-queenslands-fraser-island-threatens-ecological-disaster" target="_blank">The Guardian </a>reported that crews are mainly addressing the problem from above, focusing on key ecological areas and sites that are important to the Butchulla Aboriginal people, who have called the island home for thousands of years.</p>
<p>However, fighting sand fires is difficult, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services assistant commissioner Gary McCormack told The Guardian. He explained how water quickly drained from the sand floor, even when dropped from above. Ground conditions weren't any better due to a lack of firebreaks. </p><p>"Unfortunately the current conditions are not conducive to extinguishment," McCormack said.</p><p>The fires are approaching the Valley of Giants, a tourist attraction known for its 1,000-year-old trees. </p><p><span></span>Researcher Dr. Gabriel Conroy, a conservation biologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast whose work focuses on Fraser Island, took a student group there last week.</p><p>"A northerly wind had kicked in and it was other-worldly with ash falling down on the students," he told The Guardian. "There's a sense of panic on the island."</p>
<p>Conroy explained that traditional fire practices by the Butchulla people were suppressed more than a century ago, and European loggers altered the island's ecology. Prior to this, the Butchulla had burned smaller fires on the island for thousands of years in order to prevent more widespread ones.<br></p><p>"This is a very large and very hot fire for this island. It's a big fire and it's the wrong kind of fire," Conroy said. He added, "It's a catastrophe. Even ecosystems that are meant to burn don't bounce back from widespread hot fires. It can be beyond their capacity to bounce back."<span></span></p><p>According to <a href="Queensland's Bureau of Meteorology said the fire danger is likely to be exacerbated by strong winds and extreme heat wave conditions, which are forecast to continue in the state for the next few days." target="_blank">CNN,</a> Queensland's Bureau of Meteorology warned that an extreme heat wave and strong winds, forecast for the next couple of days, would likely worsen the fires.</p><p>The current fires may be the start of a harsh and long fire season, and are already drawing comparison to the devastating <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201112231540-id4yp/#:~:text=Fires%20razed%20more%20than%2011,called%20Australia's%20%22black%20summer%22." target="_blank">wildfires</a> Australia experienced in early 2020, where more than 37 million acres were destroyed, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/australia-wildfires-animals-2646814591.html" target="_blank">three billion animals killed</a>, and 33 people died.</p>
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The Glass Fire burns on a mountainside with the Beckstoffer Vinyards in the foreground on Sept. 28, 2020 in St. Helena, Californai. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
By Kenny Stancil
As the climate crisis fuels devastating wildfires across the western United States and melts Arctic sea ice at an alarming rate, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that Earth just experienced the hottest September on record and that 2020 is on pace to be one of the three hottest years on the books.
<p><a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/earth-just-had-its-hottest-september-on-record" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">According to</a> NOAA, "the 10 warmest Septembers have all occurred since 2005, with the seven warmest Septembers occurring in the last seven years."</p><p>"We've broken the climate system," tweeted meteorologist Eric Holthaus. "We are in a climate emergency."</p>
<p>NOAA <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202009/supplemental/page-2" target="_blank">found</a> that 2020 has a 65% chance of beating out 2016 as the warmest year on record, a 35% chance of being the second-warmest ever, and will almost certainly rank in the top three.</p><p>Climate scientists emphasized that this year's record-setting temperatures have been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather">extreme weather</a> events. A <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank">report</a> published Tuesday by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction examined the "staggering" increase in climate-related disasters, which doubled from 3,656 between 1980 and 1999 to 6,681 between 2000 and 2019, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/13/uninhabitable-hell-millions-un-report-sounds-alarm-humanitys-continued-destruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMzM4My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDUzMTg0OH0.rbCjdegltKGIl4s67tRVN9oy5BzfGCgrV2YFQHTmbCc/img.png?width=980" id="c59fd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="14b10059877082736fc58eae8cd9a837" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="815" />
<p>Researchers at Yale <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/10/september-2020-was-warmest-september-on-record-noaa-reports/" target="_blank">found</a> that eight weather-related disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage occurred across the world in September alone, bringing the annual total thus far to 35. There were 40 such events in both 2018 and 2019.</p><p>With 16 extreme weather events so far in 2020, the U.S. has already tied its record for most billion-dollar weather disasters in a single year. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMzM5MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTE4MDgxOH0.NdmxdhaKwzDvkn784hESu2ZA4P5NNIDvthK11NopCZ8/img.png?width=980" id="3a4e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dc302971d3a01053e3841558a704bfbe" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="974" data-height="584" />
<p>NOAA's findings echo a European Union study published one week ago. As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/07/scientists-warn-2020-pace-become-hottest-year-ever-september-heat-smashes-previous" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>, one of the EU climate scientists who contributed to the analysis noted that the planet "will carry on warming if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the rate they are at the moment."</p><p>"It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction," the U.N. report stated, "despite the science and evidence that we are turning our only home into an uninhabitable hell for millions of people."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/14/planet-earth-says-noaa-just-had-its-hottest-september-record" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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'Uninhabitable Hell:' UN Report Warns of Planet's Future for Millions Without Climate Action
13 October 2020
Climate
A UN report, The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019, was released to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Colin Anderson Productions pty ltd / Stone / Getty Images
A new report from the United Nations found that political leaders and industry leaders are failing to do the necessary work to stop the world from becoming an "uninhabitable hell" for millions of people as the climate crisis continues and natural disasters become more frequent, as Al-Jazeera reported.
<p><a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019</a> was released Monday to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, which falls on Oct. 13, according to a <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank">statement</a> from the office behind the report.</p><p>The bulk of the disasters were climate-related, as there were sharp increases in the number of floods, storms, heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and wildfires in the last two decades, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/world/un-natural-disasters-climate-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>The report found that the world is on a worrying trend line as natural disasters become more frequent and more expensive. In the last 20 years, there were more than 7,300 natural disasters worldwide, accounting for nearly $3 trillion in damages. That's almost double the prior two decades when there were just over 4,200 natural disasters that totaled $1.6 trillion in economic losses, according to the statement.</p>
<p>"It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction," said UNDRR chief Mami Mizutori and Debarati Guha-Sapir of Belgium's Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, in a joint foreword to the report, as CNN reported.</p><p>"It really is all about governance if we want to deliver this planet from the scourge of poverty, further loss of species and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a>, the explosion of urban risk and the worst consequences of global warming."</p>
<p>The report said that the future would be full of more climate-related disasters as the planet warms up and heat-trapping gases are continuously emitted into the atmosphere. The researchers said the greatest threats in the coming decades would come from heat waves and droughts, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/environment-disasters-un/sharp-rise-in-natural-disasters-in-last-20-years-asia-hardest-hit-u-n-idUSKBN26X1HG" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>Asia saw the bulk of the natural disasters over the last 20 years. China had the largest number of disasters with 57, followed by India, the Philippines and Indonesia. The only country outside of Asia to crack the top 5 was the U.S, which ranked second with 467 natural disasters from 2000 to 2019, according to the paper, as Reuters reported.</p><p>"If this level of growth in extreme weather events continues over the next twenty years, the future of mankind looks very bleak indeed," said Guha-Sapir, according to Reuters. "Heatwaves are going to be our biggest challenge in the next 10 years, especially in the poor countries."</p>
<p>In a virtual briefing to announce the release of the report, Mizutori said the world must act swiftly and decisively to invest in disaster reduction, climate crisis adaptation, and prevention. She asked that political leaders around the world reaffirm their commitment to the 2015 <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a> and turn their attention to zero-emissions infrastructure, as Al-Jazeera reported.</p><p>The report said that the world's current trajectory that has us heading towards a 3.2-degree Celsius increase in temperature will trigger such extreme climate disasters that the improvements to disaster response will be rendered "obsolete in many countries," as CNN reported.</p><p>"We have seen little progress on reducing climate disruption and environmental degradation," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in an <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/disaster-reduction-day/messages" target="_blank">International Disaster Day message</a>, as CNN reported. "To eradicate poverty and reduce the impacts of climate change, we must place the public good above all other considerations."</p>
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About EcoWatch
27 June 2016
Exterior of Cold Tube demonstration pavilion. Lea Ruefenacht
By Gloria Oladipo
In the face of dangerous heat waves this summer, Americans have taken shelter in air conditioned cooling centers. Normally, that would be a wise choice, but during a pandemic, indoor shelters present new risks. The same air conditioning systems that keep us cool recirculate air around us, potentially spreading the coronavirus.
<p>"Air conditioners look like they're bringing in air from the outside because they go through the window, but it is 100 percent recirculated air," said Forrest Meggers, an assistant professor of architecture at Princeton University. "If you had a system that could cool without being focused solely on cooling air, then you could actually open your windows."</p><p>Meggers and an international team of researchers have developed a safer way for people to beat the heat — a highly efficient cooling system that doesn't move air around.</p><p>Scientists lined door-sized panels with tiny tubes that circulate cold water. Stand next to a panel, and you can feel it drawing heat away from your body. Unlike air conditioners, these panels can be used with the window open — or even outdoors — making it possible to cool off while also getting some fresh air. This reduces the risk of spreading airborne viruses, like the coronavirus.</p>
<p>"If you look at what the health authorities and governments are saying, the safest place to be during this pandemic is outside," said Adam Rysanek, an assistant professor of environmental systems at the University of British Columbia, who was part of the research effort. "We're trying to find a way to keep you cool in a heat wave with the windows wide open, because the air is fresh. It's just that it's hot."</p><p>Cooling panels have been around for a while, but in limited use, because scientists haven't found a good way to deal with condensation. Like a cold can of Coke on a hot summer day, cooling panels collect drops of water, so they have to be paired with dehumidifiers indoors to stay dry. Otherwise, overhead panels might drip water on people standing underneath.</p><p>Meggers and his colleagues got around this problem by developing a thin, transparent membrane that repels condensation. This is the key breakthrough behind their cooling technology. Because it stays dry, it can be used in humid conditions, even outdoors.</p>
<p>In air conditioners, a dehumidifier dries out the air to prevent condensation. This component uses an enormous amount of energy, around half of the total power consumed by the air conditioner, researchers said. The new membrane they developed eliminates condensation with no energy cost, making the cooling panels significantly more efficient than a typical AC unit.</p><p>The research team involved scientists from the University of British Columbia, Princeton, UC Berkeley and the Singapore-ETH Centre. They published their <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/08/17/2001678117" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">findings</a> in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p><p>"This study demonstrates that we can maintain comfortable conditions for people without cooling all the air around them," said Zoltan Nagy, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas, who was not affiliated with the study. "Probably the most significant demonstration of this study is that humans can be provided with comfort in a very challenging thermal environment using a very efficient method."</p>
<p>Researchers developed their technology for use in the persistently hot, muggy climate of Singapore, where avoiding condensation would be particularly difficult.</p><p>To test their design, they assembled a set of cooling panels into a small tunnel, roughly the size of a school bus. The tunnel, dubbed the "Cold Tube," sat in a plaza in the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore. Scientists surveyed dozens of people about how they felt after walking through the tunnel. Even as the temperature neared 90 degrees F outside, most participants reported feeling comfortable in the Cold Tube.</p>Scientists said they want to make their technology available to consumers as quickly as possible, for use in homes and offices, or outdoors. Climate change is producing <a href="https://time.com/5627355/climate-change-heat-waves/" target="_blank">more severe heat</a>, which is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/29/the-air-conditioning-trap-how-cold-air-is-heating-the-world" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">driving demand</a> for air conditioners. Researchers hope their cooling panel will offer a more energy-efficient alternative to AC units. If consumers can use less power, that will help cut down on the pollution that is driving climate change.
<p>Before they can sell the panels, researchers said they need to make them hardy enough to survive outdoors. The anti-condensation membrane is currently so thin that you could tear it with a pencil, so it must be made stronger. Scientists also need to demonstrate that the panels work efficiently indoors. Hospitals and schools in Singapore have already shown interest in the cooling system.</p><p>"We know the physics works. Now we need to do one more test so we have a bit more of a commercially viable product," Rysanek said. "It's really about trying to get this into people's hands as quickly as possible."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/new-cooling-technology-protects-against-severe-heat-and-viral-spread-1e5b96ae793a" target="_blank">Nexus Media.</a></em></p>
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NASA image shows locations of wildfires in red and plumes of smoke across the Western U.S. NASA
By Jeff Berardelli
This story was originally published on CBS News on September 9, 2020. All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication.
Right on the heels of arguably the West Coast's most intense heat wave in modern history comes the most ferocious flare-up of catastrophic wildfires in recent memory. Meanwhile, just a few hundred miles east, a 60-degree temperature drop over just 18 hours in Wyoming and Colorado was accompanied by an extremely rare late-summer dumping of up to 2 feet of snow.
It's not coincidence, it's climate change.
<p>These kinds of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-heat-wave-wildfires-hurricanes-derecho/" target="_blank">dystopian weather events</a>, happening often at the same time, are exactly what scientists have been warning about for decades. While extreme weather is a part of the natural cycle, the recent uptick in the ferocity and frequency of these extremes, scientists say, is evidence of an acceleration of climate impacts, some of which were underestimated by climate computer models.</p><p>"This is yet another example of where uncertainty is not our friend," says Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State. "As we learn more, we are finding that many climate change impacts, including these sorts of extreme weather events, are playing out faster and with greater magnitude than our models predicted."</p><p>On Wednesday NOAA released its latest <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/summer-2020-ranked-as-one-of-hottest-on-record-for-us" target="_blank">State of the Climate Report</a>, which finds that just during the month of August the U.S. was hit by four different billion-dollar disasters: two hurricanes, huge wildfires and an extraordinary <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/derecho-storm-100-mph-winds-hits-midwest/" target="_blank">Midwest derecho</a>.</p><p>Just one such extreme event can strain emergency resources — a situation West Coast firefighters find themselves in now. However, in two dramatic cases this summer, the nation was hit simultaneously with concurrent catastrophes, some of which had no precedent in modern history. It's a concept scientists call <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0156-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">compound events</a>, and it is necessary to factor these confluences into future projections to properly estimate risk, response and resources.</p>
<p>In mid-August the West suffered through an extended heat wave which saw Death Valley surge to <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/death-valley-records-highest-temperature-107-years-heat-wave/" target="_blank">130 degrees</a></span>, the hottest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth. The tinderbox conditions caused by the heat, along with a rare lightning outbreak, sparked the first round of major wildfires in California this season, escalating into three of the four largest fires in state history. At about the same time a powerful <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iowa-storm-derecho-seeking-4-billion-dollars-disater-aid/" target="_blank">derecho</a></span> caused billions of dollars in damage in Iowa and Illinois, and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/hurricane-laura-storm-category-2-track-path-forecast-today-2020-08-27/" target="_blank">Hurricane Laura</a> plowed into the Gulf Coast of Louisiana as a Category 4 with 150 mph winds and 16 feet of storm surge.</p><p>Just three weeks later, and here we are again. This past weekend California experienced an <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/record-heat-wave-hits-southern-california-latest-forecast-temperatures-2020-09-06/" target="_blank">even more intense heat wave</a>, with the southern part of the state hitting 121 degrees west of the mountains for the first time in record-keeping history. Predictably, fires flared back up due to the severe heating and drying, and then <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/hundreds-rescued-as-raging-california-wildfires-decimate-towns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">went into overdrive</a> as a wicked early-season cold front — which is also bringing heavy snow to the Rockies — brought a wind event through the mountains and valleys of the intermountain west. </p><p><span></span>In Washington state, an estimated <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/malden-washington-fire-destroys-town-post-office-city-hall-fire-station-homes/" target="_blank">330,000 acres burned</a></span> across the state on Monday, more than the total in each of the last 12 fire seasons. California has seen a record 2.3 million acres burn so far this year — more than 3 times the normal for an entire season (typically July through November), and 7 times the normal year to date.</p><p>If it were just this fire season, one could chalk the extremity up to mere coincidence. But scientists say this is part of an ongoing upward trend, made clear by the data and well understood by science.</p><p><span></span>"There is little doubt that we're witnessing an acceleration of fire activity in the West - be it in terms of burned area, number of large fires, fire growth, and of course direct and indirect impacts to people," explains Dr. John Abatzoglou, climate professor at the University of California Merced.</p>
<p>The acceleration has been dramatic. Fire season is now two to three months longer than it was just a few decades ago across much of the West. Since the 1970s, California has experienced a five-fold increase in annual burned area and an eight-fold increase in summer forest fire extent. At least 17 of California's top 20 <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/11416/top20_acres.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">largest wildfires</a> have burned since 2000.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDIxODc2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTI2NTkzM30.fyyGv2awtTdnhiuk0BC6iyzzYx59KTsDq2EirOYfczM/img.jpg?width=980" id="3870b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7892ef72035f37ab78595e441311d88b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="620" data-height="350" />
Increase in California areas burned by wildfires, 1975 to 2015. WILLIAMS, ABATZOGLOU ET AL., EARTH'S FUTURE
<p>Abatzoglou makes clear that there are many factors — not just climate change — that contribute to the escalation of fire activity. These include the increased settlement of people in fire-prone lands and a legacy of fire suppression in many lower-elevation forests, which led to years of heavy growth of trees and brush.</p><p>"We can focus on the bad fortune of the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lightning-siege-hits-california-with-nearly-12000-strikes-in-a-week-2020-08-22/" target="_blank">lightning siege</a> around the San Francisco Bay Area, or the multitude of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gender-reveal-fire-party-california-wildfire/" target="_blank">stupid human tricks</a> that materialized in large wildfires, but the confluence of long-term and short-term environmental factors set the table for the 2020 fire season," he said. </p><p>In other words, though climate change does not cause the heat waves or fires, it sets the stage so that when conditions are ripe, like the summer and fall of 2020, heat waves are more intense and fires burn more fiercely. </p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDIxODgxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NTU3Nzk0OH0.kpfnLAqrDuQ-ZMFQqiWUeHnxP3LOwtCMCK_m2RAu32c/img.jpg?width=980" id="9db68" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="240814e4da9042815fc1dd34b2509b2d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="620" data-height="349" />
CLIMATE CENTRAL
<p>This summer has been extremely hot and dry in the West. According to NOAA, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah each had their <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/summer-2020-ranked-as-one-of-hottest-on-record-for-us" target="_blank">warmest August</a> on record. Research has found that heat waves are now larger, getting more intense and lasting longer than decades ago. Specifically in California, extreme heat waves — like the ones of recent weeks — are now <a href="https://crd.lbl.gov/assets/Uploads/Wehner/California-heatwave-attribution-and-projection.pdf" target="_blank">3 to 4 degrees</a> Fahrenheit warmer due to climate change. By 2080, that same study finds such heat waves will intensify by another 3 to 5 degrees.</p><p>This week's NOAA report also finds that the same general area in the West also experienced one of its driest Augusts on record. This short-term dry and hot pattern is mainly due to natural cycles in weather, and from season to season has the biggest impact on the amount of area burned because it determines how dry the forests and brush are.</p><p>"Across the Western U.S. forests, we find that climatic measures of fuel dryness explain about ¾ of the year-to-year variability in the burned area — highlighting that climate very strongly enables big fire seasons in warm-dry summers and inhibits widespread fire activity in cool-wet summers," explains Abatzoglou.</p><p>But over the long term, human-caused climate change has been gradually drying out the atmosphere and the fuel. "The observed changes in fuel dryness [plus the] number of days of high fire danger have been particularly stark in the American West over the past half-century," says Abatzoglou.</p><p>Since the 1970s the warm season in the West has heated up by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit. This extra heat has increased the evaporation of moisture from the surface. While atmospheric moisture has also increased some, it has not increased nearly as fast as the temperature. That has caused a long-term "moisture deficit" and has accelerated the rate of foliage drying. This is part of the reason why, according to research, the West has entered into one of the worst <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-drought-california-western-united-states-study/" target="_blank">megadroughts</a> in the past 1,200 years.<br> <br>A <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019EF001210" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recent study</a>, co-authored by Abatzoglou, found a direct link with <em>nearly all</em> of the increase in summer forest-fire area during the period from 1972–2018 driven by the increased moisture deficit. To illustrate just how impactful the moisture deficit is, right now, as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfire-overruns-14-firefighters-rugged-mountains/" target="_blank">unprecedented wildfires</a> burn out of control, the deficit is at record low levels in the majority of the Western U.S.</p><div id="3778e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fc604b137ce9da1717a09d6b10a2e3b9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303464019261444097" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Absurd atmospheric aridity (+ other factors) is enabling the ongoing fire outbreak – synchronized downslope winds… https://t.co/ohibdi2X5x</div> — John Abatzoglou (@John Abatzoglou)<a href="https://twitter.com/climate_guy/statuses/1303464019261444097">1599605014.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Another <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-has-doubled-extreme-fire-weather-days-in-california-2020-04-07/" target="_blank">recent study</a></span> from this spring found that the frequency of autumn days with extreme fire weather conditions has more than doubled since the 1980s, fueled by a combination of less rainfall and warmer temperatures.</p><p>But many scientists believe that there is more at play contributing to this extreme weather than simply the direct effects of warming and drying. One of those mechanisms is the indirect impacts of global warming on the most influential weather-maker on day-to-day conditions: the jet stream. </p><p>The speed and orientation of the jet stream — a river of fast-moving air currents in the atmosphere — determines the track, intensity and forward speed of most storm systems and also how cold or hot the weather is. The attributes of the jet stream at any given moment are determined largely by the placement of hot and cold air masses and the strength of the gradient between them. Because the Arctic has been warming at three times the rate of the rest of the globe, climate scientists know human-caused climate change is throwing the jet stream off-kilter. But how and to what extent is not totally understood.</p><p>A number of climate scientists believe that a warmer Arctic is slowing down the jet stream during certain times of year, resulting in a more <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/1/014005" target="_blank">wavy jet stream</a>. As shown below, a wavy jet stream can catapult warm air northward into the Arctic and drive cold air far southward. This is exactly what happened during the catastrophic <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/midwest-flooding-perfect-storm-of-extreme-weather-climate-change-drove-deadly-flooding-in-nebraska-and-iowa/" target="_blank">Midwest floods in 2019</a> and is also the kind of pattern we have right now, which is causing record low temperatures and extremely early season snow in the Rockies and Plains. A wavy jet stream is a normal part of nature, but climate change may be making it more amplified, resulting in more extremes.</p>
<p>"I think it's a triple whammy — heat and drought, which are favored by climate change, and the extra added ingredient is the slower, wavier jet stream," explains Mann. But he says the wavier jet stream <a href="https://t.co/OH2yfWkEPW?amp=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">isn't well resolved</a> by current models, thus they underestimate the extremity of weather events enhanced by climate change.</p><p>As a result, when scientists dig into the causes of an extreme event, Mann says the studies underestimate the influence of human-caused climate change. "So if anything, climate attribution studies are likely to under-attribute the role that climate change is playing with these persistent extreme weather events," he said.</p><p>As for future fire seasons, Abatzoglou says we should expect extreme fires seasons like 2020's to become the rule rather than the exception. </p><p>"While the extent of the ongoing fire siege is beyond what most have seen in the West, the alignment of ingredients for such fire seasons is becoming more favorable as a result of climate change and land-use practices," he said. "We should expect, adapt, and prepare for similar years moving forward."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em><em><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/" target="_blank"> CBS News</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Extreme Heat, Wildfires and Record-Setting Storms Suggest the Future Climate Crisis Is Already Here
26 August 2020
Climate
The unprecedented and concurrent extreme conditions resemble the chaotic climate future scientists have been warning us about for decades. Master Sgt. Christopher DeWitt / U.S. Air Force / DoD / NASA
By Jeff Berardelli
From the historic heat wave and wildfires in the West, to the massive derecho that tore through the middle of the nation, to the record-breaking pace of this year's hurricane season, the unprecedented and concurrent extreme conditions resemble the chaotic climate future scientists have been warning us about for decades — only it's happening right now.
<p>While climate catastrophes are typically spaced out in time and geographic location, right now the U.S. is dealing with multiple disasters. The Midwest is cleaning up from a devastating <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/derecho-storm-100-mph-winds-hits-midwest/" target="_blank">derecho</a> that caused nearly $4 billion in damage to homes and crops, as nearly a quarter-million people in the West are under <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-fires-looting-wildfires-concern/" target="_blank">evacuation orders or warnings</a> from fires that have burned <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/northern-california-fire-1million-acres-burned-wildfire/" target="_blank">over 1 million acres</a>, and at the same time residents along the Gulf Coast are bracing for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tropical-storm-laura-marco-texas-louisiana-today-2020-08-24/" target="_blank">back-to-back landfalls</a> of a tropical storm and hurricane. </p><p>"This current stretch of natural catastrophe events in the United States are essentially a snapshot of what scientists and emergency managers have long feared," says meteorologist Steven Bowen, the head of Catastrophe Insight at AON, an international risk mitigation firm.</p><p>Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University, happened to be in Australia on sabbatical last year and witnessed the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/feature/australia-wildfires/" target="_blank">devastating wildfires</a> there — a similar scene to what is playing out in California right now. For years Mann has sounded the alarms about the acceleration of human-caused <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/climate-change" target="_blank">climate change</a>, but even he is somewhat surprised at the pace.</p><p><span></span>"In many respects, the impacts are playing out faster and with greater severity than we predicted," he said.</p>
<div id="004a5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="809799a50bac6ced919c6da89ce0efec"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1297987100491554816" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Multiple extremes resemble the chaotic climate future scientists have been warning us about for decades — only it's… https://t.co/CjhLfao5rc</div> — CBS News (@CBS News)<a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/statuses/1297987100491554816">1598299214.0</a></blockquote></div><p>To be sure, these events are not all related to each other, but the one thing they do have in common is that climate change makes each one more likely. The simple explanation is that there's more energy in the system and that energy is expended in the form of more extreme heat, fire, wind and rain.</p><p>It may be tempting to look at these extremes as a "new normal," but Dr. Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says while it may be new, it won't be normal.</p><p>"For some time we have talked about a 'new normal' but the issue is that it keeps changing. It does not stop at a new state. That change is what is so disruptive," he said.</p>
California Wildfires
<p>The fires unfolding in California right now have no parallel in modern times. With more than 1 million acres burned in just one week, the season is already historic with more acres burned in this past week than is typical of an entire year. Two of the state's top three largest fires on record are burning at the same time — the LNU and SCU complex fires — with the likelihood that one of these will take over the top spot soon.</p><p>As of Monday morning, CalFire <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/" target="_blank">reports</a> over 7,000 fires have burned more than 1.4 million acres this season, overwhelming resources to the point where many of the smaller fires are being allowed to burn. CalFire stated that to fight these fires to the maximum of their ability, the agency would need nearly <a href="https://weatherwest.com/archives/7459" target="_blank">10 times</a> more firefighting resources than are available.</p><p>As is the case in any natural disaster, the cause can be traced to multiple coinciding events. In this case, the spark for most of these fires was a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lightning-siege-hits-california-with-nearly-12000-strikes-in-a-week-2020-08-22/" target="_blank">siege of lightning strikes</a> as a result of moisture drawn into California from two decaying tropical systems in the eastern Pacific, which ignited dry brush.</p><p>Daniel Swain is a well-known climate scientist who specializes in studying the link between climate change and weather in the West at the University of California, Los Angeles. In a <a href="https://weatherwest.com/archives/7459" target="_blank">blog post</a> he described how even someone like him, well-versed in climate disaster, is shocked by the current situation: "I'm essentially at a loss for words to describe the scope of the lightning-sparked fire outbreak that has rapidly evolved in northern California – even in the context of the extraordinary fires of recent years. It's truly astonishing."</p><p>While it's not rare for tropical moisture to invade California, it is infrequent, and extremely unfortunate that it happened during one of the worst western U.S. heat waves in recent history, not to mention an ongoing short- and long-term drought. Researchers believe that in the year 2000 the western U.S. entered a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-drought-california-western-united-states-study/" target="_blank">megadrought</a>, one of the worst in the past 1,200 years.</p><p>This is why climate scientists often say that climate change "loads the dice" for extreme weather. The cause of the fires is not climate change, but many of the factors which set the stage and made conditions ripe for fire ignition and spread are a direct result of a warming climate.</p><p>On August 16, Death Valley <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/death-valley-records-highest-temperature-107-years-heat-wave/" target="_blank">reached 130 degrees</a></span> Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth. It was just a small part of a monster heat wave which broke hundreds of heat records over a two-week span. The link between heat waves and climate change is straightforward, and <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/06/heat-waves-and-climate-change-is-there-a-connection/" target="_blank">multiple studies</a> have shown that a warmer climate is making heat waves more likely and more intense.</p><p><span></span>"Basically there is more heat available: Earth's energy balance is out of whack," says Trenberth. That extra heat energy, trapped in the atmosphere by excess greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, must be used up in some way. </p><p>Trenberth explains, if the land was wet the heat would be used first to evaporate water, keeping air temperatures moderate. But when the air and ground are bone dry, as is typical of the dry season in California — especially in summers like this — the excess heat energy is expended by drying out the brush and warming and drying the air.</p><p>This long-term drying out of the air has created a "vapor pressure deficit" — or in simpler terms, a moisture deficit. According to a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires-grow-exponentially-climate-change-study/" target="_blank">2019 study</a>, this is a leading reason for the intensified summer fire seasons in California, presently at record levels.</p>
<div id="9db58" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ab45cd0dbe96672e8d896463f1d8fcca"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1296620330861989889" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"Vapor pressure deficit" (gap between how much moisture *could* be in the air vs. how much is *actually* there) is… https://t.co/LXKN0hUQLi</div> — Daniel Swain (@Daniel Swain)<a href="https://twitter.com/Weather_West/statuses/1296620330861989889">1597973351.0</a></blockquote></div><p>According to the paper, "Nearly all of the increase in summer forest-fire area during 1972–2018 was driven by increased vapor pressure deficit."</p>
Midwest Derecho
<p>A derecho is a particularly fierce and long-lasting line of thunderstorms, often causing winds over 75 mph. While these weather events are common during summer, the <a href="https://www.weather.gov/dmx/2020derecho" target="_blank">event</a> that took place August 10 in Iowa and Illinois seemed otherworldly.</p><p>The squall line <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147154/derecho-flattens-iowa-corn" target="_blank">plowed a path</a> 800 miles long and 40 miles wide through communities and corn fields, damaging <a href="https://www.radioiowa.com/2020/08/11/43-of-iowa-corn-soybean-crop-hit-by-mondays-storm/" target="_blank">43%</a> of Iowa's corn and soybean crop and causing nearly <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iowa-storm-derecho-seeking-4-billion-dollars-disater-aid/" target="_blank">$4 billion in damage</a>. Winds are estimated to have reached up to 140 mph, with hurricane-force winds <a href="https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/how-does-the-2020-iowa-derecho-compare-to-others" target="_blank">lasting</a> 40 to 50 minutes.</p><p>At first glance it would seem that this is just a freak natural event, with no real connection to climate change, but that may not be the case. While there is not much research on the connection between climate change and derechos, one <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A12C..01P/abstract" target="_blank">recent paper</a> found some alarming results.</p><p>The research team used a climate model to simulate mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), a technical term for masses of thunderstorms, in a warming world. These MCSs are the parent structures which sometimes spawn derechos. Using a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the paper concluded: "At the end of the century, the number of intense MCSs are projected to more than triple in North America during summer due to more favorable environmental conditions." </p><p>The research also found that MCSs' maximum hourly precipitation rates will increase by 15% to 40% in the future, due to a warmer atmosphere loaded with more moisture. "The moisture source for MCSs in the central U.S. is predominantly the Gulf of Mexico and climate change will increase the low-level jet stream moisture transport from the Gulf northward," explains lead author Dr. Andreas Prein, from the National Center For Atmospheric Research.</p><p>"How this all relates to changes in derecho frequency and intensity is poorly understood," Prein admits, but now that climate models are capable of modeling this, he plans to make it a priority in future studies.</p><p>While Mann did not comment specifically on derechos, he does feel extreme events are not properly captured in current climate models. "I have argued that the climate models are likely underpredicting the impact on the frequency and severity of various types of extreme summer weather events due to deficiencies in their ability to capture some of the relevant jet stream dynamics."</p>Hurricane Season
<p>Having two tropical systems like Marco and Laura in late August, the beginning of the peak of hurricane season, is not abnormal, even if the storms are very close to one another. But what is abnormal is the record-setting pace of the current hurricane season. So far the Atlantic season has tallied 14 named storms, 10 days ahead of record pace. That's two more than the average number for an entire season, which runs through the end of November. Seasonal forecasters are <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-season-2020-forecast-extremely-active-24-named-storms/" target="_blank">predicting up to 25 named systems</a> this year, which would place second behind 2005.</p><p>While there are many factors that contribute to how active a hurricane season will be, the most obvious is the warm water which fuels storm development. This year, nearly the entire tropical Atlantic Basin is above normal. This is part of a long-term trend of warming in which Atlantic sea surface temperatures have<a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateCentral/status/1005109784750776320/photo/1" target="_blank"> increased</a> by around 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900, and the measure of <a href="https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/" target="_blank">Ocean Heat Content</a> hits record highs each and every year.</p><p>Warmer ocean temperatures do not guarantee more storms, but they do tip the balance, giving storms that extra boost to develop. After years of <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/07/how-climate-change-is-making-hurricanes-more-dangerous/" target="_blank">research</a>, climate science is still not sure how a warming climate will impact the number of systems in the future, but there is consensus that, in general, hurricanes will get stronger and the strongest, most destructive hurricanes will get more frequent. Since major hurricanes — <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-categories-what-the-ratings-scale-means/" target="_blank">Category 3 and greater</a> — are responsible for 85% of the damage, a warmer climate is likely to have devastating economic and human consequences.</p>Compound Events
<p>Within research circles and among emergency planners, the concept of <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-multiple-disasters-at-once-study-warns/" target="_blank">compound threats</a></span> has become a very popular subject. For years now scientists have warned that increasing population, exposure and vulnerability combined with extreme events spiked by climate change, would overwhelm resources and compromise emergency response. Experts argue we are now seeing that unfold in real time.</p><p>"These equally profound events occurring in different parts of the country at the same time — what we call compounded or connected extremes — run the risk of putting significant strain on resources, budgets, and the supply chain," said Bowen. </p><p>This is a topic often missed in general discussions of climate change. It may seem easy to dismiss a few degree rise in global temperatures as inconsequential. However, when a cascade of extreme events, each made worse by human-caused climate change, pile on top of one another, it exposes the fragility of interconnected human systems. </p><p>"Add in the continued complications posed by COVID-19, and you're faced with even greater challenges in trying to get communities back on their feet," Bowen said.</p><p>Bowen recently authored a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0790-4" target="_blank">paper</a> with other prominent scientists attempting to tackle this complicated issue. He says because of socioeconomic factors, population spreading into more high-risk regions, and an acceleration of climate change, more intense events "will only exacerbate the impacts of these compound scenarios in the future." </p><p>Experts warn that what we are witnessing in the present moment is a window into everyday life in the not-too-distant future if humans do not reverse course and curb emissions. This is how climate change becomes a truly destabilizing force. That's why Bowen and colleagues argue that much more urgency is needed to identify these unexpected combinations and the risks they pose to society.</p>From Your Site Articles
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