An opening caveat - I'm not saying that this summer's events were "caused" by climate change. But there is little doubt that they have been made worse by human-caused climate change. So, in no particular order....
There are the forest fires near Los Angeles, one apparently the largest fire in the city's history. Hundreds of homes are at risk and many people have been evacuated. A state of emergency has been declared. Temperatures are in the high +30s Celsius. Another story here.
The LA Times posted an editorial "Harvey should be a warning to Trump that climate change is a global threat", noting that perhaps if Trump were to consult the experts, he might get some information worth acting on. Unfortunately, this seems to be the way knowledge is viewed these days.
Houston has been flooded. This is the fourth-largest city in the USA and it's mostly under water.
But for some reason, the media is reluctant to even discuss the elephant in the room: Violent storms like this one are made more violent by climate change.
If you want some information about how hurricanes form and how warm water and air interact, it can be found here.
The Guardian carried an article wondering why crucial questions about hurricane Harvey are not being asked.
An all-time record heat wave is affecting California, the Weather Underground writes.
Here in BC, it's been a record summer for area burned. The Southern Interior is in the grips of a record dry, hot, spell and fires are breaking out all over. The Province has been in a declared a state of emergency since July 1st and it was just extended, for the fourth time, until September 15th.
And yet, in social media, it is STILL easy to find posts pooh-poohing climate change, sea level rise, carbon emissions.... anything, really, that has to do with what is so easily observable, if only these people would crawl out of their mothers' basements and look.
Is sea level rising? Apparently, yes.
Are glaciers melting at an unprecedented rate? Apparently they are.
Even the occasional climate change denier has had to admit that they misspoke themselves. They lied, in other words. In the UK, prominent denier Nigel Lawson has admitted that claims of temperature decrease were false.
Rolling Stone had a recent article pointing out, as many others have, that Houston should serve as a wake-up call for Global Warming.
Articles have been comparing Katrina, Sandy and Harvey.
And it's not just in North America. It's in Europe and in Asia....
Claims that what we see happening is natural is simply "junk science", as the article points out.
In a lengthy article, What Climate Skeptics Taught Me About Global Warming, the ways that science goes about finding relationships between events. One example, that of smoking and cancer, is examined along with climate change and global warming.
There is a backlash starting against "leaders" and civic officials who can be accused of ignoring facts and putting whole populations at risk. "Climate Change Denial Should be a Crime". Apparently, about this time in 2016, the head of flood control:
criticized scientists for being “anti-development,” and not only ignored but denigrated studies — even those conducted by his own department, one of which he called “absurd” — that suggested development was worsening flooding, or that urged him to leave prairies intact to absorb floodwaters.Almost exactly one year later, Harvey struck. They can't say they weren't warned. And, as the costs are being added up, it is looking like Harvey could cost in the vicinity of $200 Billion. Only a few days ago, the estimate was closer to $160B.
And it's not much better in Canada. "We are Not Well Prepared..." states an article on CBC News.
Insurance companies have been taking this seriously for a few decades now.
And this is just the beginning of what is already a very heated argument.
Sanity needs to prevail.
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