It’s simply impossible to ignore Nature in revolt this summer.
Hurricane Beryl, because of increased ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, gained strength, bringing tornado and flash flood warnings to parts of Texas.
With 2024 surpassing 2023 as the hottest year ever, the Earth is baking. The hottest ever recorded on Earth was 134 degrees in July 2023 in Death Valley. Last week the valley reached 130 degrees.
And the predictable raging wildfires have returned with a vengeance to California.
132 million Americans were under heat warnings on July 13, 2024.
In California, Redding reached 119 degrees. Ukiah tied its all-time high of 117. Palm Springs hit a never-before-seen high of 124 degrees.
The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings for parts of Santa Barbara County, especially the Cuyama and Santa Ynez valleys, with temperatures forecast to exceed 100 degrees.
Globally, prolonged extreme heat hit India, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Cyprus with record-breaking levels of heat.
The heat is killing people. In 2023, 61,000 people died because of Europe’s record-breaking heat wave. Last year, 11,000 people died from heat-related causes in the United States.
So far this year there have been 3,396 wildfires that burned 169,516 acres in California. As of this writing, 21 uncontained wildfires are burning throughout the state.
Santa Barbara County’s Lake Fire, the largest since the 2017 Thomas Fire, is burning 40 miles north of Santa Barbara.
It began the afternoon of July 5 near Zaca Lake in Los Padres National Forest. It has burned more than 38,000 acres, caused hundreds of evacuations and is 19% contained.
Science has concluded that climate change is turning up the heat leading to more wildfires. (“There is a consensus that fire occurrence will increase with climate change,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey.)
This happens because moisture is evaporated from the soil and vegetation, and the heat dries trees, shrubs and grasses, creating kindling.
However, while there is ubiquitous media coverage of the heat, fires and hurricanes, journalists rarely acknowledge that these represent environmental changes caused by global warming.
More disturbing is that the media, including social media, ignore that fossil fuel emissions are the cause of stronger hurricanes, severe heat and fires.
It is beyond dispute that emissions from fossil fuels are the dominant cause of global warming (more than 75%): coal is the dirtiest, oil releases huge amounts of carbon when burned, and natural gas accounts for a fifth of the world’s carbon emissions.
Fossil fuel companies and their allies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to spread false and misleading climate change content on social media.
Sixteen of the world’s biggest polluters were responsible for placing more than 1,700 of these misinformation ads on Facebook in 2021. Collectively, those ads garnered roughly 150 million impressions.
While we keep talking about it, both the misinformation and severe heat, fires and hurricanes continue as part of our “new normal.”
The only thing that can stop this is the cessation of fossil fuels and a transition to a clean, renewable energy economy.
As unlikely as that seems at this moment, it can happen if we the voters collectively organize to elect pro-climate representatives who pass pro-climate polices.