Issue 3. What's the deal with Climate Change?
Introduction
It's no suprise to anybody to hear that climate change is on the rise. For years, media groups, news outlets, weather companies, and charities have announced a steady increase in global warming.[1] The hazards that this poses have gone from speculative worries, to apparent concerns. But, under today's ways of thinking, it will not stop. Climate change will not stop. So, why hasn't it stopped? And why won't it stop unless we do something? What can be done?
I. A Monster in Plain View
April 2020. Two wildfires in the US, on the West Coast. The Standwood Bryant Fire and Portwood Creek fire in Snohomish County, WA, and Whatcom County, WA. A combined total of 150 acres, 607 000 square metres of forest.[2][3]
July 2020. On the Fifth of July, Oregon's Department of Forestry declares fire season, calling to the ending of unregulated burning.[4] Between the Sixteenth and Thirtieth, Washington State Department of Natural resources, as well as many county governments, ban fire safety burns due to elevated risks of uncontrolled fires. [5]
Satellite image of the smoke from the wildfires burning in CA and OR on 2020-09-9, Wikipedia
August 2020. Between the Fourteenth and Sixteens, Northern California recieved record breaking high temperatures, caused by an anomalous strong high air pressure.[6] The National Weather Service issued a Fire Weather Watch for San Francisco, CA.[7] This was due to the risk of wildfires from lightning, hot temperatures, unstable humid air, and dry fuels. Later that day, it was upgraded to a Red Flag Warning.[8]
Mid-month, a collision of Storm Fausto with the jet stream created a massive seige of lightning storms across Northern California. This then interacted with a high pressure ridge set to bring in a heatwave. This created hot, dry lightning storms: ideal for the sparkage and spread of wildfires.
CZU Lightning Complex fires sparked in mid-August.
Oregon and Washington declare a state of emergency. [9][10]
October 2022. The UK sees four tornadoes around Hampshire and London, including one F2, as a result of a tornadic supercells and a mesoscale convective system across Europe, brought about by Storm Beatrice. The most powerful tornado to see the UK, the New Milton F2, downed power lines; damaged cars and property; removed roofing; and felled trees.[11]
Since then, the UK has seen increasingly more tornadoes from its average 30/year, with increasingly more power. Even yesterday at the time of writing, a tornado was recorded tearing through Aldershot, Southern England for just over 1 mile. [12]
In the UK, unlike the US, we see much less tornadic activity, however, global temperatures rising supplement the hydrological cycle, creating stronger winds, changed precipitation patterns, and above all, increased extreme weather.
With a continuation of climate change at its current rate, these will continue to get worse, evidently posing threat to property and livelihood.
Captured Northumberland, England, in July 2024, by u/henrysradiator on reddit.com/r/CasualUK/
All these events, wildfires, tornadoes, floods, come from increased global warming.
But the catch is, we've known for ages.
II. Why Nothing will change
Stop. What actually is climate change? It's a very common term thrown around a lot by media spokespersons, but how many can define it?
Climate change, simply put, is a change to a location's climate. (No duh.) However, when people refer to climate change, they refer to global warming: a dramatic climate change brought about by human activities such as mass agriculture (leading to dense methane emissions), and fossil fuel combustion (leading to CO₂ emissions and other pollutants). The emissions from these factors are called Greenhouse Gases because they contribute to the Greenhouse Effect.
Like Climate Change, the Greenhouse Effect is natural, it's what keeps life sustained on Earth. The buildup of gases in the atmosphere trap solar radiation, and reflect it back onto the Earth, warming the surface.
www.bbc.co.uk
Unfortunately, this system has been overpolluted by additional gases, meaning that the majority of solar energy is retained, rather than the minority.
Sadly, this knowledge is not at all new, least in fact groundbreaking. We have known for years about this.
www.bbc.com
In which case, why is it still on the rise? Why haven't we changed?
The argument to be had here is that some people, namely those in power, aren't affected. If it isn't a problem for them, then they will have no intention of solving it in the future. And whilst companies and politicians make pledges and promises upon every year, the global temperature is still increasing. For years, Scientists have been warning us that we need action before 10 years, then before 5 years, then imminently. [13]
Change has to happen, change isn't happening. From what we see each year, you could draw the conclusion that change won't happen.
III. Light at the End of the Tunnel
But that's wrong (and highly pessimistic). While it is most certainly damaging to only review the positive changes, and be led into false security, it is important to recognise positive changes so they can be celebrated and pushed.
Over recent years we have seen many advancements in sustainable technologies that push us towards a "Carbon-Neutral" environmental future. Whether it's Agroforestry, the combination of Arboriculture and Agricultural methods, combined into a Polycultural farm in the Tropical Rainforests, using the canopy's shade to grow all assortments of shrub-layer crops: cacao, vanilla, bananas. [14]
Or the remote works of Ecosia, who use advert revenue from internet searches to push climate-friendly activities like conservation, reforestation and afforestation.
Or even down to individual businesses like the UK's BrewDog brewery, who in 2020, became carbon negative. Meaning they actively reduced the high levels of carbon in our polluted atmosphere.
So, all is not lost. And there are absolutely steps you can take towards helping our planet.
See also:
Citations
Author(s), Title, Access Date, Quote*.
[1] Earth Observatory (NASA), Global Temperatures, 2024-09-22, Last 9 Years Warmest on Record Graph
[2] Skagit Valley Girl Media (The NW Fire Blog), Rekindle WA Fire | Stanwood Bryant Fire | 1, 2024-09-22, but would turn into a 70 acre incident.
[3] David Rasbach (Bellingham Herald), Crews battle Porter Creek Fire after flames visible through much of Whatcom Wednesday, 2024-09-22, The fire grew from about 20 acres to approximately 80 acres by morning and has been named the Porter Creek Fire
[4] Herald and News, Oregon fire season opens statewide, 2020-08-3
[5] Whatcom County Fire Marshal's Office, Whatcom County Fire Mashal's Office News Release, 2024-09-22 via archive.org, will be enacting restrictions on open burning
[6] Iowa Environmental Mesonet (iastate.edu), National Weather Service Raw Text Product 2020-08-16 00:30 UTC, 2024-09-22
[7] Iowa Environmental Mesonet (iastate.edu), National Weather Service Raw Text Product 2020-08-15 09:19 UTC, 2024-09-22, URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
[8] Iowa Environmental Mesonet (iastate.edu), National Weather Service Raw Text Product 2020-08-15 17:12 UTC, 2024-09-22, has issued a Red Flag Warning [...] The Fire Weather Watch is NO LONGER IN EFFECT
[9] Tim Gruver (Washington Examiner), Oregon Governer declares state of emergency as fire season ramps up, 2024-09-22 via archive.org
[10] Helen Smith (Krem), Gov. Inslee declares state of emergency over Washington wildfires, 2024-09-22 via archive.org
[11] @Sarah_Hants (Twitter), 2024-09-22 (Tweet 2022-11-4), A very productive @TorroUK site investigation with my colleague today. Barton on Sea to the New Forest. Some photos need permission to use in public or are on the camera. But this was a clear T4 tornado with path length of around 10-11km before dark scuppered us.
[12] Francine Wolfisz (Daily Mail), Terrifying moment tornado tears through southern England as UK weather map reveals exactly where and when rainfall will batter Britain in new Met Office warning, 2024-09-22, The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro), a privately supported research body specialising in severe weather events in Britain and Ireland, said that it had tracked the length of the tornado's movement in Aldershot at 1.2 miles long.
[13] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (NASA), The Effects of Climate Change, 2024-09-22, Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years.
[14] Christoper Nesbitt (Permaculture College Australia), Tropical Permaculture Agroforestry in Central America, 2024-09-22, Where we are, now, as a species, the old economic model is woefully inadequate. [...] there is no valid comparison to annual production.
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