Define "Extreme"

 


The New York Times has a section it calls "Extreme Weather and Climate Updates." That got me wondering how we should define "extreme" now that we're truly in the throes of climate breakdown. What your grandparents might have found apocalyptic was, within just a generation or two, downgraded to extreme and now may be our new normal.

This brings to mind the fable of the boiling frog.  A frog, dropped into a pot of hot water, will immediately jump out. Put that frog in a  pot of cool water, gradually turn up the heat, and it will stay put until it meets its fate.  Mankind is the frog. Do we jump clear and escape or should we just remain put until we can no longer jump at all?

The Times update begins with this year's hurricane forecast.  15 to 21 named storms, 7 to 10 of them hurricanes, 3 to 5 of the hurricanes reaching or exceeding wind speeds of 100 mph. Climate change has brought severe weather events of increasing 1. frequency, 2. intensity, and 3. duration. The three factors are threat multipliers. That's what you get from an increasingly hotter and more humid atmosphere.

Next up is drought. The Times reports that California regulators are beginning to restrict water to farmers. The cuts, unanimously approved by the state's Water Resources Board, will reduce, in some cases eliminate, drawing of water from the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, the "lifeblood of the agricultural central valley."

On to wildfires, this time Hawaii. Parts of the state are among the wettest areas on Earth but other areas, such as the Big Island, aren't so lucky. Closer to home, the Times has a wildfire tracker to show the spread across the western U.S. In southern Oregon, the Bootleg fire has consumed 400,000 acres and isn't expected to be fully contained until October. 

Canadians can access what seems to be a more comprehensive (i.e. better) Canadian wildfire tracker that also traces the spread of wildfire smoke from coast to coast to coast. Today, Saskatchewan and Manitoba really seem to be taking it in the neck.

I'm not sure whether Covid-19 is really the great threat of the day, the very worst thing that confronts us or more of a distraction that conceals a far greater threat to all life on this planet.






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