Climate Change
Evidence of the impact climate change is having on the planet seems to be popping up everywhere in recent weeks.
An unstoppable western drought called worst in 1,200 years
Bloomberg Green reported on June 24, 2021, that a widespread drought is already at historic levels. Conditions are expected to worsen when wildfires start. The report said that “unstoppable drought is rolling over California and the Western U.S. once again, as it has with little interruption since the new century began. Nearly 98% of land across 11 Western states is abnormally dry, and more than 90% covered by some category of drought—the worst levels in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s 21-year history. Reservoirs have drained to their bottoms.” A UCLA scientist is quoted as saying that “by a lot of metrics, it is the most severe drought on record.” Climate change is to blame, making the U.S. Southwest permanently drier. A June 18, 2021, story in The Guardian called this historic drought “the worst in 1,200 years.”
Heat and drought in the west expected to spark wildfires, reduce electricity output
It would be no surprise that the historic drought, excessive heat and dry vegetation in the west will raise the risk of wildfires across the region while causing power demand to increase. An article in Axios on June 25, 2021, says this week’s dome of high pressure will raise temperatures between 25 and 45 degrees above normal across multiple states and British Columbia. Meanwhile, the drought is beginning to impact electricity production. CNN reported on June 18, 2021, that Lake Oroville, one of California’s two largest reservoirs, will shut down its hydropower production for the first time because of low water levels. If the heat and drought create wildfires, solar output can be affected, too. On June 10, 2021, Canary Media reported that western wildfires in 2020 reduced California’s daily solar output in the early weeks of October by as much as 20% due to darkened skies from smoke.
Fish kill on the Klamath River called worst-case scenario
The drought in the west has hit the Klamath River Basin hard. Farmers are not getting water, yet even with those supplies being left to maintain the river environment, fish have been dying since early May, and 97% of the juvenile salmon are infected with the disease C. shasta. 70% of those caught in traps were either dead or would die within days. A drying climate, drought, and heat are all being blamed according to a May 27, 2021, story in High Country News.
Antarctic Glacier disintegration is speeding up, accelerating sea level rise
A June 11, 2021, report in the Washington Post reports that the ice shelf preventing the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica from flowing directly into the sea is “tearing itself apart.” The glacier contributes more to sea level rise than any other glacier on the continent and is one of the fastest-melting glaciers in the world. The glacier is not sheltered from the warming ocean by sea ice like other Antarctic glaciers and is now flowing toward the sea “12 percent faster than at the start of 2017.” Scientists fear the loss of the protective ice shelf could accelerate the glacier’s decline which currently adds one sixth of a millimeter to sea level rise each year. Losing the ice shelf could double or triple that rate, and the glacier contains enough ice to cause 1.6 feet of sea level rise.
Sea level rise taking a toll on the Florida Keys
Sea level rise has reared its head in the Florida Keys, where The Guardian reported on June 24, 2021, that the region “is now acknowledging a previously unthinkable reality: it faces being overwhelmed by the rising seas and not every home can be saved.” The city of Marathon recently agreed to “elevate streets to keep them from perpetual flooding, while admitting they do not have the money to do so.” The story says that “once people are unable to secure mortgages and insurance for soaked homes, the Keys will cease to be a livable place long before its fully underwater.”
Houston plan proposes $26 billion sea wall, sand dunes to protect the coast
In the Houston area, consideration is being given to a $26 billion project to protect Galveston Bay from storm surges due to increasingly more powerful hurricanes and sea level rise. A June 26, 2021, story in Wired says the plan proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office would include massive, moveable gates that “will float and swing out of dry docks to close the channel” and protect Galveston Bay. “Each will be 82 feet high—with 22 feet above water when closed—and 650 feet wide—almost twice the length of a football field.” The plan also includes building 43 miles of sand dunes and coastal ecosystem restoration. Legislation to create a governing structure for the project has passed both the Texas House and Senate and the Army Corps' recommendations for the proposal, will go to Congress in September.
Despite the bad climate news, solutions continue to emerge
The news isn’t all bad on the climate front. Solutions continue to emerge. According to a June 11, 2021. story in Canary Media, Caltech “plans to advance a solar-from-space concept that was first proposed by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in the 1940s.” The idea is to capture solar energy in space and send it to earth as microwaves. Another story, this one in Dezeen, a design and architecture magazine, on June 24, 2021, described a company that believes it can harvest CO2 from the atmosphere to make carbon-negative plastic.
