2021 In The Rearview Of Four Different Scientists; "Extraordinary Is No Longer Extraordinary"

[hatrack]

EDIT

Daniel Swain, Colorado
Climate scientist, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles

The last few years featured some really prominent global climate and weather extremes. And this year, in particular, kind of puts an exclamation point on that. The magnitude and frequency of what happened over the past 12 months or so is pretty remarkable. The extraordinary and unprecedented is no longer extraordinary or unprecedented because it’s starting to happen so often. In June, we had that unbelievable heatwave across the Pacific north-west and British Columbia. We had Death Valley-like temperatures in the glacial valleys of British Columbia, that, for me personally, is probably one of the most shocking modern heatwave events I can remember anywhere. But then, we had the fires throughout the west followed by record-breaking, extreme precipitation – sometimes in the same towns and cities that were affected by heatwaves and fires.

EDIT

The meteorologist: ‘Maybe this will be a wake up call’
Simon Wang, Utah
Professor of climate dynamics at Utah State University

The natural disasters, the drought, the heat – it’s hardly surprising any more. Everything that happened has followed the trend that has been predicted 10, 20 years ago. I hate to say “I told you so.” But I just want to make clear that when scientists predict something, there are usually good reasons for that. People should trust the science. Now more and more people are suffering. But maybe it will make more and more people realize that these extreme weather events and fires will keep happening – maybe this will be a wake-up call. With each year of extreme weather events, maybe we’ll start to see policy change.

But even politically conservative states are starting to feel the pain, and are starting to consider action. Take Utah. Here the Great Salt Lake, because of the drought, is at a record low level. The lake is shrinking, and the decline is a sign of bigger things - of declining snowfall and snow melt, of declining water for household and industry. As the lake shrinks, more of the dry lake bed is being exposed, and winds could cause it to send toxic dust into the air. And all that has triggered a lot of panic.

EDIT

The paleoclimatologist: ‘There’s a lot we can all do’

Kathleen Johnson, California
Associate professor of earth system science at the University of California, Irvine

EDIT

One of the things that has really hit home to me about this year is the fires’ impact on giant sequoia trees in the Sierra Nevada. I’ve done research in the Sequoia national park and it’s one of my favorite places in the world – these trees are just amazing. And they’re actually fire-adapted trees – they require fire to live and propagate. But the fires have been so extreme this year and last year that they’ve permanently killed thousands of sequoia trees. A recent report indicated that up to 20% of the sequoias have been killed in the last two years alone – and that just makes me really sad. It makes me worried that future generations are not going to be able to enjoy the beauty of these trees.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/30/climate-crisis-emergency-climate-disaster

[3Hotdogs]

1. "Maybe this will be a wakeup call."

Whatever gave him that idea?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

2. The point being he has the idea just fine, the sleepwalkers need the waking...that's obvious also.

[hatrack]

3. Kind of wondering that myself, but . . . . hey-ho.

Onward.

[Chainfire]

4. Waking who?

We can't even get people to protect themselves from a deadly virus that will end up killing a million Americans. In fighting climate change, our efforts are like pissing on a forest fire. When Denver is beachfront, people will still be denying man-made climate change.