Wet, fiery, hot, and humid: the new normal

We hope you were able to stay safe and cool this summer— three months during which a new Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations claims roughly 1 in 3 Americans faced a weather disaster, and 64% of people experienced a multi-day heatwave.

Unfortunately, at least 388 people in the United States were not able to do so, losing their lives as a result of the hurricanes, floods, heat waves and wildfires that ravaged the country since June. Sure, these used to be issues that didn’t hit quite so close to home, but it’s now getting quite hard to ignore the fact that the warming environment is taking its toll—just look at the Vine Street Expressway, or, should we say, Vine Street River.

Hurricanes at the level of Ida are not a rarity anymore: in every decade since 1979, tropical storms have become 8% more likely to become a Category 3 or greater hurricane. And fires could engulf us next: wildfires in the West now spread twice as far as they would without human influence. The humid, sticky, uncomfortable air you likely griped about this summer is also no anomaly: each degree Celsius of warming gives the atmosphere the potential to hold 7% more moisture.

One of these seems bad enough, right? But experts now warn that these extreme weather events are more likely to coincide in “compound catastrophes.” Just look at our neighborhoods.

One of these seems bad enough, right? But experts now warn that these extreme weather events are more likely to coincide in “compound catastrophes.” Just look at our neighborhoods. This August had already been historically wet, leaving waterways on the brink of overfilling and the ground over- saturated. Now, add in the tails of Hurricane Ida, and it’s quite simple to see why those flash floods tore down those homes across the street or those trees lining the roads to school.

And so, when a Pew Research Center survey reports that Americans still neglect climate change as a top priority, placing issues like immigration and strengthening the economy in front—sure, these two are also important and are often interconnected— we ask, what’s the point of these issues if our country falls apart to nature first?

This isn’t a political issue; this isn’t something that’s far away in time and impact; this, as it seems now, is an issue that we will learn to face seriously when it’s already too late—and that time is nearly here.

This isn’t a political issue; this isn’t something that’s far away in time and impact; this, as it seems now, is an issue that we will learn to face seriously when it’s already too late—and that time is nearly here.