Catastrophic flooding in the Hudson Valley. An unrelenting heat dome over Phoenix. Ocean temperatures can reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit off the coast of Miami. A surprise deluge in Vermont, a rare tornado in Delaware.
A decade ago, any of these events would have been seen as an aberration. This week, they’re happening simultaneously as climate change fuels extreme weather, prompting New York Gov. Cathy Hochul, a Democrat, to call it “Our new normal.”
Over the past month, smoke from Canadian wildfires has engulfed major cities across the country, a deadly heat wave has hit Texas and Oklahoma, and torrential rains have flooded parts of Chicago.
“It’s not just a figment of your imagination, and it’s not just because everyone has a smartphone now,” said Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist and meteorologist at WFLA News in Tampa. “We’ve seen an increase in extreme weather. It’s definitely happening.”
It is likely to intensify. This year, a strong El Niño developing in the Pacific Ocean is poised to release additional heat into the atmosphere, fueling even more extreme weather around the globe.
“We’re going to see things happening around the Earth this year that we haven’t seen in modern history,” Mr Berardelli said.
And yet as hurricanes, fires and floods become more frequent, climate change lives on the periphery for most voters. In a nation focused on inflation, political scandals and celebrity feuds, only 8 percent of Americans identify global warming as the most important issue facing the country, according to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.
As climate disasters become more common, they may lose their shock value. A 2019 study concluded that in just two years, people learn to accept extreme weather as normal.
“It’s not just a complex issue, but it’s competing for attention in a dynamic, uncertain, complex world,” said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Lillian Lovas, a 77-year-old Chicagoan, said she has seen climate change affect her hometown, but she avoids the news to stay positive.
“It used to be very cold in the winter but now we only get a couple of really bitter days a year,” he said. “I will vote and do my part but things are not really in my hands.”
Christina Hengle, 51, a retail worker from Chicago, said she wasn’t sure the extreme weather had never happened before.
“I’m not a scientist so it’s hard for me to judge,” he said, before giving a false explanation. “Our planet is always changing and it might just be the cycle of life. You have to consider that deserts have had lakes, Lake Michigan hasn’t always been a lake.
Despite growing alarm among climate scientists, there are few signs of widespread societal change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are dangerously warming the planet.
“Even if hurricanes and other extremes of weather happen, if they’re far away, we pretend they don’t affect us, because we don’t want to do the things necessary to deal with this threat,” said Paul Slovic, a University of Oregon professor who specializes in the psychology of risk and decision-making. .
“More and more people recognize climate change as a problem, but they don’t like the solutions,” Mr Slovic added. “They don’t want to give up the comfort and convenience we get from using energy from the wrong sources.”
Last Thursday, which researchers say was the hottest day in modern history, saw a record number of commercial flights, each emitting more planet-warming gases. According to Flightradar24.
As wildfires and sea level rise destroy communities from California to North Carolina, residents continue to rebuild in disaster-prone areas.
And while more electricity is being generated from wind, solar and other clean energy, the world is still largely powered by fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, the primary sources of planet-warming emissions.
The cumulative effects of all those greenhouse gases are now on horrifying display around the globe. The planet is warming by an average of 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, fueling a dizzying array of extreme weather events.
Studies show that last year’s deadly floods in Pakistan, the heat dome that baked the Pacific Northwest in 2021 and Hurricane Maria that battered Puerto Rico in 2017 are all made worse by climate change.
“Climate change is here, now,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s not far off in Antarctica and it’s not in the future. This climate change has fueled the extreme weather events we’re all living with.
According to a Climate Center analysis of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, climate disasters with more than $1 billion in damages are on the rise in the United States. In 1980, the average time between billion-dollar disasters was 82 days. From 2018-2022, the average time between these most extreme events, controlling for inflation, is just 18 days.
“Climate change is pushing these events to new levels,” said Bernadette Woods Plucky, chief meteorologist at the weather station. “We don’t get breaks between them to recover like we used to.”
Human activity has had such a significant impact on the planet’s ecosystems and climate that scientists are now debating whether to declare that Earth has entered a new interval of geological time: the Anthropocene.
And with emissions still rising globally, scientists are warning that there is little time to drastically change course before the consequences become truly catastrophic.
“This is the last slap we’ll make to the upside while it still matters,” said Bill McKibben, a longtime climate activist. “It’s certainly a pivotal moment in Earth’s climate history. It’s a pivotal moment in Earth’s political history.
In the United States, climate change is a partisan issue, with many Republican leaders questioning established climate science, promoting fossil fuels, and opposing renewable energy.
Climate scientists and environmentalists hope that each new storm and hailstorm can push Americans toward action.
A survey of adults this spring found that a majority are concerned about climate change and support federal action to combat global warming and promote clean energy, according to a recent poll by Yale.
Even in Florida, which has grown more conservative in recent years, a growing number of residents believe humans are responsible for climate change, including a record number of Republicans, according to a Florida Atlantic University poll.
“The polling data has changed over the last few years, and I bet it’s going to lurch again,” Mr. McKibben said. “At a certain point, if you see enough fires and floods, who do you believe?”
Additional reporting by Cara BuckleyRobert Charito, Delgar Erdenesana And Raymond Zhang.
