Will 2018 go into the books as the year the world realized that we've entered a new climate epoch? Mega-summer, it's been building for a while but it's here now and with a vengeance. It does lend credence to research by University of Hawaii climatologists in 2013 predicting that Earth will begin to experience "climate departure" starting around 2023.
In March of this year a paper published in Nature, Climate Change echoed the Hawaii research, looking at "anthropogenic climate change" in western North America and the Great Lakes region in the contest of ToE, time of emergence.
ACC dominates heat-wave occurrence over the western United States and Great Lakes regions, with ToE that occurred as early as the 2020s and 2030s, respectively.Of course this is a global challenge/threat, especially, for now, across the northern hemisphere.
Japan, after enduring torrential rains and flash floods is now reeling from a killer heatwave that has claimed more than 64 lives and sent more than 20,000 to hospital. The same heatwave is hammering Korea.
Britain is now coming to grips with triple-digit heatwaves. Meanwhile in northern Sweden and elsewhere, wildfires are breaking out inside the Arctic Circle where temperatures have reached more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. A wildfire in Greece overnight claimed 74 lives and forced more than 700 to escape into the sea. The American southwest is reeling from record heat events and there's no end in sight, at least not in the short term. Across western America crews are trying to prevent a massive die-off of herds of wild horses suffering from the heat and drought.
This is the new summer. Best you get used to it.
It's a brave new world, Mound. And we are cowardly.
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ReplyDeleteCowardice is just going to make it far worse, Owen. You have to jump clear of the runaway locomotive before it runs into the oncoming express train.
When do the powers that be start building huge climate controlled domes to cover their cities? Imagine geodesic domes large enough to cover Los Angeles, built to withstand whatever happens outside of it. Science fiction writers introduced this a long time ago. Has the time come? There is no sign that any sort of international cooperation will attempt to solve, or even ameliorate climate change so will desperate cities build domes?
ReplyDeleteDuring the Middle Ages cities were fortified for protection from assault. Will a domed city be the updated version?
ReplyDeleteThey can't find money to maintain existing essential infrastructure, Toby. Where would they find the revenues to build domes? Imagine how you would have to change lifestyles in a city of a million+ people given that you would be trapping their heat and pollution inside a bubble.
Oh, I can imagine it, Mound. The urban dome is an horrific scenario. The only point is protection from a worse scenario. When times are desperate enough the money will appear. They'll steal it if necessary.
ReplyDeleteI suppose what I'm getting at is that when Global Warming hits hard many 18th century nation states are going to fall apart and survivors will probably see the re-ascendance of city-states. They will be adapted to the environment as much as possible and fortified against outsiders as they were during the Middle Ages. In Turkey there are many places where people went underground for similar reasons.
Derinkuyu underground city
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_underground_city