Five-alarm summer
Canadians escaped the worst of this summer’s climate impacts, touch wood, but alarm bells are ringing around the world.
South of the border, CNN’s meteorologist opened the Labour Day forecast declaring, “America is burning up.” California, in particular, has been roasting. Heat records are falling like birds from the sky throughout central and southern California and, by the time you read this, a rare hurricane will have brought fierce winds up the coast from its landfall in Mexico.
Homeless people are desperate for somewhere to rest that doesn’t feel like lying on a frying pan. Lakes and rivers have shrivelled to record lows. The state was urging Californians to do everything possible to keep enough juice on the grid to run air conditioners, ironically even pleading with drivers to limit charging their electric cars.
The parched western U.S. has been described as being in the grips of a “megadrought” — the worst in at least 1,200 years, but that may be a mischaracterization, implying a situation that will eventually pass. “This isn’t a drought,” scientist Brad Udall told Colorado’s Vail Daily. “Myself and other scientists are trying to use a different term: Aridification.”
This reporting is produced with support from I-SEA’s Climate Solutions project and is not behind National Observer’s subscriber paywall.