Boiling Point: Heat, fires, floods — extreme weather has affected 99% of Americans
A firefighter walks through haze as the Park fire burns near Mineral, Calif., in early August. (Noah Berger / Associated Press)
Extreme weather alerts for dangerous heat, wildfires, storms, flooding and other hazards have affected nearly everyone in the United States over the past few months.
Tracking data from the National Weather Service, the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists has found that since the beginning of May, extreme weather alerts have been issued for 99% of the country’s population.
It’s a striking statistic that underlines the growing risks the nation faces as climate change continues to intensify extremes — such as last month’s record heat in California.
We have built our infrastructure for a different world, and in some ways we weren’t even that well adapted to the world that we had. And now we have a new climate.
—Alex Hall, UCLA climate scientist
My colleague Hayley Smith spoke with scientists to unpack the significance of so many extreme weather events during the period from May to October, which some researchers are now calling the “danger season.”
Her piece highlights a key point from Juan Declet-Barreto, an environmental and social scientist who analyzed the data: Many of the alerts have overlapped, meaning that millions of people have been facing multiple hazards at once, such as wildfire weather and extreme heat.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is featuring the data in a map that is updated daily while advocating for political leaders to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable.
Alex Hall, a UCLA climate scientist, said the weather alert data is one more indicator of worsening climate change impacts, and that the damages from major weather disasters, which have been dramatically increasing, are set to rise further in the years to come.
Hall said: “We have built our infrastructure for a different world, and in some ways we weren’t even that well adapted to the world that we had. And now we have a new climate.”
That comment reminded me about a new six-part podcast series I’ve been looking forward to checking out. The podcast, called “Not Built for This,” is being launched this week by the team behind “99% Invisible.”
The program says the series will explore “how climate change is laying bare the vulnerabilities in the American built environment and how communities across the country have been left to bootstrap their own survival.”
Here’s a look at more climate coverage in California and around the […]