The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Ashville Flooding Proves That Climate Havens Don’t Exist
Dear Diary. A few years ago I was thinking that there were places on this planet that were not immune but somewhat protected from the eventual effects of climate change. I advised some people that the Pacific Northwest would be relatively cool compared to the rest of the country, so a good place to move to escape wicked heat from a warming world. Not so. A June 2001 heatwave proved me wrong in which hundreds of people died from Portland Oregon northward into British Columbia due to temperatures that well exceeded 100°F for about a week, killing people with no air conditioning that thought it wasn’t necessary given a traditional cool climate.
Many from my hometown of Atlanta northwest into the Appalachians have moved here to enjoy green flora and relatively cooler conditions than what occurs across most of the U.S. Southeast. Is the region a climate haven? Sadly, not as proved by Hurricane Helene. I fear that more CAT 4 and 5 hurricanes will strike the Gulf Coast then move well inland causing massive destruction in their wake.
As far as climate havens go, here is a good article from the New Republic indicating that these are proving less reliable, which will be a trend going through the 21st century and beyond:
Climate Change Does Not Care About Your Borders | The New Republic
Kate Aronoff/ September 30, 2024
harsh truths
Climate Change Does Not Care About Your Borders
Already we can draw two big lessons from Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic fallout.
Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 28. Melissa
More than 110 people are now believed to have died as a result of Hurricane Helene, the storm that swept through the Southeast over the weekend and left some 500 miles of destruction in its wake. Hundreds are missing, and millions still don’t have electricity. Cell phone service is spotty, while incapacitated roads and bridges are complicating an already strained recovery effort. Asheville—recently dubbed a “climate haven” for its historically mild climate and perch within the Blue Ridge Mountains—is among the areas worst hit; so far, 30 people have been reported dead there.
The idea of a “climate haven” is a seductive one: that some places will be relatively insulated from extreme heat, stronger hurricanes, and any number of other threats posed by rising temperatures. That’s all the more enticing if you’ve got the means to move to one of those places. Some cities have even started advertising themselves as “climate refuges” in order to attract warming-weary—and relatively well-off—new residents. There’s a kernel of truth in all this. It is, of course, more pleasant to be in Burlington, Vermont, than Phoenix, Arizona, in July. As western North Carolina can attest, though, the climate crisis isn’t especially good at respecting either municipalities’ marketing pitches or borders.
The nature of global warming is that it is, well, global: Nowhere will be spared. This reality makes a mockery of our geographical boundaries. But it shows how arbitrary other boundaries are, as well: If the bounds of what counts as “climate policy.” Policymakers and media outlets, for example, typically treat fuel efficiency standards as climate policy. They’re less likely to view financial regulators’ intervention in insurance companies’ risky speculation that way. Yet those in the Southeast who’ll attempt to pick up the pieces over the coming weeks, months, and years will probably be less worried about miles per gallon than whether they can afford skyrocketing premiums.
In recent years, the definition of what counts as climate policy has gotten even stranger in the United States. On the campaign trail, Democrats haven’t talked about global warming all that much. To the extent that they do mention climate policy, it’s mainly discussed as a means to spur investment in low-carbon technologies like electric vehicles and solar panels. The Harris campaign’s website cites the Inflation Reduction Act’s “historic work” in “lowering household energy costs, creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality clean energy jobs, and building a thriving clean energy economy.” The site makes brief mention of increasing “resilience to climate disasters,” holding “polluters accountable,” and “continuing and building upon the United States’ international climate leadership.”
But next to images of entire downtown areas half-submerged in flood waters, or homes moving faster than a river tube, touting the administration’s successful boost of the construction of manufacturing facilities rings hollow. Framing climate action primarily as a good-news story in which the U.S. will come to dominate green export sectors overlooks the very real pocketbook struggles the climate crisis is already causing.
Climate change isn’t a discrete issue so much as the foundation on which all politics happens. All policy, in other words—from housing to trade and financial regulation—is climate policy. Rather than acting as if these “natural disasters” are one-off tragedies, Democrats could treat disasters like Hurricane Helene as a chance to hammer Republicans on any number of fronts: for having spent decades colluding with fossil fuel companies to block federal emissions-reduction efforts, for showering insurance companies with giveaways while their own constituents struggle to afford policies, for failing to fund essential disaster relief. The GOP has no plan to help Americans survive a hotter and wetter world other than to make it a meaner one too. In response, Democrats should debut a vision for our climate-changed country that’s meaningfully different—something they’ve struggled with so far—and which makes communities safer in the long run, not just filled with more factories.
Much More:
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is brand new climatology for September 2024:
Here is More Climate News from Wednesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
I like the helpful info you supply to your articles. I’ll bookmark your blog and check once more here regularly.
I’m relatively sure I’ll be informed a lot of new stuff right here!
Good luck for the next!
casino en ligne fiable
I love what you guys are usually up too. This kind of clever work and reporting!
Keep up the excellent works guys I’ve included you guys to our blogroll.
casino en ligne
I am genuinely grateful to the holder of this website who has shared this great paragraph at at this time.
casino en ligne
fantastic points altogether, you simply won a emblem new reader.
What might you recommend about your post that you just made some days ago?
Any sure?
casino en ligne
These are in fact wonderful ideas in on the topic of blogging.
You have touched some fastidious points here. Any way keep up
wrinting.
casino en ligne France
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this excellent blog!
I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to fresh updates and will
talk about this site with my Facebook group. Chat soon!
meilleur casino en ligne
Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Thank
you, However I am going through difficulties
with your RSS. I don’t understand why I am unable
to subscribe to it. Is there anyone else getting the same RSS problems?
Anyone who knows the answer will you kindly respond?
Thanx!!
meilleur casino en ligne
What’s up, its good post about media print, we all be aware of media is a great source of facts.
casino en ligne francais
Peculiar article, exactly what I wanted to find.
casino en ligne fiable
It’s fantastic that you are getting thoughts from this piece of writing as well as from
our discussion made at this place.
casino en ligne francais