Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

2 hours ago

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

3 hours ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

3 hours ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 hours ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

7 hours ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

8 hours ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

8 hours ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

8 hours ago
Think 2020's Disasters Are Wild? Experts See Worse in Future
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
September 10, 2020

Share

A record amount of California is burning, spurred by a nearly 20-year mega-drought. To the north, parts of Oregon that don’t usually catch fire are in flames.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic’s 16th and 17th named tropical storms are swirling, a record number for this time of year. Powerful Typhoon Haishen lashed Japan and the Korean Peninsula this week. Last month it hit 130 degrees in Death Valley, the hottest Earth has been in nearly a century.

Phoenix keeps setting triple-digit heat records, while Colorado went through a weather whiplash of 90-degree heat to snow this week. Siberia, famous for its icy climate, hit 100 degrees earlier this year, accompanied by wildfires. Before that Australia and the Amazon were in flames.

Amid all that, Iowa’s derecho — bizarre straight-line winds that got as powerful as a major hurricane, causing billions of dollars in damages — barely went noticed.

Freak natural disasters — most with what scientists say likely have a climate change connection — seem to be everywhere in the crazy year 2020. But experts say we’ll probably look back and say those were the good old days, when disasters weren’t so wild.

“It’s going to get A LOT worse,” Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb said Wednesday. “I say that with emphasis because it does challenge the imagination. And that’s the scary thing to know as a climate scientist in 2020.”

Colorado University environmental sciences chief Waleed Abdalati, NASA’s former chief scientist, said the trajectory of worsening disasters and climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas is clear, and basic physics.

“I strongly believe we’re going to look back in 10 years, certainly 20 and definitely 50 and say, ‘Wow, 2020 was a crazy year, but I miss it,’” Abdalati said.

FILE – In this Aug. 27, 2020, file photo, buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura near Lake Charles, La. Climate-connected disasters seem everywhere in the crazy year 2020. But scientists Wednesday, Sept. 9, say it’ll get worse. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

‘We’re Pretty Much Guaranteed That We’ll Have Double What We Have Now’

That’s because what’s happening now is just the type of crazy climate scientists anticipated 10 or 20 years ago.

“It seems like this is what we always were talking about a decade ago,” said North Carolina State climatologist Kathie Dello.

Even so, Cobb said the sheer magnitude of what’s happening now was hard to fathom back then. Just as the future of climate disasters is hard to fathom now.

“A year like 2020 could have been the subject of a marvelous science fiction film in 2000,” Cobb said. “Now we have to watch and digest real-time disaster after disaster after disaster, on top of a pandemic. The outlook could not be any more grim. It’s just a horrifying prospect.”

“The 2030s are going to be noticeably worse than the 2020s,” she said.

University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist, said that in 30 years because of the climate change already baked into the atmosphere “we’re pretty much guaranteed that we’ll have double what we have now.”

Expect stronger winds, more drought, more heavy downpours and floods, Abdalati said.

“The kind of things we’re seeing are no surprise to the (scientific) community that understands the rules and the laws of physics,” Abdalati said.

“A lot of people want to blame it on 2020, but 2020 didn’t do this,” Dello said. “We know the behavior that caused climate change.”

Photo of a weather map
FILE – This Sept. 6, 2020, file satellite image released by NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) shows Typhoon Haishen barreling toward the main southwestern island of Kyushu. The second powerful typhoon to slam Japan in a week has unleashed fierce winds and rain on southern islands, blowing off rooftops and leaving homes without power as it edged northward into an area vulnerable to flooding and mudslides. (NASA via AP, File)

Scientists Also Make Direct Connections Between Heat Waves and Climate Change

Consider the world’s environment like an engine: “We have injected more energy into the system because we have trapped more heat into the atmosphere,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

That means more energy for tropical storms as well as changes to rainfall patterns that bring drought to some places and heavy rainfall to others, Taalas said.

In California, where more than 2.3 million acres have burned, the fires are spurred by climate change drying plants and trees that then go up in flames, said University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch. California is in the midst of a nearly 20-year mega-drought, the first of its kind in the United States since Europeans arrived, Overpeck said.

Scientists also make direct connections between heat waves and climate change.

Some disasters at the moment can’t be directly linked to man-made warming, such as the derecho, Overpeck said. But looking at the big picture over time shows the problem, and it’s one that comes down to the basic physics of trapped heat energy.

“I am not an alarmist. I don’t want to scare people,” Abdalati said. “It’s a problem with tremendous consequences and it’s too important not to get right.”

And so even though the climate will likely get worse, Overpeck is also optimistic about what future generations will think when they look back at the wild and dangerous weather of 2020.

“I think we’ll look back and we’ll see a whole bunch of increasingly crazy years,” Overpeck said. “And that this year, in 2020, I hope we look back and say it got crazy enough that it motivated us to act on climate change in the United States.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

DON'T MISS

US Military Says 200 Marines Being Sent to Support ICE in Florida

DON'T MISS

Boeing Secures $2.8 Billion US Satellite Contract

DON'T MISS

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

DON'T MISS

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

DON'T MISS

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

DON'T MISS

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

DON'T MISS

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Recover Some of the $40,000 in Fireworks Stolen From Bullard High Team

DON'T MISS

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

UP NEXT

Colombia President Recalls Ambassador to US

UP NEXT

US-Backed 60-Day Gaza Ceasefire Envisions Gradual Return of Hostages, Official Says

UP NEXT

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

UP NEXT

US Paves Way to Resume Ethane Exports to China Amid Trade Truce

UP NEXT

US Imposes New Sanctions Targeting Iran Oil Trade, Hezbollah, Treasury Dept Says

UP NEXT

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

UP NEXT

Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package

UP NEXT

From Victims to Perpetrators: Israeli Soldiers’ Nazi Comparisons and the Unfolding War Crimes in Gaza

UP NEXT

Iran Enacts Law Suspending Cooperation With UN Nuclear Watchdog

UP NEXT

Ukraine Voices Concern as US Halts Some Missile Shipments

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

55 minutes ago

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

1 hour ago

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

2 hours ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

2 hours ago

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

3 hours ago

Fresno Police Recover Some of the $40,000 in Fireworks Stolen From Bullard High Team

3 hours ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

3 hours ago

Trump to Sign Bill on Friday at 5 p.m., White House Says

3 hours ago

Colombia President Recalls Ambassador to US

3 hours ago

Riverdale High School Coach Arrested for Allegedly Arranging to Meet Minor

4 hours ago

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

As the drama unfolded Wednesday night into Thursday, Rep. David Valadao was one of the initial holdouts on voting for the “One Big Bea...

20 minutes ago

20 minutes ago

Valadao, Costa Spar on What Passage of Trump’s Bill Means for Medicaid Recipients

An ICE agent talks with migrants about their scheduled appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Father’s Day, to learn about their immigration status, in Chicago, Illinois., U.S., June 15, 2025. (Reuters File)
43 minutes ago

US Military Says 200 Marines Being Sent to Support ICE in Florida

Boeing logo and miniature satellite model are seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters File)
52 minutes ago

Boeing Secures $2.8 Billion US Satellite Contract

55 minutes ago

Kaweah Health Names Its New Chief Nurse. She’s From Texas

Clovis Police are searching for Pathmani Goonawardena, 82, who went missing nearly three weeks ago and was last seen driving a white Volvo near Copper and Auberry, possibly en route to Coarsegold. (CHP)
1 hour ago

Clovis Police Say At-Risk Missing Woman Found Dead in Mariposa County

A general view of a U.S. State Department sign, on the day U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 4, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Over 100 Former Senior Officials Warn Against Planned Staff Cuts at US State Department

An electric vehicle charging location is shown from the view of a drone in Carlsbad, California, U.S., May 14, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

Actor Michael Madsen arrives at the Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills, California November 1, 2015. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Actor Michael Madsen Dies at 67

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend