It's Now or Never on Climate

Two major weather events took place on opposite sides of the world this past week.

In Texas, torrential downpours dropped more than 11 inches of rain in just 6 hours, causing apocalyptic-type flooding not seen in more than 500 years.

The images from Houston and other surrounding areas are terrifying. Once sleepy streams have turned into raging rivers, washing away roads, bridges and anything else in their path. Cars and trucks float where streets once stood. Now they are stranded like relics of a bygone era, replaced by kayaks and canoes.

Thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed. More than 20 people have been killed, with many more missing or unaccounted for. Volunteer emergency crews have been working around the clock to save people trapped in their homes.

In Wimberly, the Blanco River produced a 44-foot high surge, shattering the previous record of 32 feet, which was set in 1926. One official said the river rose 12-14 feet in just 30 minutes and grew 223 cubic feet per second, the fastest rate ever recorded.

Meanwhile, in India another extreme weather event is wreaking even more havoc. But it isn't a flood. It's a heat wave.

So far, more than 1,400 people have been killed in less than one week, mostly due to dehydration and heat stroke. The majority of the deaths came from "people who don't have access to air conditioning," namely construction workers, the poor/homeless and the elderly.

In Delhi it reached 113 degrees. In other areas, temperatures hit 122 degrees, just 1 degree shy of the all-time record. It's gotten so bad that people are being ordered to stay in their homes and not go outside. It's so hot that roads are literally melting.

While the historic flooding in Texas and the deadly heat wave in India are completely different forms of extreme weather, they are both products of the same root cause: climate change.


REDEFINING CLIMATE CHANGE

For years, climate change was framed through the lens of polar bears and rising sea levels. But now, thanks to an explosion of mega-storms, floods, droughts and blizzards, we are realizing that melting ice caps are only one part of the overall climate crisis.

The other part is extreme weather.

Hurricane Sandy was the wake up call, a seminal moment when humanity's eyes were opened to the undeniable fact that we had entered a new climate reality, one where old, predictable weather patterns were replaced by bigger, stronger, more violent weather events than ever before.

Since Sandy, it's only gotten worse. We've had record snowfall in the Northeast and an unprecedented drought in California. Now we have a 500-year flood in Texas and a sweltering heat wave in India.

The rise in extreme weather coincides with the fact that the planet continues to warm and carbon emissions continue to rise. (It may have gone largely under the radar, but the Earth reached a "global milestone" in March when CO2 emissions reached 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history).

As a result, any conversation about combating extreme weather must start with combating climate change. The two are intertwined.


SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS

Solars panels, wind turbines and electric cars are a step in the right direction but they're not enough. If we want to prevent environmental doomsday, we must keep the remaining carbon in the ground and completely reinvent the way we live our lives.

This means no more drilling. No more pipelines. No more flying on planes (air travel leaves a huge carbon footprint). No more steaks and cheeseburgers (the meat industry is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gasses).

If the recent events in Texas and India teach us anything, it's that climate change can no longer be denied or ignored. It can't be wished away. It's happening right now, before our eyes.

We can either sit back and do nothing, accepting the fact that rising seas and extreme weather are the new normal, or we can make serious, bold changes to limit our emissions, cool the planet and prevent climate judgment day.

Years ago, conventional wisdom was that climate change and global warming are a slow moving disaster that won't affect us during our lifetimes, but could affect our grandchildren or great-grandchildren. But that's not the case anymore. It's here now. It's affecting us as we speak.

It's now or never on climate.