An extreme heat wave affected much of Western North America in late June and early July of this year. The heat affected Northern California, Idaho, Western Nevada, Oregon, and Washington in the U.S., as well as Canada’s British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and Yukon. The extreme heat was accompanied by droughts, hundreds of wildfires, hundreds of heat-related deaths, the interruption of major interstate transmission and rail lines, and the evacuation of dozens of towns and communities. In the case of the village of Lytton, British Columbia, it was sadly completely destroyed by wildfires. International researchers concluded that the extraordinary heat wave in the northwestern United States and parts of Canada would almost certainly not have occurred without global warming.
Yet, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there are still Americans and Canadians, often living in the most affected regions, who remain skeptical about the impact of climate change. For example, they instead blame more severe wildfires on the federal government’s water policies and forestry management, referring to it as ‘environmentally caused mismanagement’. Unfortunately, skepticism appears to be highest in the U.S. partly because of a major distrust of everything that has to do with the federal government, similar to that found among anti-vaccination groups as it pertains to COVID-19.
Seeing the results of climate change during the past decade, there are those who believe that we have to invest more in developing infrastructures that can withstand the future impacts of such extreme weather events, including flooding along our coastlines. These investments will have to include looking at major infrastructure changes to energy transmission, water conservation, building structures, crop management, forestry management, emergency preparedness, etc., etc. In order to better cope with future extreme weather events and other impacts due to climate change, the needed infrastructure changes will cost trillions of dollars. There is no segment of society that will not be affected.
In order to deal with those skeptical segments of society, we will have to do a better job of countering misinformation about climate change and informing people about the serious inevitable consequences of not preparing for impacts associated with climate change. This is the number one priority for the human race. Given the course that we are on, there must be a clear understanding among all of us of the urgent need to get even more serious about this issue. People have a right to be skeptical, but not to the extent that it places them in real danger. This is exactly what’s happening now! This issue is beyond a doubt the priority for the twenty-first century as it affects every aspect of our society, and societies in other countries, especially those in the so-called Third World. Without sounding overly alarmist, our lives and livelihoods depend on our dealing with the impacts of climate change today and not tomorrow!
FROLITICKS 