Seven years ago, I heard a presentation here in Eureka Springs from a 350.org climate change activist. His voice trembled with emotion as he presented the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Failure to do that, he said, “could make us turn into Venus.”
The 350.org goal was to keep carbon dioxide emissions at below 350 parts per million because higher levels could lead to catastrophic climate change. Seven years later, we have seen a climate change denier take over the Presidency with disastrous results for programs to reign in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and preserve the climate and the future of Earth. At the same time, CO2 levels have increased to 403 ppm with no sign yet of stabilization.
“Climate change may be escalating so fast it could be ‘game over,’ scientists warn,” is the headline from a recent UK Independent article by Ian Johnston that was subtitled: “New research suggests the Earth’s climate could be more sensitive to greenhouse gases than thought, raising the spectre of an ‘apocalyptic side of bad’ temperature rise of more than 7C within a lifetime.”
I moved to Eureka Springs from Ocean Springs, Miss., two years after my home flooded and my community was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I no longer felt safe on the Coast, not just because of hurricanes, but because it was becoming increasingly expensive to live on the coast due to higher home insurance premiums.
This year we have seen an unprecedented hurricane season with storms causing major devastation of the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida and now Mississippi and Louisiana. When I told a friend I was having nightmares about flooding, he pointed out, “But you are now living at elevation of 1,260 feet, so you are safe.”
But how safe are we, really, from the impacts of climate change? Hurricanes and sea level rise aren’t the only threats. Just ask the people in Wine Country in California. That state has just experienced one the worst fires in the state’s history with wildfires destroying more than 3,500 homes or other structures, and killing more than 40 people.
This past summer I visited the verdant green Wine Country on a trip to a family wedding in Eureka, Calif., I stopped in Sonoma – ground zero for the recent fires – to visit a college friend, Kate Dumont. After the recent fire, Kate wrote me, “Well, you all chose the right time to visit No Cal this year, to enjoy your wedding and trip, and see the area intact, as if frozen in time in its beauty and loveliness, because now it is a disaster area, black and gray, ravaged, and dangerous with much smoke, etc. Folks will rebuild, and overtime, trees will fill in but it will take years for the scars to be glossed over.”
Kate had recently moved from Sonoma to Grass Valley located near the Nevada border. Very high winds also occurred there and started multiple fires in Nevada County where Grass Valley is located.
“The smoky scent was very strong, as was the orange haze that made our eyes water. I was very scared we would have to evacuate, so I packed, gassed the car and got kittie kat ready and organized,” said Kate, who volunteered for years to work with fire and first responders to train the public on safety and preparedness. “Friends from Sonoma and Grass Valley checked in continuously during the day. Remember that big house and pool you visited a few years back? By 5 p.m., that area was being evacuated. Another story was a friend said her friend woke up in the wee hours on Monday morning with her house on fire, so she ran out just in time; I can’t imagine a scene like that! Hellish. Other friends in Sonoma reported evacuations and leaving homes, or familiar places that burned and were gone! The first responders spent much time trying to save lives… they did such a great job, but we will have a much higher death count in the weeks ahead.”
People think of wildfires occurring in wild forested areas, not suburbs with lots of concrete, fire hydrants and urban fire departments.
“It seems hardly possible,” Kate said. “The suburbs and neighborhoods all feel so safe… so, stand in your house right now, and be grateful for its presence. Hug your loved ones a little too long. Thank your body for being healthy. And feel grateful for all you and we have.”
One of the problems is with feedback loops. The devastating wildfires, which were continuing as this column was written, continue in California, plagued by years of drought. Wildfires product more C02 which further increases climate change which causes more melting of the polar ice caps releasing more potent greenhouse gases than CO2, such as methane.
And after you do that, get active doing whatever you can to promote alternative energy, energy conservation and returning our government from the clutches of money grubbing, climate change deniers to serve the best interests of both present and future generations.
And get prepared. Look at how badly our urban forests here are managed choked with alien vegetation, trees far too close to homes, tons of dead forest litter, and a plethora of asphalt shingle roofs that could multiply the devastating effects of wildfires by many times. Don’t think wildfires couldn’t happen here as the climate warms and hurricane like winds can appear out of nowhere. And remember the 2009 ice storm in Arkansas that was our state’s largest disaster was also a result of a changing climate.