With the fingerprints of climate change on so many “naturaldisasters,” it’s time to retire “natural.”
Peter Dykstra for the Environmental Health News
But last week’s horrific twisters—and hurricane-force winds
in a mid-week system—added on to an unprecedented weather year. Let’s rewind to
February.
Polar vortex and extreme heat
The polar vortex brought the Jet Stream and its Arctic air
far down south, freezing pipes and knocking out power for millions.
The deep freeze was blamed for at least 275 deaths in Texas, Oklahoma, and
surrounding states
Hundreds more died in June, when an unheard-of heat wave
gripped the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon, reached 116° F (46.7° C).
Lytton, British Columbia, set the all-time Canadian record of 121° F (49.4° C).
As roads buckled in a region completely unfamiliar with such
heat, scientists said it would be “virtually impossible”
for such a heat wave without climate change.
The heat, and record drought, helped spawn a summer of
record wildfires. Oregon’s Bootleg Fire burned
nearly half a million acres; California’s Dixie Fire doubled it later in the
summer.
Hurricanes and water levels
In late August, Hurricane Henri turned
into a tropical storm rainmaker, drenching an area from New Jersey to Nova
Scotia. New York’s Central Park received two inches of rain in an hour—then
five inches more the next day for good measure. Both were records.
Days later, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana as a Category 4,
causing $64 billion in damage, according to NOAA. The storm stayed alive long
enough to become a lethal rainmaker from Maryland into New England.
There were record-low water levels in Lakes Powell and Mead,
the Colorado River mega-reservoirs. They provide hydropower and water for the
cities of the Southwest and irrigation for much of America’s produce. There is
at best faint hope that the Colorado will bounce back, even as L.A., San Diego,
Phoenix, and Las Vegas continue to grow.
California’s Lake Oroville saw record low levels this
summer, only four years after record high levels raised fears of a catastrophic
dam failure.
Last month, torrential rains returned to British Columbia.
Once all the damage is tallied, it may turn out to be the costliest “natural”
disaster in Canadian history.
Overseas, record flooding in Germany, unprecedented
sandstorms in Beijing, stunningly accelerating ice-melt in Greenland, and a
continental record 119° F (48.3° C) in Sicily were just a few of the reasons
that this isn’t a North American anomaly.
Taking the natural out of natural disasters
So let’s take the “natural” out of most kinds of natural
disasters. Volcanoes? Still natural. Earthquakes? Sure, unless they’re the
little ones associated with fracking operations. Plagues of locusts? Natural, I
think, but I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing one.
Most of the others? Is it asking too much of us that we don’t assault Mother Nature, them hang the blame on her?
Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can
be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.
His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The
Daily Climate, or publisher Environmental Health Sciences.