Pollution in DTLA from the 60s to Now: Smoke is the New Smog
Throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties, a dark layer of photochemical smog clouded downtown Los Angeles. Produced by carbon emissions, this toxic smog came to define the city in many unflattering ways. Today, the smog is not as noticeable, however, a new kind of cloud has arrived to mask the face of La-La-Land yet again.
This time around, the cloud is composed of smoke from wildfires, and while this leftover smolder from burning forests may not be as immediately caustic as yester-decades’ smog, it could be more dangerous all the same, for it is a sign of California’s increasing vulnerability in the presence of the climate crisis.
Seasonal Wildfires in California Exacerbated and Turned Catastrophic by Climate Crisis
Wildfires in California, like hurricanes in the Deep South or blizzards up north, are somewhat seasonal. After a long, hot, and dry summer, the fires are only now starting to pick up, with an inordinate number of them taking place in the mountains around L.A. since the beginning of autumn. The region’s exceptionally arid landscape this time of year only helps the fires grow and travel at faster rates.
The reasons for these wildfires can vary, from natural causes to someone dropping a cigarette in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many of them are sparked by something immediate and unfortunate. However, their range, frequency, and ferocity can be linked to global warming—especially over the past few years, as the fires have become more intense and the effects of the climate crisis have been increasingly perceptible.
Indeed, a simple wayward cigarette could ignite a wildfire, but how much damage that fire does is determined in part by something far more elemental. As the climate crisis heats up the earth, things naturally become more flammable. The ecosystem is meant to respond to temperature spikes with additional moisture. Unfortunately, we have not experienced such compensation yet, and with the climate crisis being an unnatural phenomenon, it is unwise for us to expect the planet to respond in natural ways.
Wildfire Prevention is More than Putting Out a Spark, it’s Environmental, and California’s is Highly Flammable
Thus, a small spark can easily kindle a fire that quickly spreads over dry foliage with the wind. Although Los Angeles itself is celebrated as a land of perfect weather, its surrounding canyons produce gusts of wind up to 80 miles per hour. Because climate change has been significantly limiting nature’s innate defense mechanisms, the average area affected by wildfires has increased almost four-fold over the past few decades.
Likewise, longer droughts are also making California’s fire season lengthier. The season is an estimated two months longer than it was in the 1970s, and the longer the season, the more destructive it can be. California’s six most intense seasons on record have all occurred in the past decade, and fifteen of the twenty most extreme individual fires have all taken place since the year 2000.
Official Red Flag Warnings, Evacuations, and Power Outages? Only a Precursor to Future Extremes
Just last week, the fires caused the National Weather Service to issue its first extreme red flag warning ever. A testament to how bad California’s fires are, this unprecedented warning shows that the recent wildfires are on par with some of the worst storms and tornadoes in our country’s history. In fact, they may be even more treacherous.
Californians and Angelinos in particular have already faced evacuations and power outages as results of the fires—and that is just over the past few weeks. President Trump, rarely a champion of progressive environmental policies, has hardly addressed the issue as California’s state government scrambles to combat the blazing infernos on its own. Despite the situation’s intensity, though, it is but a bleak microcosm of what the future may look like if the climate crisis continues to go unchecked by politicians.
From Smog to Smoke, the Only Difference is the Extent of our Unnecessarily-Long Relationship with Pollution
The fires are at their worst in the canyons and hills surrounding Los Angeles, but from downtown, residents can notice the smoke blocking the mountains on the horizon. The air is filled with the pungent smell of burning wood and the skyline becomes hazier each day, returning the city to its smog-infested image of former decades.
Given that the smog was the result of fossil fuel burning and the fires are fueled by the climate crisis today, we can see that their resemblance is familial, and that the smoke from the California’s wildfires are the deformed son, the resurrected corpse, the Frankenstein’s monster of the undead smog and carbon emissions that we continue to carelessly release into our planet’s atmosphere.
Over the past year, in the face of a rapid increase in the threat of CO2 emissions and its effects on the climate, various groups and activist organizations have staged demonstrations in response to a lack of any solutions or action from governments and industry leaders worldwide. Curiously, real reporting that makes the important connections between the causes, the extreme weather events and the demonstrations into account is scarce.
Global Scale Mobility to Save Planet Earth
The week of September 20-27, 2019, we saw a record of 7.6 million people around the world take to the streets and strike for climate action. This is by far the largest assembly of people mobilized for an ecological cause in history.
The Global Climate Strike shows that there are clearly a significant number of people motivated to challenge the status quo and, potentially, spur an accelerated end to the fossil fuel era. People’s Climate, Rise for Climate, Fire Drill Fridays, are just a handful of the hundreds of organizations that have formed (and will continue to form) in recognition of, and in direct response to, the emerging ecological emergency.
From Jakarta to New York, Karachi to Amman, Berlin to Kampala, Istanbul to Quebec, Manila to Mumbai, Guadalajara to Asunción, in big cities and small villages, millions of people joined hands and raised their voices in defense of the climate. These large numbers are speaking out and showing concern in order to raise awareness and bring attention to both the problem and the lack of an adequate response from those in power. The least the media can do is acknowledge the overwhelming numbers and help by shining a light on the issue.
Record Breaking Extreme Weather Events and Evidence of Catastrophic Potentials
Extreme temperature swings from both extremes are happening. July was the hottest month in recorded in history worldwide since record keeping began over 400 years ago. Earlier this month, in Denver, Colorado, was one of the greatest temperature changes in the city’s recorded history of a 64 degrees range; with temperatures at 83 degrees in the a.m. dropping all the way down to 19 degrees. These are just a couple of examples, however, extreme data confirming the danger is being reported by scientists and researchers with increased regularity all over the globe.
Hurricanes and floods are getting larger and more frequent. Research by The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and The Union of Concerned Scientists have found that hurricanes and storm systems have increased in the level of intensity over the past decades. Scientists anticipate further and significant intensity increases, along with warmer ocean temperatures and higher sea levels, as a result of global warming trends. The ocean is facing a multitude of severe damage symptoms and dangers beyond the sea-level rise predicted, and that itself could wipe out major cities around the world. Five storms this year: Hurricane Barry, Dorian, Imelda, Melissa and most recently Nestor have all directly impacted the United States.
Fires have devastated the lowlands in Bolivia, destroyed thousands of acres in Plumas National Forest in the US, droughts result in fires in several parts of Australia, and the list goes on. California is preemptively shutting down power systems as they try to reduce the fire danger during high wind, low humidity conditions.
Greta Thunberg and Celebrity Activists
A growing number of famous activists and celebrities have been putting faces to the fight against the global climate crisis.
With her extensive news coverage, Greta Thunberg is the face at the forefront of the climate action movement. In August,she travelled by sailboat to the U.S. from Europe. This raised awareness for her campaign to bring attention to the Climate Crisis. A huge boost to her profile came with the now-famous/historic speech at the U.N. in late September.
"It's time to act like the house is on fire, because it is."@GretaThunberg
Leonardo DiCaprio is well-known for his dedication to environmental activism, and he hasn’t slowed down. Even in 1998, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to “restore balance to threatened ecosystems, ensuring long-term health and well-being for all Earth’s inhabitants.” So far, it has funded over 200 environmental projects and awarded 85 million euros in grants. He’s also spoken about the climate crisis at the Davos economic forum and with the United Nations.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently revealed that they decided to have only two children to help protect the environment against the “terrifying” effects of the climate crisis. The royal couple have also taken significant actions outside of their marriage to fight against the climate crisis.
Celebrities: Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will and Jaden Smith, Emma Thompson, Martin Sheen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Radiohead, Robert Redford, Billie Eilish, Chris Hemsworth, Kerry Washington, Janelle Monáe, Chris Evans, James and Suzy Amis Cameron, David Attenborough, Matt Damon, Dave Matthews, Laurie David, Marshall Herskovitz, Alan and Cindy Horn, Norman and Lyn Lear, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Begley Jr., Adam McKay, Bill Nye, Gwyneth Paltrow, Pearl Jam, Kevin Reilly, Pharrell Williams, Shailene Woodley and more are all fighting hard to contribute towards positive change with the climate crisis using their public platforms.
Over 100 Celebrities Back XR in Open Letter – Dear Media: Yes, We’re Hypocrites, but…
Last week, Extinction Rebellion had over 100 high-profile climate activists sign an open letter to the media to change the way that we relate to the global climate crisis. This record celebrity involvement with possibly the most militant and radical of climate crisis movements shows that its growth potential is as yet untapped.
Among the notorious names are: the actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Capaldi, Ray Winstone, Jude Law, and Sienna Miller, and as well as the musicians Mel B, Adam Clayton, Bob Geldof, and Jarvis Cocker.
Extinction Rebellion praised all signatories: “it’s easy to call out people for being hypocrites, but braver to talk about transforming how we relate to the planet.” So far, the way that we’ve been talking about our relationship to the planet is that it is each individual person’s fault for contributing to the climate crisis and that we are simply not changing our lifestyles enough to reduce our collective carbon footprint. And while this is partly true, the greater issue is that individuals are essentially given no other choice but to perpetuate the fossil fuel industry that runs throughout every facet of our livelihood. Meanwhile it has become clear that those that have vested interests in those systems will never voluntarily relinquish power, even if that means the eventual extinction of all life on earth.
Dear journalists who have called us hypocrites, you’re right.
We live high carbon lives and the industries that we are part of have huge carbon footprints. Like you – and everyone else – we are stuck in this fossil-fuel economy and without systemic change, our lifestyles will keep on causing climate and ecological harm.
There is, however, a more urgent story that our profiles and platforms can draw attention to.
Life on earth is dying. We are living in the midst of the 6th mass extinction.
OCTOBER 16, 2019 BY EXTINCTION REBELLION
The letter is essentially a statement against the mass media culture that calls out the hypocrisy of climate activists who have no choice but to participate in the toxic structures they aim to dismantle. It’s an innovative argument against these repetitive and unproductive cries of hypocrisy that get us nowhere but closer to our own looming extinction.
The letter draws attention to a deeper issue, much larger than, and clearly unsolvable by, addressing individual hypocrisy, and it points to an urgent problem that requires immediate unified action from our international governments and industry leaders.
XR – An International Rebellion, Calling for Immediate and Substantive Action
Extinction Rebellion (XR) is an international movement that aims to halt mass extinction, which is an increasing danger brought on by the climate crisis and global warming, and minimize the risk of social collapse through non-violent civil disobedience. So far, they have engaged protests in cities all around the world, including London, Dublin, Vancouver, and more to come.
Founders Roger Hallam and Gail Bradbook created Extinction Rebellion to bring people together to express collective power to bring about necessary ecological change. Their motto “Rebel for life” stems from the very real crisis that our world is under attack and we need to do something about it now.
The movement was formed just under a year ago, and it has sparked worldwide attention by highlighting the world’s imminent collapse. Their vision on their official website, rebellion.earth, states: “We rise in name of truth and withdraw our consent for ecocide, oppression and patriarchy.
We rise up for a world where power is shared for regeneration, repair and reconciliation.” Their logo symbolizes the current state of mass extinction: an hourglass in the middle of the earth highlighting that time is running out and the earth is dying. The black coloring is also intentional and represents the color of mourning.
PHOTO / VLADIMIR MOROZOV / “BLACK ROCK IN LONDON, UK”
Meaningful Action Comes from Breaking the “Business As Usual” Mentality
In one form or another, most people can get behind the notion of doing “better” in regards to how we treat our planet, but Extinction Rebellion is taking that concept to another level: one of urgent action. Their stance is that our governments have failed us, and they continue to do little to nothing to address the climate crisis. In response, XR has taken a public and open defiance against the government, and they vow not to stop until their demands are met.
Their mass-coordinated events happen frequently, whether for inducting and training members regarding how to handle police presence, fundraising and organizing “rebel ringers”, facilitating global meditations, or targeting strategic locations for demonstrations. Their protest campaigns initially started in and around the UK, and now, even more are significantly being seen worldwide, in multiple countries and continents: XR is very much an international movement.
Their concept is to work outside our failed system because the government is currently unresponsive regarding what is truly happening to our planet. They do this by creating disruptions to the government sectors status quo, which is seen when XR shuts down roads, bridges, creates blockages, spills fake blood (the blood of our children), fake oil, or even super-gluing themselves to government buildings.
In whatever they do, their point is to make a drastic and bold statement that this is a planetary emergency. The disruptions are not meant to incite, but rather to maximize public exposure to garner more people to join the cause for change. Protesters are willing to uproot their lives and liberties, often getting arrested, just to join forces with others and call on those that can make actionable changes to save us and our future generations from a dying planet.
PHOTO / YAZ ASHMAWI / “RED BRIGADE ON THE UNDERGROUND”
XR’s Demands for Earth Rescue:
Extinction Rebellion has 3 main demands, which also encapsulate the general demands of the entire climate action movement. The first is to “Tell the Truth.” Governments must stop denying or hiding the fact that there is a very real and threatening ecological crisis, and they must properly and honestly declare the climate emergency.
The second is to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by the year 2025, by reducing green house gasses and preventing losses in biodiversity.
And finally, to insure a lasting effect, the creation of a Citizen’s Assembly, which would include ordinary educated people to lead in the decision-making processes for enacting innovative climate and ecological justice.
These movements are a multifaceted phenomenon that will not fade away and could soon become the largest sociopolitical movement the world has ever seen. And with each non-coincidental catastrophic weather event, the backlash against the entrenched “fossil-fuel industrial complex” will grow in size and influence.
“Global warming causes major damage to the global economy and the natural world and engenders risks of catastrophic and irreversible outcomes”
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, 10TH OCTOBER 2019
The number and size of ‘in-your-face’ protests will also increase. It will soon be impossible to ignore the reality of the climate crisis, as it unfolds before our eyes, and more and more people around the world will recognize the threat of almost certain global extinction, if we do not take immediate action to change the underlying corrupt systems immediately.
Right now, there are countless scientific and technological advancements that are available to give us another choice to save ourselves and our planet, and yet, nothing is happening because the powers-that-be are too complacent or corrupt to act. They continue to hide behind the media’s ignorant cry of celebrity and activist hypocrisy thereby blocking any meaningful change.
The Time to Act is Way Overdue: The Thin Line between Survival and an Uncertain Future Existence is in Immediate Action
Since the industrial revolution, there has been a struggle escape the system that threatens our collective survival, and now we desperately need a way out. The climate IS changing, whether it manifests overtly by droughts, flooding, heat waves, storms, melting polar caps or any number of catastrophic events. The chosen path should be obvious: one that works with sustainable energy, ‘zero-waste’ innovations and ultimately finding ways to halt any further planetary abuse.
“Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
Sir David Attenborough, 3rd December 2018
The XR, along with other Climate Crisis Inspired movements will inevitably and unquestionably grow with each new extreme weather event, and this “battle” between those who are fighting for the planet and those who block progress will become the central issue of our time.
As a critical mass approaches, grass roots movements will increase in power and, hopefully, their influence will mark the beginning of a permanent change away from the human behaviors that created this crisis.
A Growing Urgency and yet Denial Remains a Stubborn Reality
Coincidentally or not, corresponding with week’s nationwide climate strike, Mercury Films is releasing an environmental documentary focusing on the human impact on the planet. In “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, and Nicholas de Pencier travel to twenty countries across six continents to show the irreversible effects that human beings have had on the natural landscape.
While many environmental documentaries with such a global scale might focus on the earth’s beauty in order to get audiences to appreciate the planet, “Anthropocene” takes the opposite route, and looks at the some of Earth’s least flattering, most unnatural images. Rather than taking us to the mountains, prairies, or deep seas, the film shows us landfills, mines, power plants, refineries, and junkyards on both land and water, revealing the Anthropocene’s unavoidable and unattractive reality.
Anthropocene as a term denotes a new geological age, or epoch, in which humans are the primary influence on the natural world. With today’s hot debates about climate change and global warming, Anthropocene has become somewhat of a buzzword, but the term dates back to the 1980s when scientists Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer first coined it. Evidently, the process has been going on for a while, but in the current day and age, the Anthropocene is increasingly hard to ignore, as the human footprint eats up more of the natural world and the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly tangible.
Photo / Mercury Films
Where are the Solutions and what can any of us do to Slow Down the Juggernaut?
The question on everybody’s mind, then, is how do we combat climate change? It is a lofty question that even the brightest of scientists and the most ambitious of politicians struggle to find consensus on. At the most basic, humanistic level, the answer might start with everybody doing their parts to live sustainably and spread awareness of the issue. From an artist’s perspective, that means of spreading awareness might come in the form of a painting, a novel, or a film.
Film has certainly had its bouts with addressing climate change in the past. Many documentaries from Al Gore’s revolutionary “An Inconvenient Truth” to Leonardo DiCaprio’s foreboding “Before The Flood,” have zeroed in on the issue. On the complete opposite side of the cinematic spectrum, the concept has even made its way into recent blockbuster movies such as “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” both of which had eco-terrorists as their main villains.
It almost seems impossible to make a movie about the world and not have it relate to climate change in some way. Animal-focused docuseries like BBC’s “Planet Earth” or Netflix’s “Our Planet” may avoid people altogether, but their subject-matter always comes back to anthropogenic preservation. Similarly, documentaries working in other sectors of environmentalism, such as the recent “Supersize Me 2: Holy Chicken!” or “The Game Changers,” which focus on diet and nutrition, all circle back to the correlation between consumption and climate in one way or another. Clearly, the issue is deeply engrained in any conversation we might have about the environment, and with eco-criticism becoming a growing sector of theory and thought, audiences will start to notice the topic emerging in even more ways.
Watching “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” however, does not require a lot of deep thinking to realize that it is addressing global warming. The subject is made quite clear through the documentary’s unambiguous and straightforward expository mode.
Directors Baichwal, Burtynsky, and de Pencier are no strangers to this blatant style of informative documentary that focuses on pressing issues. The three have collaborated before on the award winning documentaries “Watermark” and “Manufactured Landscape,” both of which covered environmental topics. But while these two earlier films only touched on the concept of climate change and its effects, “Anthropocene” goes full-throttle, traveling far and wide to illustrate the harrowing impacts of this new epoch. It shows urban floods, melting glaciers, excavated canyons, and poached animals on the edge of extinction, all aiming to evoke an emotional response from viewers—none of whom are blameless for or exempt from this planetary phenomenon.
Photo / Mercury Films
What does it take to Wake Up a Population that Sleeps as the Threat keeps growing?
Nevertheless, as effective as “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” might be in pulling on our heartstrings and making us fear for the future, one must question weather the environmental documentary is as impactful as people often make it out to be. Fourteen years have gone by since Al Gore warned us about global warming in “An Inconvenient Truth,” and since then countless documentarians have approached the topic from several different angles. Sadly, though, we are hardly any closer to an environmental reformation. The general public may have caught on to the issue’s severity, but many people—particularly people in power—still refuse to even acknowledge climate change.
This is not to say that “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” or other films in the same vein are futile gestures. They are compelling and will likely inspire many people to live more environmentally consciously. However, as a society—or rather, as a human species—we should probably be past exposition and be making more progress in combating and adapting to the changes already going on in the world around us. As a film, “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” is bound to be captivating and informative. As a piece of activism, though, the odds are unfortunately against it.
The calculation of the average global temperature was arrived at by measuring data from satellites, buoys, weather balloons and various other sources, daily and hourly, and then inputting that information into proprietary computer models.
Photo / The Copernicus Program
Next, the results were compared with other measurements taken by various similar climate research agencies around the world.
In case you are wondering, more modern and accurate global average temperature records have been kept for approximately 100 years. General record keeping goes back much further, for example, the recent heatwave in Europe broke high temperature marks dating to the 1500s, according to the Climatology Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
The warmest previous July in history was in 2016 and global average temperatures in July this year were at least as high, if not higher. Northern latitudes had particularly high temps, compared to the average from 1981-2010 including, Alaska, Baffing Island, parts of Siberia, and also, Iran as well as large parts of Antarctica.
Photo / Adobe Stock
Extreme Measures During Euro-Heatwave Required:
Heat across Europe was extreme and caused disruption and dismay during it’s recent severe heatwaves, in June and again in July.
It got so hot in Antwerp, Belgium, for example, that 2 suspected drug smugglers called the police to rescue them, after they accidentally locked themselves into a scorching hot shipping container, which also happened to be filled with cocaine.
Better than death by frying, apparently.
In areas of Germany, known for it’s stretches of autobahn without speed limits, limits were put in place, for the first time, in order to prevent cars from overheating and even damaging the roads themselves, while operating at high speeds.
In the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium, bears were fed watermelons encased in blocks of ice, to keep them from potentially suffering heatstroke.
A wildfire burns in western Greenland on July 31, 2019. (Photo Credit / Orla Joelsen via Twitter)
Ice on Fire: This is Real
Arctic wildfires; yes, wildfires where there was once nothing but snow and ice, struck again. Again, that is, after a series of fires were reported in western Greenland in 2017.
Over 100 intense wildfires in the Arctic Circle were tracked by CAMS, part of the Copernicus program mentioned above, during June and July, 2019.
In June the fires caused 50 megatons of carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere, as much as the total yearly emissions for Sweden. Shortly thereafter in July, during the European heatwave, melting ice, also in Greenland, sent 197 billion tons of water into the Atlantic.
They call this a “melt event” and this summer there have been several of the largest on record, since at least 1950. Not because there was more melting in 1950, but because records have only been kept since that year.
It may well take years of these “melt events” to combine together and raise the world sea level, and endanger coastal cities around the globe, but if it is happening at all, that is alarming, in and of itself.
Since these kinds of ice melt events, such as we experienced this year, and a previous extreme event in 2012, are thought to occur only approximately every 250 years, therefore, already having seen two in less than a decade is a strong indicator that climate change is increasing the frequency of these, and many other anomalous weather patterns.
Last weekend it was New York, Boston and much of the rest of the US that was in a dire situation due to dangerous temperatures. Then, Europe took its turn. Twice. Anecdotal evidence builds, seemingly by the day, that the climate crisis is accelerating. Below we feature stories with a little more detail on the heat this week:
In the second extreme weather event so far this summer, Paris, hit an all time record high on Thursday, after the recent, record breaking heatwave in June. This time, the thermometer hit an unheard of 108.6 degrees Fahrenheit (which is 42.4 Celsius) and, since 30 degrees Celsius is considered extreme heat in Europe, this is a truly astonishing stat.
The blistering barrage is being felt as far west as Texas and north to Canada and even Alaska. The Great Lakes region and as far as Colorado and Kansas are also being affected.<p> The wave is being seen as a worsening of summer extremes related to the climate crisis. This, after France and Europe experienced all time record high temperatures and even the arctic seas are being monitored at unheard of temps.
Man refreshing himself in Public square under summer high temperature with Fire-hydrant
A week and a day after the metropolis endured a blackout affecting hundreds of thousands due to a transformer fire, another power outage has affected up to fifty thousand throughout Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx.
While New York City might seem to experience a heat wave almost every summer, while perhaps not of the intensity we’ve seen lately, Europe, most definitely, does not.
In the second extreme weather event so far this summer, Paris, hit an all time record high on Thursday, after the recent, record breaking heatwave in June. This time, the thermometer hit an unheard of 108.6 degrees Fahrenheit (which is 42.4 Celsius) and, since 30 degrees Celsius is considered extreme heat in Europe, this is a truly astonishing stat.
The highest temps ever recorded also went into the books in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium causing extreme distress and discomfort and potentially dangerous conditions.
Climate-change Becoming More Likely As Cause
In the past 17 years, with records being shattered seemingly on a yearly basis, a trend has been noted, with all the most extreme temperatures occurring during that span. Climate change, due to the influence of mankind, is becoming more difficult to doubt as the most likely cause.
While a direct link is not 100% traceable, the statistical likelihood of more extreme events happening is clearly rising, according to experts. According to the climatology institute in Potsdam, Germany, the five years with the most extreme summer heat, since the year 1500, were all recorded since the year 2000.
The situation is considered life threatening all across Europe with London hitting record high temperatures, also.
When northern France has the same temperature as Death Valley in the summer, that is a serious and alarming trend. Not only because that is a standard for the most extreme heat on earth, but more so because Europe has, historically, a milder climate overall than much of the world, relative to its latitude.
While seeing the temperature rise to above 100 degrees in not uncommon in many parts of the USA, in particular the South and Midwest, as well as the deserts of the Southwest, Europe is buffeted and, in normal times, cooler in summer and warmer in winter, due to the influence of the Gulf Stream.
Death Valley-like Heat in Traditionally Mild Europe Sending Shockwaves
In Europe, unlike in the US, many homes and even business, in particular restaurants where tourists congregate during the summer months, do not have air conditioning. Even refrigeration of food is, in many home, much less of a “given” than here in the US. Many apartments have only small units and the internal temps are set warmer than would be the case in the US.
Partly cultural, with grocery shopping a daily ritual and fresh food a “must have”, this kind of extreme weather will be felt, in some ways, far more that an equivalent heat event in many parts of the US, such as we had last week on the East Coast.
This cultural expectation of mild weather is a real factor in the danger and seriousness of these events in Europe, making then even more concerning than similar situations like we had last weekend in the US. The UK’s national weather service went so far as to state that “Climate change has increased the likelihood and severity of heatwave episodes across Europe”.
In France, the ministry of health warned people to stay home and avoid commuting or travel of any kind, where ever possible.
After Hellish Weekend Worst Should Abate Next Week
Practically the entire east coast and most of the Midwest are sweltering in an intense humidity enhanced wave of record temperatures.
Large outdoor events such as festivals and even the NYC Triathlon were cancelled. A heat emergency was declared in Boston, anticipating a rise in heat related health and safety issues.
They are taking this seriously in New York, and have set up 500 “cooling centers” around the city.
Look at the impressive and widespread coverage of #heat related warnings and advisories across the Eastern two-thirds of the country. The hazy, hot and humid conditions will persist through the weekend. Be smart and stay cool! #HeatSafetypic.twitter.com/hemIJ79rOr
Also in NYC, after various electricity related problems and the blackout last weekend, the 5 boroughs are on edge with massive demand from air conditioning and cooling appliances expected to stress the system further. Washington D.C. and Chicago are anticipating the same dangers to their systems due to the high demand.
Man is refreshing himself in Public square under summer high temperature with Fire hydrant water
The blistering barrage is being felt as far west as Texas and north to Canada and even Alaska. The Great Lakes region and as far as Colorado and Kansas are also being affected
New York City: today will be very hot and could be the start of a heatwave through Sunday. Prepare for temperatures in the 90s with a heat index over 100 degrees!
— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) July 19, 2019
The entire weekend is expected to remain hot, with possible relief coming as soon as Monday, as many areas of the US are expecting rain to start the work week ahead.
The wave is being seen as a worsening of summer extremes related to the climate crisis. After France and Europe experienced all time record high temperatures and even the arctic seas are being monitored at unheard of temps.
To Stay Cool, The Key is to Fight Back with Awareness: A Few Tips to Reduce the Danger
Stay Out Of It
This is obvious and sometimes not possible if you work outdoors, but it is important to alter your routine and stay low. Simply avoiding the heat by staying indoors or maximizing shade will at least reduce the temperatures that you are exposed to. If you are stuck in a place that is oppressively hot you can at least try to work with your body to stay cool.
Hydration
Water is paramount and this is the most obvious way to help your body stay cool. Iced peppermint tea can also give a cooling lift.
Homemade AC
A throwback to days before widespread electricity, a makeshift “swamp-cooler” can be devised using pre-frozen filled plastic water bottles on the floor in front of a fan.
Nighttime Tricks to Sleep Cool
Cooling your bed and your body before bed can help enhance your rest during the stress. The so-called “Egyptian Method” uses cold water sprinkled on sheets before laying down to help your body fight back. The new twist on this is to take your folded sheets and put the I’m the freezer for 30 minutes before laying them out.
Beware of Baking Car Interiors
Cars are heat collectors and generators, unless necessary, it’s better to stay our of them, naturally the AC is a natural attraction, but the heat all around the car will rise and inside, without ac will likely be hotter than the surrounding temps. Obviously, leaving pets or children (!) in a parked car is a recipe for disaster.
If You are Out In it or have Special Health Issues, Get Help
Big cities have emergencies “Cooling Centers” set up and across the country city governments and city service workers are on alert to help those in need. If we stick together and reach out to lend a hand we’ll all make it cool into next week, when the temperatures are expected to come down.
Isn’t it odd that everyone on the internet either seems to hate or love Elon Musk and Tesla? One theory behind why this may be the case, was put forth in a recent article by John Mayo-Smith published on Medium.com called Elon vs. The Alligators. In a nutshell, the article is a list, with a nice graphic in part II, of vested interests that would stand to lose from Tesla’s success and, conversely, benefit from its demise.
This Is Not A New Development and Elon is Not Alone
Fans of the 2006 documentary, “Who Killed The Electric Car” would be well aware of the “conspiracy” against the proliferation of electric cars. The rise of Tesla, by definition, signals the failure of those entrenched interests that previously banded together to try and stop the emergence of this essential technology in the transition away from deadly fossil fuels.
Musk and Tesla represent an initial sign that these kinds of cabals to suppress technological development may be losing their strangle-hold on our world. Meanwhile, overwhelmingly obvious facts, once seen as “conspiracy theories”, are beginning to be recognized for what they are: simple facts of history.
Take, for example, the video below “Why The US Has No High Speed Rail”, released on May 7th, 2019, by none other than that “underground, subversive organization” CNBC. This short documentary clip has already garnered more than 4.5 million views.
The video shows the highly evolved, generally safe, and amazingly comfortable high speed rail systems across the globe: China, Japan, France, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia and so on. And while more countries develop low emission, luxurious, high speed transport, the US still has no high speed rail.
Meanwhile, overwhelmingly obvious facts, once seen as “conspiracy theories”, are beginning to be recognized for what they are: simple facts of history.
The clip goes on to trace the history of the transportation infrastructure and show how it was dominated and controlled in the US by Big Oil, government road building subsidies and the Auto Industry. It follows the clear path of these forces, and how they systematically prevented any rise of non-automotive transportation.
As the Media Slowly Comes Around, the Dollars Still Twist the Story
Perhaps, even ten years ago, this video would have likely been systematically attacked, in the same way as previous stories, for daring to sing the virtues of highly efficient, low pollution transportation, and for the very same reasons.
Today, after a Sea change, it appears that it is not so easy to squelch access to information that lays out plain truths about the past. Information is no longer so easy to suppress. While we, as a species, face possible extinction from climate change / global warming, brought about at least partially by the precise “conspiracy” of corruption that is the reason the US still has no rail infrastructure, the need to face these kinds of facts is undeniable.
Could the large viewership, unchallenged, indicate that it is no longer possible to bully the citizenry into silence, simply by disparaging the source of information, be it journalistic or otherwise?
It doesn’t take an eagle eye to notice, that when it comes to auto fatalities, Tesla and Musk are held to a very different standard than any other car company. Doing any search of a general grouping of news reports pertaining to fatal auto collisions, instantly, a stark pattern emerges. Ford is not mentioned. Chevy? Nope. Neither is Toyota, or Nissan nor Chrysler or Subaru. Mercedes Benz? Never. This list could go on and on, but any casual observer can see the pattern.
Although there are almost 40,000 auto accident fatalities per year in the US, and a very tiny fraction of those involve any electric car, nevertheless, the name Tesla comes up again and again, as the headline of stories about car crashes, with or without fatalities.
Titles like: “5 killed on way to Funeral” or “His 6th DUI Proved Fatal” are common. But it appears that any crash, of any kind, that involves a Tesla is “news”. This is but one of endless examples that could be cited, and corroborated, showing a pattern of negative stories aimed at one car company above all others. Coincidence?
The Story of Suppression of Design Innovation, Particularly when that Innovation Threatens the Status Quo is, Unfortunately, a Long One
A little known episode in this long history is that of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion car. Featured prominently at the 1933-34 World’s Fair in Chicago, it had an amazing fuel efficiency, with approximately 30 mpg, and at 20ft in length, could transport 8-11 passengers at up to 70 mph.
However, after a local Chicago politician (Chicago South Park Commissioner) ran his own vehicle into the first prototype, killing the driver of the Dymaxion, the whole episode was used, in bogus press reports, to bury not only public interest in the car itself, but any chance of the advances in gas milage and overall efficiency that it represented. Gas mileage in the 30 mpg range would then be delayed for decades.
Photo Credit / Medium.com
Headlines in New York and Chicago read: “Freak car rolls over – killing famous driver – injuring international passengers“. In a subsequent investigation the Dymaxion was cleared of any fault, and the politician and his car were found to have been illegally removed from the scene before any reporters arrived. To this day, the average fuel economy in the US is less than 30 MPG. Even after over 80 years, articles can still be found that smear the history of the car with lies and baseless inferences, the same ones propagated in 1933.
A Trillion Gallons of Gasoline Wasted by Intentionally Inefficient Cars
If suppression of inventions that could have reduced carbon emissions, the same polluting substances that, eventually, could destroy the earth, is not pure evil, it’s hard to say what is. And yet, those same forces and corrupt powers remain with us today. “Tump Loves Coal“.
It would be interesting to speculate why 4.5 million would want to know the answer to the question: “Why the US Has No High Speed Rail”. And what about the “Alligators” that are out to get Tesla and Elon Musk? Are they going to succeed? Or will 400 million decide that the alligator’s time, like the dinosaurs they resemble, is finally over.
