Wildfires, heat waves, droughts, destructive floods, and intense storms are the more dramatic consequences of climate change and their frequency and destructiveness are increasing. But there are also less dramatic consequences of climate change impacting on our everyday life.
A record-setting nation-wide drought and record high temperatures in China are causing major rivers to dry up, interrupting the generation of hydroelectric power, preventing the irrigation of fields, interfering with shipping, and forcing factories to close. The situation is grave in Sichuan Province where more than 80% of its electricity comes from hydropower. Factories were closed in the region as temperatures hot 1130 Fahrenheit. The Yangtze River Valley is one of the origin points of human civilization. Parts of the Yangtze River Valley, home to 400 million people, are suffering water shortages including supplies of drinking water. Water levels on the river are 50% below in recent summers. In desperation, Chinese authorities will try to increase rainfall in the Yangtze watershed by seeding clouds with chemicals and spraying crops to limit evaporation. Major rivers are also drying up in other parts of the world including the Rhine in Germany, the Loire in France, and the Colorado in the United States.
Toyota, Tesla, and Foxconn, which produces Apple devices, had to temporarily suspended operations in parts of China because of lack of power and American consumers can expect interruptions in their products and higher prices. Meanwhile, an expected smaller Chinese grain harvest will increase China’s need to import food and raise the price of food around the world. This will put tremendous pressure on parts of Africa where people are already going hungry and in the United States and the European Union food prices will rise negatively impacting on poorer families.
At the same time, drought is imperiling harvest is Europe adding to food shortages and price hikes. The European drought is lowering river levels exposing ancient relics but also unexploded munitions left behind after World War II. Serbia estimates that clearing sunken German vessels from the Danube with approximately 10,000 unexploded ordnances will cost $30 million.
In the United States, online shopping is dependent on armies of private delivery drivers working for UPS, FedEx and other companies and it is already being interrupted because of climate change. UPS is the largest package delivery service in the world and one of the biggest employers in the United States. Many of the cabs and container departments in its delivery trucks are not air conditioned because they are built to be open with drivers constantly moving in and out. With recorded temperatures in the vehicles reaching as high as 1500F, drivers are increasing getting sick and hospitalized because of heat-related illness; there have even been deaths. The federal postal system is also impacted by rising temperatures because only 34% of its vehicles are air-conditioned. The situation will worsen as climate change brings increasing more extreme weather. According to the four-year-old 2018 National Climate Assessment, heat waves were already more frequent and lasting longer. Expect online shopping and package delivery to get more erratic as global warming accelerates.
Prolonged exposure to extreme heat during heat waves can cause mental fatigue, aggressive behavior, and higher suicide rates. This is especially problematic in urban heat islands that are largely minority communities in cities where residents have little tree cover and open space. According to Dr. Nick Obradovich of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development “temperature extremes can influence everything from your day-to-day mood all the way up to your probability of experiencing an acute mental health crisis.” A study found that emergency room visits for mental health concerns were higher on the hottest days of summer.
Climate change is also responsible for a large surge in costly weather-related disasters. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States has had over 300 weather and climate disasters since 1980 each causing total damages of over $1 billion. The total bill is over $2 trillion. In the 1980s there was an average of three events a year and in the 1990s there were five. In 2021, there were 20 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters and in the first six months of 2022 there were nine including a drought and eight severe storms. American tax payers, whether you live in one of the impacted areas or not, pay the recovery and rebuilding bills.
Congress responded to climate change threats with much praised U.S. climate bill just signed by President Biden. In a recent edition of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver questioned the efficacy of carbon offset tax break, a major component of the bill. Oliver reported that companies can manipulate the carbon offset provision to secure the tax breaks but that the supposed climate benefits are not proven to reverse or even slow climate change.
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