Source: Associated Press
Last week, a smoke plume from wildfires raging 1,800 kilometres to the north in Quebec, Canada, covered New York City. It required this incident of unprecedented pollution to get the attention of the world's media on the flames tearing through forests to the north. A few fires have spread to an area of at least 2,500 km2, which is about twice the size of Greater London. Others are consuming more than 1,000 km2, reminiscent of Siberia's fire seasons in 2019 and 2020. Our planet's high latitudes are thought to be the sentinel species for the climate problem. They have been the first to notice significant changes in annual weather patterns and ecosystems, much like the proverbial canary in the coal mine.[i] On June 7th, authorities in the eastern US and Canada issued health warnings to millions of residents as a haze fuelled by hundreds of northern forest fires raced south and wreaked havoc in densely populated areas from Ottawa to Washington, DC. Two days later, pollution worsened throughout central and southern states, including the cities of Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, even while the air quality improved in major cities like New York, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia. Increased big, erratic wildfires are occurring all over the world as a result of the rise in global temperature brought on by emissions from burning fossil fuels. As a result of the pollutants that fires pump into the sky (further contributing to global warming) soil and flora further dry up, increasing their flammability and creating a feedback loop.[ii]
The striking image of the skyline of New York shrouded in an eerie orange glow has captured the attention of the world’s media in a way few other extreme climatic events have. When comparing the reaction of the news media to the air quality of New York to the reaction following the catastrophic floods in Pakistan, it’s clear that the New York event turned more heads despite its lesser impact. The record-breaking floods in Pakistan killed over 1700 people and displaced over 7.9 million.[iii] Regardless of the devastation, analysis of search results using time bounded filtering shows that coverage of the floods saw 11800 articles written from the onset of the floods to the end of September. Meanwhile, since the New York Incident, 97,200 articles have been produced.
Sadly this trend of a heightened focus on the Western world takes on a distressing dynamic when you consider how exposure to climate risk disproportionately impacts the global South as well as these areas having a lesser capacity to adapt to them.[iv]
Source: IMF
Carbon Brief’s climate crisis attribution analysis identifies three wildfire events in Canada that have an increased likelihood due to the global temperature increase. A 2016 event in Western Canada was found to be 1.5 to 6 times more likely to occur due to climate change; a further 2015-2016 event was found that human influence made it 4 times more likely to occur and finally, a 2017 event was found to be 2-4 times more likely due to anthropogenic climate change.[v]
A survey conducted by NPR, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation offers convincing evidence that widespread public experiences with extreme weather influence views about climate issues and policies for the future. As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, this influence may become a key driver of climate action. The survey found that, in general, 70% of Americans believe climate change is a crisis or a serious issue. When compared to those who have not experienced such events (16%), people who report having directly experienced extreme weather events are more likely to say they view climate change in the United States as a crisis (37%) than those who have. Over 78% of American adults think that extreme weather occurrences have personally impacted them, and 24% of those people claim that extreme weather has resulted in serious health issues. Extreme weather occurrences significantly increased the likelihood that people of colour would report serious health issues. 51% of Native Americans, 31% of Latino adults, 30% of Asian adults, and 29% of Black adults reported having major health issues due to experiencing an extreme weather event in the previous five years. The same was reported by 18% of White adults who encountered harsh weather.[vi] Ensuring that as many people as possible are aware of the capacity of the climate crisis to affect BIPOC individuals could lead to a more motivated approach to delivering the financial requirements to ensure adaptation goals can be achieved in developing nations.
[ii] Financial Times- Wildfire smoke makes New York air quality worst in the world
[iii] Red Cross- Flooding in Pakistan: the latest news
[iv] IMF- Poor and Vulnerable Countries Need Support to Adapt to Climate Change
[v] Carbon Brief- Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world
Oscar is a recent graduate with a background in earth science. He is currently studying an MSc focussing on disaster responses, emergency planning and community resilience. His postgraduate research project will assess the link between climate crisis risk perception and attitudes to green energy projects. “Adapting to the climate crisis through the pursuit of net zero requires community engagement and understanding. Zero Carbon Academy’s goals closely align with this approach and I’m excited to have the opportunity to research and communicate a variety of topics relating to our environment and sustainability”.
