“When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him.”
Randy Pausch, Author
It’s the understatement of the summer to say it’s been hot. My daughter is in Dallas for an internship, so I’ve been following the heat dome in Texas with more than the usual amount of interest. It’s been days of triple-digit temps and sky-high heat indices. This type of heat isn’t just uncomfortable – it’s deadly. But what’s behind the extreme heat is the elephant in the room.
The extreme heat
Yes, the southern swath of the US is always hot in the summer. But this sweltering summer has been extraordinary. And record-breaking heat is happening in several other places in the US and around the globe. Last week, four consecutive days broke the record for the warmest average global temperature ever recorded. It’s getting lots of buzz, but not everyone is connecting the dots.
The elephant
Since the industrial revolution, we have been releasing heat-trapping gases (mostly CO2 and methane) into the atmosphere by burning oil and gas. They hang around up there, trapping too much of the sun’s heat. As the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere goes up, so does the temperature.
Our climate is a fine balance, and even a tiny disruption leads to an increase in chaotic events like record flooding (Vermont, India), wildfires (Canada), and extreme heat (Texas, China).
A simple formula
Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli is a master at explaining the connection between climate and weather in simple terms. He says on top of causing temperatures to rise, climate change is disrupting the jet stream. When it stalls, it can create heat domes like the one in Texas.
You might be anxious about where we are headed. On a positive note, Jeff says “we know exactly what the problem is, we know exactly how to fix it, and we have all the solutions we need now.” It’s a pretty straightforward formula: when we stop burning, it will stop warming. In other words, we can still solve this!
What can we do?
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.