SETH W. JAMES

2023, A Year of Climate Change

December 2, 2023

By Seth W. James

As world leaders gather this week for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, let’s look back at some of the major climate events of the year, as 2023 marks a new, sad record for humanity.

2023 will undoubtedly be declared the hottest year on record, once December’s numbers are officially in, but we know that the hottest month ever recorded has already happened: according to NASA, that month was July 2023.  “Overall, July 2023 was 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit (F) (0.24 degrees Celsius (C)) warmer than any other July in NASA’s record, and it was 2.1 F (1.18 C) warmer than the average July between 1951 and 1980.”  ABC News, citing the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction, reports that July also produced the hottest day ever recorded, July 6^th, when temperatures reached “17.23 degrees Celsius, or 63.01 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Extreme temperatures can lead to a host of environmental dangers and 2023’s record-breaking heat did just that.  As Drought.gov reported, “Summer began with the worst drought in the plains and Midwest and ended with the worst drought across the southern U.S.”  But while the United States and Canada saw record droughts and dry conditions, other parts of the world saw record flooding.  CNN reported that “the Mediterranean region [has] been lashed by Storm Daniel, the result of a very strong low-pressure system that became a “medicane” – a relatively rare type of storm with similar characteristics to hurricanes and typhoons which can bring dangerous rainfall and flooding.”  Daniel slammed into Greece, dropping a year’s worth of rainfall in a matter of hours; the flooding grew so bad that rescuers had to employ boats along city streets, to reach people stranded in their inundated homes.  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis later announced that at least 15 people had died due to Daniel.  The storm then moved on to Turkey, causing at least another 7 deaths, when flash floods caused by the deluge hit cities and rural areas.

The worst of the climate-change fueled destruction to hit the Mediterranean in 2023 ravaged Libya, where the UN reports that 11,000 people perished.  The torrential rain overwhelmed two dams in the country, dams that had not received proper maintenance in the years following Libya’s 2011 revolution, and when they broke, many thousands of people were killed or swept out to sea; the UN estimates that an additional 10,000 people went missing and may never be recovered.

The Mediterranean was not the only region to see flooding, sadly.  Typhoons Saola and Haikui tore through the South China Sea, inundating southern China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.  Hong Kong recorded the highest hourly rainfall since 1884.  In Brazil, more than 30 people were killed when flooding hit Rio Grande do Sul, the worst environmental disaster to hit the state in 40 years.  Even in the drought-ridden United States, unusual rain and flooding soaked the typically dusty Burning Man Festival, stranding thousands of would-be revelers in the Nevada desert.

On the other end of the climate-change spectrum, 2023’s record-breaking heat also led to unprecedented wildfires.  As the Washington Post reports, in Canada “about 45.7 million acres (18.5 million hectares) have burned in 2023, surpassing the previous high of 17.5 million acres (7.1 million hectares) based on records dating back to 1983, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center . . . . just shy of nine times the annual average.”  The wildfires were so extensive that many Canadians were forced to flee their homes and not just in rural areas, with numerous Canadian cities calling for total evacuations as the fires drew ever closer.  The smoke pollution from the fires covered all of North America, affecting air quality across the continent.  “A Washington Post analysis at the end of June showed hundreds of locations reached their all-time highs for smoke pollution from wildfires and others have joined the list since.”

Canada was, unfortunately, not unique in suffering wildfires in 2023.  As The New York Times reports, the island of Maui, Hawaii, suffered a combination of environmental and infrastructure hazards that led to the worst wildfire catastrophe to ever hit the state.  “Nearly 16 percent of Maui County was in a severe drought at the time of the blaze, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Compounding the trouble, none of the 80 warning sirens placed around the island were activated, there was a water shortage for firefighters, and the evacuation route was jammed with traffic.”  The high winds that whipped the fires into an unstoppable conflagration came from Hurricane Dora, many miles off the cost, which brought no—what would have been—life-saving rain.  The historic and much beloved town of Lahaina was completely razed, with at least 100 people having died; some residents had been forced to flee into the ocean to escape the fires.  It is believed that powerlines contributed to starting the fires and several lawsuits have since been filed against the power company that left the lines electrified, despite high winds from the hurricane.

The above instances are only a snapshot of the increasingly brutal effects of climate change, which we’ve seen throughout 2023 and will, undoubtedly, see again in 2024.  For decades now, the United Nations Climate Change Conferences have given world leaders the opportunity to take the radical actions needed to save humanity from the climate change that we have caused: and for decades now, the leaders of humanity have failed to do so.  I hope, as always, that COP28 will be different, that it will lead to the solutions that, so far, only scientists and novelist seem capable of envisioning.  Whether they reach these solutions this year or ever, we must all do our best to drive them forward: the best way to do that, of course, is to vote.  2024 is a month away.  Vote.  Vote to save our lives.  Vote for any number of important issues; vote despite the unconscionable obstacles erected by the terrorists of the Republican Party to stop voters from making their voices heard; vote because it is your right.  But most importantly, vote for those who will take action against climate change, because without it, Earth will lose its ability to sustain human life.  Vote.