Climate Point: Wild weather caused by us, Chaco drilling delayed but it's a go in Arctic refuge
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson, back in Palm Springs after a wild trip East last week. Instead of seven hours, it took us two and a half days to reach North Carolina, after tornadoes and storms knocked airports off line across the USA.
Yes, we've begun to experience more extreme weather driven by climate change, as Elizabeth Weise and Doyle Rice report for Paste BN. Flooding along the Mississippi River is the worst it’s been since 1927. More than 50 tornadoes touched down over Memorial Day weekend. In Denver, it snowed last week. Climate scientists say we're in for decades of increasingly dangerous weather – global warming has already upped the odds of record hot and wet events happening in 75% of North America, said Noah Diffenbaugh of Stanford University.
Here are some other things that might be of interest:
MUST READ STORIES
Not so fast. Worst case weather scenarios due to climate change are identified by a phalanx of researchers in National Climate Assessment reports every four years. Now, Coral Davenport and Mark Landler of The New York Times report that President Trump's administration may seek to shorten the timeline of the next assessment to mask worsening impacts. That tactic could backfire, as Alexander Kaufman of Huffington Post tells us, with states and cities increasingly relying on the national report to plan for increased disasters.
Climate change, or global warming, is caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. That has raised the global temperature and also worsened climate and weather disasters around the world, the U.N. has said.
Smoke gets in our eyes. Massive wildfires — also increasing as predicted — have already begun in Canada, and are expected to send smoke wafting over Montana and other parts of the West through the summer, as Kristen Inbody and Karl Puckett report for the Great Falls Tribune. The largest, the Chuckegg Creek Wildfire, topped 321,000 acres on Tuesday as high temperatures and dry conditions continue across Alberta.
ALL ABOUT ENERGY
We'll always have Chaco Canyon. Or will we? This week, after visiting ancient ruins in Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt put a yearlong hold on oil and gas leasing within 10 miles. That will allow the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to finish a management plan to guide energy development across the region — after the 2020 election. High Country News' Jonathan Thompson did a deep dive on Chaco Canyon and Navajo resistance to drilling in 2018.
No refuge. While Bernhardt was in New Mexico, his assistant interior secretary for lands and minerals management was in Anchorage, Alaska, telling an oil industry conference that there are no delays there — the agency will conduct its first, highly controversial oil and gas lease sale on the ecologically sensitive but presumably petroleum-rich coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as Yereth Rosen reports for Reuters. “That lease sale will happen in 2019,” said Joe Balash.
WATER IN THE WEST
Is it or isn't it? The Arizona Republic's Ian James took a look after tweets by impassioned park lover @trippypapa (“jack”) went viral, stating "the GRAND CANYON is facing a big problem right now" because Italian developer Stilo Development Group USA wants to develop near the iconic site. He said if they won approval from Tusayan this week, "they plan to build over 2,000 houses, a spa, a convention center, and potentially a 'water park.' Tusayan's town manager (pop. 600) told hundreds of outraged callers that they aren't eyeing anything like that. Stilo does want to develop a hotel nearby, with town officials' support. U.S. Forest Service and county officials have nixed larger proposals over water concerns.
Roll me another one. Bills to boost hydro-power in the Golden State, including a massive project near Joshua Tree National Park, died in the California legislature this week after Sammy Roth with the Los Angeles Times and the paper's editorial board weighed in. Evan Wyloge also reports for the Desert Sun.
AND ANOTHER THING
Not at loggerheads this time. Humans gave one female turtle a much needed rescue after she got stuck in rocks, yards from the ocean she needed to reach to survive. As Tyler Treadwell tells us for Treasure Coast Newspapers, beach goer Adam Rivers saw the stranded loggerhead and local Nature Conservancy experts quickly responded, gently extricating her. "She scooted into the water and took off like nobody's business," said Rivers. "Then, about 10 feet out, this big bubble came to the surface, like she was breathing a sigh of relief." Amen to that.
Here's this week's carbon dioxide numbers. Scientists say to keep a livable planet, we need to cut the amount to 350 parts per million. We're well above that and rising.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66 You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here