Climate Point: Yes, extreme weather events are up. But they're less deadly than in the '70s

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California. Half an hour southeast of here, low-income Latino farmworkers swelter in triple-digit heat to pick grapes, watermelon, carrots, broccoli and other produce for well-chilled grocery stores. In Oregon this summer, a 38-year-old Guatemalan crop picker died in record-breaking 100-degree heat.

Further south, Hurricane Ida not only knocked out power to one million residents, it barreled through Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where 1,500 refineries, chemical plants and other causes of climate change sit in often- flooded, low-income Black communities that breathe their fumes.

"It has always struck me as the most painful of ironies that the industry contributing the most profoundly to the climate crisis has also located its operations in the heart of the region consistently overrun with global warming’s worsening storms,” says investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz. 

It's a double whammy. And it's going to get worse, according to an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency. As temperatures climb and disasters spiral due to global warming, people of color will again endure disproportionate harm. Historically underserved communities are less able to prepare or recover from extreme weather events driven by climate change, including heat, flooding and air pollution, writes Nada Hassanein at Paste BN.

The EPA report finds Black people are more likely to face higher risks in every category due to climate change. They also highlighted risks to Hispanic and Latino construction and agriculture workers. As the climate warms, they are 43% more likely to live in areas with hours on the job cut due to extreme temperatures.

Aaron Bernstein with Harvard's Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, likens climate change to the pandemic, calling both "systemic shocks" that thrive on inequality. But, he adds, "The same people who are most at risk for harm stand to benefit when we move forward on climate."

In Florida, a farmworkers coalition has reached an agreement with growers and buyers on enforceable standards to keep workers safe during high heat, along with better wages.

 Here are some other stories that may be of interest:

MUST-READ STORIES

Stormy weather. If you think extreme events are happening more often, you're right. Disasters caused by weather are hitting the globe five times more often and causing  seven times more damage than they did in the 1970s, per a new report from the World Meteorological Organization. Reasons include climate change — and improved reporting — reports Doyle Rice with USA Today. 

There is some good news: Disasters are less deadly than they used to be: In the 1970s and 1980s, they killed an average of about 170 people a day worldwide. In the 2010s, that dropped to about 40 per day.

Ill-prepared. But hurricanes and heat waves cascading across the country this summer have exposed a harsh reality: The United States is not ready for extreme weather that results from a warming planet, writes Christopher Flavelle, Anne Barnard, Brad Plumer and Michael Kimmelman at The New York Times.

“We have built our cities, our communities, to a climate that no longer exists,” says Alice Hill, who oversaw national security climate risk planning for the Obama administration. 

Coal baron in Congress.  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), a critical swing vote on climate and infrastructure policies, has made millions from highly polluting coal companies, Daniel Boguslaw documents for The Intercept and Type Investigations.

For decades, Manchin has profited from a series of coal companies that he founded during the 1980s. That might explain his faulty claims that climate pollution would be worsened by the elimination of coal and other fossil fuels.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Let the sun shine. The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday released a "futures" blueprint showing that emissions-free solar energy could provide 40% of the nation's power by 2035, employing as many as 1.5 million people, supposedly without raising electricity costs. Still, the increase would require doubling the amount of solar produced annually for four years, and then doubling it again, as Ivan Penn with The New York Times writes.

There is another cost: It would require an area bigger than the Netherlands to construct all the solar farms, storage and other infrastructure, writes Reuters' Valerie Volcovici. Much of it would be on federal lands that contain wildlife habitat and cultural artifacts, as I've chronicled for The Desert Sun.

Watershed moment.  President Joe Biden visited ravaged communities in the Gulf and the Northeast in recent days, driving home the message that Hurricane Ida is the latest example of the "existential threat" of climate change. The storm drowned dozens of people in their cars. Others were swept away by floodwaters, killed by a falling tree or submerged in basement apartments, notes Courtney Subramanian with USA Today.

While the lights are largely back on in New Orleans, at least 700,000 people and more than 340,000 homes and businesses are still without power in rural Louisiana parishes, and might be until month's end. Miles-long caravans are waiting in daily distribution lines to secure life-sustaining supplies in Terrebonne Parish, writes Greg Hilburn for the Lafayette Daily Advertiser in Louisiana.

"We're living through it now. We don't have any more time," Biden said of the effects of climate change. "Every part of the country is getting hit ... We can't turn it back very much, but we can prevent it from getting worse."

Crossroads. In D.C., administration officials are pushing to win votes for massive infrastructure and climate investments. Central to that is satisfying the concerns of different sides, as Matthew Brown writes for USA Today.

Progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), chairs of the powerful Senate Budget and Finance committees, are spelling out priorities with the White House. But in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), said he would not support spending $3.5 trillion. The White House seems unfazed.

"It's not abnormal for this to happen in the legislative process," Cedric Richmond, a senior Biden adviser, told ABC News.

HOT TAKES

Recycled water revives a river. "Like watching a miracle," activists said after Tucson began releasing treated wastewater into a long-dry riverbed. The water awakened a rich ecosystem of dragonflies, red-spotted toads, red-winged blackbirds. Ian James has the tale for The Arizona Republic.

Icy hot. The world’s biggest carbon-removing machine is switching on in Iceland, as Tim McDonell with Quartz writes.

Not so hot. The world’s first “clean coal” plant is actually a backdoor subsidy to oil producers, says David Roberts with Grist. The carbon sequestration project in  Saskatchewan, Canada, compresses carbon dioxide into liquid form and transports it via pipeline to the aging Weyburn oil field, where it is used in “enhanced oil recovery” (EOR). The power is costly power to ratepayers.

Doctor, doctor, give me the news. More than 220 of the planet’s top medical and public health journals published a joint plea saying the greatest threat to global health is our failure to rein in carbon emissions, per Nick Visser with HuffPost.

AND ANOTHER THING

Some animals are "shapeshifting" parts of their bodies, and it may be due to climate change, according to a new study led by Austrailia's Deakin University. Warm-blooded animals from the Arctic to tropical regions are experiencing changes to appendages such as beaks, legs and ears, per USA Today's Jordan Mendoza.

To measure the changes, researchers used Allen's Rule, which states that animals in colder climates have shorter limbs than those in warmer climates. Australian parrots have shown an average increase of 4%–10% in bill surface area since 1871 as temperatures have risen. In North America, dark-eyed junco saw similar increases. Wood mice show bigger ears and bats are growing larger wings.

Rising temperatures mean animals must find ways to control their body temperatures. Much as dogs use their tongues, birds use their beaks to cool off, and ears do the same for mammals. Failing to regulate body temperature can mean death.

That's all for this week. Keep your ears open, and for more climate, energy and environment news, follow me @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.