From Heatwaves to Wildfires: Our Planet in Crisis

Feb 15, 2023

I often share my love for the beauty of this planet, so you will know the heartbreak I feel when life, as we know it on this planet, is threatened in multiple ways by our ignorance. The planet is a beauty, but one with a fever. The atmosphere and oceans get warmer, the weather gets more extreme, species die out, the water crisis is getting worse, and so are soil, water, and air pollution levels.

Let me take you on a tour around the still beautiful planet on Valentine's Day 2023, and I will share some of the disturbing news I read this evening. A warning: if you read The Planet for the happy articles, skip today's newsletter. I haven't any.

Lynx

In France, conservationists sound the alarm that the survival of the big cat population is at stake; urgent measures are necessary to protect these animals. According to researchers, the lynx population in France consists of only 120 to 150 adult individuals. Furthermore, genetic testing on these cats has revealed their genetic diversity is alarmingly low. Without immediate intervention, they will likely become extinct in the region within the next 30 years. Although lynxes were once widespread across Eurasia, these beautiful animals have faced multiple threats in various European countries, including habitat loss, inbreeding, poaching, and vehicle collisions.

Edelweiss replaced by cacti

The people who live in the Swiss canton of Valais are accustomed to seeing their mountain slopes covered in edelweiss flowers in the summer and snow in the winter. However, they are increasingly noticing cacti, an invasive plant, colonizing the slopes as global warming worsens. Authorities claim that prickly pears, or species of the cactus genus Opuntia, are overpopulating some areas of Valais, encroaching on natural reserves, and posing a threat to biodiversity.

Malaria

In Africa, climate change is helping the mosquitoes that transmit malaria to reach colder parts of the continent. A recent study by scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center has revealed that these Anopheles mosquitoes are extending their range into higher elevations and further south in sub-Saharan Africa than previously observed. They are gaining ground on higher levels at 6.5 meters (21 feet) per year, and their southern boundary is shifting southward at a rate of 4.7 kilometers (nearly 3 miles) per year.

Antarctica

Continuing our southbound journey, we arrive at Antarctica, where Antarctic researchers report an extraordinary marine heatwave that could threaten Antarctica's ice shelves. From all stories I read today, the reporting in Inside Climate News is, for me, the scariest, and it's potentially the most impactful for all of us.

But Antarctica is far away and hardly ever makes it to the front pages. Only breaking ice shelves make a rare appearance as breaking news, but the structural changes caused by warming oceans are bound to get us all into trouble. And this process seems to be speeding up, disrupting the global climate system, and adding to sea level rise.

Cyclone Gabrielle

Let's move to New Zealand, where only for the third time in history, the country declared a national emergency. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Cyclone Gabrielle was "the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century."

Heat wave

Staying in the region, a harsh heat wave will develop in Southern Australia, where we will likely see widespread temperatures above 40C.

Drought

In Brazil, a relentless drought in Rio Grande do Sul, with hardly any rain and only "in a homeopathic dose," continues to limit Brazil's soybean output potential. Analysts had predicted the country would produce a historically large crop. But now output risks a fall of 40%.

South Chile suffers from the worst drought in half a century. This summer is scorching, with much more wind, and grass can hardly grow in this drought.

Forest fires

Further north in Chile, wildfires rage out of control, leaving at least 26 people dead and 2,000 injured. According to weather experts, the ongoing drought in Chile is the result of a combination of climate change and the Pacific Ocean's La Nina weather phenomenon. This combination has led to more powerful oceanic winds penetrating further into Chile, which has fueled the spread of devastating wildfires in the region.

More drought

Thousands experienced power outages in the Las Vegas Valley due to today's powerful cold front that brought snow to Vegas. But the real story in the American West is about drought; it will increasingly get more attention on the news since the impacts of the water shortages will increase, just as the political tensions within and between the seven riparian states that need the water of the Colorado River.

And more

It's getting late, and I will stop writing here. But I want to note that I was just getting started. All articles I used popped up in my inbox and social media this evening, and I have so many more about Ohio, Sea Turtles, and many countries I didn't mention. Nor did I write about the tragic earthquake in Türkiye and Syria since I focussed on environmental disasters impacted by our choices, like man-made climate change.

This is our planet, that beautiful fertile gem in a lonely, cold universe. The destruction of the universe's best planet is a crime of universal proportions. We can and should do better.

Climate change

To end, let's briefly go back to New Zealand and give the floor to Climate minister James Shaw said in parliament about the devastation, "This is climate change." He continued: "I don't think I've ever felt as sad or as angry about the lost decades that we spent bickering and arguing about whether climate change was real or not, whether it was caused by humans or not, whether it was bad or not, whether we should do something about it or not," he added, "because it is clearly here now, and if we do not act, it will get worse."

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