What climate impacts are you noticing in your community?

Here in Wisconsin we are getting more heavy rainfalls. In Madison one day we got 14 inches, and the lakes flooded. It has taken weeks for the water level to go back down, and given that we are also getting later fall frost, we ended up with a bumper crop of mosquitos in September. We are not used to having them biting us into the fall. 

I am a gardener. I've lived in central Maine almost 40 years. I've found that the growing season has been extended almost 2 months during that time. This is very favorable for for my vegetables, especially the ones susceptible to frost.
But my lobstermen friends on the coast are very much concerned about the rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine. Over 40 years we have seen an enormous increase in lobster harvest in Maine. But that's associated with an elimination of the harvest from Cape Cod south. Soon lobsters may disappear from Maine. 

Thanks Peter Garrett‍ for such a powerful story and connection to the natural world.

These noticeable shifts in our growing seasons was covered excellently of late by Andrew Freedman in Axios's recent report: Climate change is redrawing maps.

"Climate change is reshaping aspects of our environment that many of us thought were static — from where deserts begin and end, to what we can grow in backyard or community gardens.

Why it matters: These changes portend bigger shifts to come that may reshape the global food system and lead to insecurity, with major agricultural countries facing more challenges from pests, heat waves, droughts, floods and other threats that could affect crop productivity. 

The shift was highlighted a fascinating article, "Redrawing the Map: How the World’s Climate Zones Are Shifting," by Nicola Jones in Yale Environment 360, published at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies:

• Climate change is literally redrawing lines on the map, like "the line of where wheat will grow, or where tornadoes tend to form, where deserts end, where the frozen ground thaws, and even where the boundaries of the tropics lie."
• The big picture: "Everything about global warming is changing how people grow their food, access their drinking water, and live in places that are increasingly being flooded, dried out, or blasted with heat waves. Seeing these changes literally drawn on a map helps to hammer these impacts home."

Among the findings:

• "The tropics are expanding by half a degree per decade."
• '"Since 1902, the Sahara Desert has grown 10 percent."
• In the U.S., the boundary between the arid Western plains and the wetter, eastern region has shifted about 140 miles east since 1980.
• Tornado Alley — a hotspot for tornado formation in the U.S. — has shifted 500 miles east since the mid-1980s.
• Check out the maps.

Be smart: Those who will be hit the hardest by these changes will be located closer to the expanding tropics and semi-arid zones north and south of the equator."

I have lived in northern California most of my life except for short sojourns in Washington State and Idaho.  The past several years has seen the arrival of ‘the burning season’.  Our spectacular Mediterranean climate is marred by the scourge of wildfires that cast a pall overhead in the summer months, but also threaten to become prevalent year-round.  The effect is two-fold.  First is my empathy for those in the path of these infernos who suffer death and destruction.  Most people in the San Francisco Bay area know someone or someone who knows someone who’s been burned out.  My heart goes out to them.  Second is the oppression the smoke brings as it settles in the bowl that is the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley, staying for days mixed in with spates of unusually hot weather.  Rather than being saved by Pacific breezes and fog, I’m greeted with on-shore flows of smoke previously blown out into the ocean.

Though this part of the world is ‘semi-arid’, the northern part of the state is heavily forested, as is Oregon and Washington.  This past August I hiked the peaks in Mount Lassen national park, and from the trails I surveyed the landscape.  All I could see were forested lands where forests should no longer be.  Perpetual fuel load.  I review historical weather data for California and discover that since the 1990's the summer night-time temperatures have been rising faster than summer day-time temperatures.  Something besides smoke is in the air.

Three times, but no success in posting as an attachment, so just copied below.
It is a 3-pager in response to the question: How is CC affecting TX#31?
There are maps in the document that don't seem to be showing up below.
We shared it with the staffer and reviewed it with him.

Climate Change and US House District #31

Climate change has affected attitudes in #31 (2018 Yale).

• Require fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax: 68 percent agree
• Regulate CO₂ as a pollutant: 77 percent agree

 

• Worried about global warming: 62 percent agree
• Global warming will harm future generations: 71 percent agree
• Global warming is already harming people in US: 51 percent agree

Our October historic area flooding imperiled safety, compromised infrastructure, and disrupted lives in Georgetown.

• Four people were rescued after the San Gabriel River flooded, two were taken to the hospital; Round Rock and Cedar Park swift water rescue teams were sent to Llano and Kingsland to assist with water rescues; the Shady River RV Park on the San Gabriel River was evacuated; more than 60 low water crossings were closed in Williamson County, impeding travel; flooding damaged the pedestrian bridge in San Gabriel park.
• Seven Southwestern University soccer games were cancelled due to flooding, an unprecedented and unrecoverable loss for seniors.

Austin impacts: Week-long, city-wide water boil

• Flooding deposited silt, mud and debris into water supplies, which slowed water filtration. To protect the water pressure for fire protection, Austin Water has to distribute water that wasn’t safe to drink.
• All homes, hospitals, schools, businesses, and animal shelters had undrinkable tap water.

West Nile virus was detected in a mosquito collected in a Georgetown neighborhood. “The importance of climatic factors (temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and winds) as drivers in WNV epidemiology is increasing under conditions of climate change. Recent changes in climatic conditions … contributed to the maintenance … of WNV in various locations in … parts of the USA,” including Texas (Source).

North/south climate boundary has shifted 140 miles, from the 100^th meridian to about the 98^th meridian. The shift is expected to continue (Yale Environment). Georgetown is at 97.7, so our climate will look more and more like that of Abilene.




By 2100:
Georgetown’s climate will resemble that of Gilbert, AZ: Average summer high rises from 94˚ to 104˚.
Temple’s climate will resemble that of Laredo: Average high rises from 93˚ to 100˚.
(Washington D.C. will be similar to Pharr, TX: Average summer high increases from 87˚ to 97˚.
To see projections for other cities, go to Climate Central, scroll down to “Summers in Your City by 2100.”)
           
Summary of “Climate Trends for Central Texas” (Geos Institute)

• The region has warmed by 2°F since the early 1900s.
• Frost free season is 10 days longer.
• Extreme precipitation has become heavier and more frequent.
• The length of wildfire season has increased.
• Continued warming of 6-11°F by 2100 is expected.
• Very few freezing nights are expected by 2050.
• Days over 100°F expected to become 2-5 times more common by mid-century.
• More year-to-year variation in precipitation is expected.
• Soils are expected to become drier from heat and evaporation, even if precipitation increases.
• The area affected by wildfire is expected to increase through mid-century.

Heat is dangerous, especially for elderly and those without air conditioning.

• Austin Elder Care (whose services extend well into #31) has faced a “growing demand for heat relief” and in 2017, they distributed over 6,500 fans across 14 counties.

Dollars and cents

• The hotter drier climate will harm #31 farmers, including that large expanses of cropland may fail altogether (Yale Environment).
  • Due to our 2018 drought the USDA added Williamson and Bell counties to the list of primary natural disaster areas, enhancing their eligibility for Farm Service Agency emergency loans (agfax).
  • The extreme drought of 2011 created $7.62 billion in Texas agricultural losses. Significant losses will become increasingly common.
• Climate change will hurt the economies of #31, Texas, and on balance, the nation (from the journal Science, as reported in NYT).

 

• Rising temperatures will cause a negative net economic effect on the United States economy, but especially the South: “The U.S. economy is still sensitive to temperature increases, despite the progressive adoption of adaptive technologies such as air conditioning. … The temperature effects are particularly strong in states with relatively higher summer temperatures, most of which are located in the South” (Federal Reserve).
• Texas homeowners’ insurance premiums are among the highest in the nation (Investopedia). Severe weather events, including hail storms, floods, and forest fires, are becoming more common and are diving up premiums even higher (Source). According to my Allstate insurance agent, many homeowners in our area face premium increases of 15-20 percent annually.

 

• As taxpayers we in #31 are aware that we are footing the bill for adapting to the future climate.
  • In April 2017, even before Hurricane Harvey, Texas leaders asked President Trump for $15 billion to build a barrier along the coast to protect Houston and Galveston from a hurricane storm surge (CCN).
  • Please see your notes from our June meeting concerning the financial expenses we face to adapt naval bases to sea level rise.
• #31 taxpayers also face current and growing expenses for climate change recovery.
  • 2017 had 17 weather related events with costs exceeding over $1 billion, with Harvey coming in at $125 billion. Climate models predict more expensive weather disasters, and significant recovery costs always fall on taxpayers.
  • “Hurricane Michael Reminded America Why Climate Change Is a National Security Risk” (Pacific Standard) surveys the broader national security issues and includes that Michael damaged fighter jets worth $6 billion. Tyndall Air Force Base got a direct hit from the hurricane and was heavily damaged (Washington Post).

Endangered species – Williamson County’s active Master Naturalists are some among many constituents who care about other species.

• Georgetown salamanders, who live only in and around Georgetown, are listed by the EPA as a threatened species. They are imperiled by drought, flooding, and increased sedimentation, all associated with our changing climate.

• Other Texas species who are officially “endangered,” in part due to climate change, are the Houston toad, whooping cranes, Kemps ridley sea turtles, Attwater prairie chickens, and the Comanche Springs pupfish.

Fort Hood

• We can expect more troop deployments: Please see your notes from our June 2018 lobby meeting that amply documented the views of military specialists who see climate change as a threat to national security and expect that it will increase political and economic instability around the world. Those notes include the wide recognition that climate change is a “threat multiplier” and provided the ready illustration that unprecedented drought contributed to the unrest that erupted into Syria’s civil war.
• To the extent that deployments are in desert area, a hotter Fort Hood allows troops to train in weather the soldiers with actually face.

Essential to #31 quality of life

• Coffee: “As temperatures rise and droughts intensify, good coffee will become increasingly difficult to grow and expensive to buy” Time.
• Beer: “The price of beer could double under unchecked climate change, as droughts and extreme temperatures cause barley yields to drop” (Washington Post).

#31 is not an island. We in #31 care about what is beyond our district!

• Many of us have friends and relatives that were affected by Harvey, the deadly tragic 2011 Bastrop fires and 2015 Wimberly flood, and other such events in Texas and beyond.  Some of us have strong connections to people impacted by the California fires.
• Some of us own property along the coast that was damaged by Harvey and is at risk from future storms.

 

• We recognize that our well-being is intertwined with the well-being of others. Of course, the health of our local economy depends on healthy Austin, Texas, US, and global economies, but there is very much more at stake than economic outcomes.

We have compassionate hearts. We care about the people harmed and lives lost due to climate disruptions. Climate change is already killing hundreds of thousands of people each year (Guardian) and millions will become climate migrants (National Geographic). The burdens fall more heavily on women and children (BBC). The global poor, who have done the least to create the problems, suffer most. Because we care about other people of today and of the coming generations, climate change pains us deeply. We recognize that ultimately human well-being is dependent on the well-being of other species. But even apart from our concerns about other people, we feel diminished as global warning threatens wildlife and destroys entire species around the world (Scientific American).

 

Just found out about this great resource for highlighting variations in local climate impacts that Grist came out with after the recent 4th National Climate Assessment!

Click the link belong to find helpful stories from each of the U.S.'s regions:  https://grist.org/article/we-broke-down-what-climate-change-will-do-region-by-region/


 

Time magazine had a big cover story on climate change.  Several pages were devoted to how the people of Iowa are voicing their concerns to the presidential candidates this primary election season about the flooding alternating with droughts that have hurt the farmers.

And one story is worth reading by CCLers, linked below:
https://time.com/5669071/lifestyle-changes-climate-change/
In the middle of the next to last paragraph the author, a well-known climate scientist, says we need to put a price on carbon but have it not hurt the marginalized in our communities.  Sounds like an endorsement for carbon fee and dividend legislation.
 

Thanks Peter Van Deerlin‍ for connecting the Time article by Dr. Mann to this local impacts thread - Dr. Mann has been a keynote conference speaker and CCL Blog subject through the years so it's great to see his shout-out to advocating for solutions like fee and dividend!