How to prepare for an uncertain climate future.
 | By Eliza Barclay Climate Editor, Opinion |
Most Americans can remember a heat wave that lasted a week or two and the physical shock of moving from the comforting neutrality of air conditioning into an outdoor furnace that leaves you woozy and sticky. Some Americans have also worked outdoors in severe heat for days at a time or known power outages in the depths of summer with no cool air to retreat into. |
Yet even with this direct experience, it's hard to truly conjure what South Asia has been enduring for more than a month: temperatures hovering around 100 degrees Fahrenheit — and frequently spiking much higher — week after week, with only brief respites. It is a very long, and yet not very exceptional, heat wave, affecting more than a billion people, the majority of whom do not have appliances to cool down their homes. |
In his first weekly newsletter for Times Opinion, David Wallace-Wells writes that in this warmer world we are reckoning with, South Asia's heat wave "almost qualifies as a nonevent if you are tracing the amplitude of climate anomalies." And while this may mean we are starting to normalize once-extraordinary weather events that disproportionately affect the poor and global south, "climate impacts are not the whole of our destiny but the natural landscape upon which our future will be built, and jury-rigged and contested," he writes. |
With each warmer year, we're discovering how much climate change will force us to reimagine and prepare for a future that will be very different from the present. Countries around the world are beginning to take up the task of scaling back fossil fuels, but there's still much that's uncertain about how that will play out. |
Here in Opinion, we are seeking out the leading voices trying to shape that future with new ideas, visions, opportunities and perspectives. Recently, we've featured the writing of Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, the energy systems engineering and policy scholar Jesse Jenkins and author Elizabeth Rush, among others. We hope you will stick with us on this bumpy and unresolved ride. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. |
Contact us if you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment