Photo: REUTERS/ Erik De Castro
Just for a moment…try to imagine what the residents of the central Philippines faced as Typhoon Haiyan reached their shores. Sustained winds of 314 km/h (195 mph) with gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph). Blinding heavy rain and a storm surge that rose over 6 metres (20 feet) high. Predictions are for upwards of 10,000 casualties and billions of dollars in overall damage. Absolutely frightening, isn’t it?
But as frightening as the above scenario is, there is another aspect of this natural disaster of historic proportions that is even scarier still. Storms of this size and magnitude are becoming far more common than they once were, and we largely have human kind to blame.
One of the critical ingredients for storms such as this to occur is warm waters in the oceans of the world. Warm water is essentially the fuel that makes Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones more powerful. It’s kind of like using 91 or 94 octane fuel in your car versus the regular 87…the warmer the waters are where a storm is formed, as well as where it travels the more powerful it is likely to be.
Satellite image of Typhoon Haiyan approaching the Philippines
In Typhoon Haiyan’s case, there were a few other contributing factors that made this the most powerful storm to ever hit land in recorded history – a lack of windshear, an absence of land mass over the path of the storm and the speed by which it travelled, but without ocean temperatures that reach as high as 30 degrees celcius, there isn’t the fuel needed to grow a storm to such power.
So what does warm ocean temperatures have to do with human kind? The answer lies in the fact that human kind is contributing to historic record high levels of carbon in our atmosphere. This in turn creates a thermal blanket of sorts trapping heat from escaping into space, and with warmer atmospheric temperatures, the oceans of the world are heating up as a result.
So while no one single meteorological event such as Hurricane Haiyan can be directly linked to climate change, only those who are willfully blind, ignorant or both will fail to see the connection between what we are doing and what is happening.
Earlier this week, Michel Jarraud, who is head of the World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations with 191 member States and Territories, declared that Typhoon Haiyan should serve as a wake-up call to everyone.
What may be confusing to some is that the total number of tropical storms of late appears to be on the decline. This year in the north Atlantic we have seen a late start to Hurricane season and this may lead some to believe that we shouldn’t be concerned. Experts have pointed to increased amounts of windshear in the Atlantic as to why the numbers have been fewer so far, since the changing of wind direction at different altitudes can break up the formation of a tropical storm. However oceanic temperatures remain higher than normal and the raw material still exists.
Additionally, more and more experts are predicting that going forward tropical storms may become fewer in number, but greater in intensity. This prediction suggests that what we saw this past week with Typhoon Haiyan, may be something we should get used to seeing.
Rather ironically this past week also marked the beginning of COP19, the United Nations 19th Annual Conference on Climate Change, taking place this year in Warsaw, Poland. It is here where representatives from all UN member nations gather to discuss climate change and how to deal with it going forward. Sadly, it has also been the forum where political ideology runs afoul with the need for concerted global action to take place. The major offending nations of the world, with the United States and Canada being among the leaders in this regard, often work to impede and block any tangible course of action on climate change. Despite the vast majority of nations, many of whom lack the wealth or infrastructure to adapt to climate change, wanting to push forward this conference often produces results and proclamations that fall well short of where they need to be.
This is not to say that there aren’t compelling moments though. During the opening of the conference on Monday, Philippines delegate Nadarev Sano offered an emotional and heartfelt plea for the world to act now on climate change in the wake of the destruction his country just faced:
“To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of your armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian Ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels … to the hills of Central America that confront similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce … And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.” – Nadarev Sano, COP19 Philippines delegate
While the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan may indeed raise some eyes, and give light to the relationship between extreme weather and climate change, the sad, pitiful reality is that there is likely little change that will result in the short term. As horrible as it is to say, but the public attention and empathy of North Americans – who have perhaps the greatest capacity to initiate change – has been minimized by the fact that it didn’t affect them directly. Superstorm Sandy paled in comparison to Typhoon Haiyan, but because it hit New York City, the attention given it was disproportionate in comparison to what happened this week. It’s sad that relevancy often is wrapped around tragedy in these cases, but until a similar storm hits the US like Hurricane Camille did in 1969 or Hurricane Katrina in 2005, meaningful action in the U.S. as a result of Haiyan may only be a pipedream.
Perhaps as a final thought, it’s also worth sharing another video I came across the other day which shows in alarming detail how the distribution of wealth in the U.S. is shamefully warped to where some 40% of the nation’s wealth is held by just 1% of the population. Given that members of that 1% include many who have made their wealth on oil, gas and fossil fuels such as the nefarious Koch Brothers, one can assume that there will be great resistance to change from those with huge influence, no matter how obvious or catastrophic the results of inaction may be.
Typhoon Haiyan is clearly a climate change wake up call. The question remains of course as to how many will wake up and take action and how many will hit snooze…or even worse, shut the alarm off altogether.
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