Episode 39 - COVID-19, Wildfires, and the Climate Crisis
In this episode we were joined by past guest Robert Miller to discuss the west coast wildfires and the climate crisis. Below are Kristen’s notes for the episode, and some of the questions we asked Robbie throughout.
West Coast Wildfires
Right now, there are 1,576 active wildfires burning across the western US. There have been 43,785 wildfires in the US this year, which have burned 7 million acres this year. This is over one million more acres burned than the 10-year average. As of September 23, there were more than 30,000 firefighters and support personnel assigned to wildfires.
California has been the worst off. The first, third, and fourth largest fires in California’s history all happened in 2020. There have been at least 26 fatalities from the fires and 7,196 structures have been damaged or destroyed.
But the wildfires haven’t occurred only in California. They have also burned throughout Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. At one point, ten percent of Oregon’s population was under an evacuation alert. And pretty well the entire west coast of the US was covered by air pollution advisories over a span of a few days. Wildfire smoke even impacted the eastern part of the continent.
Wildfires do occur naturally, but climate change is extending the wildfire season and making it more intense. That is because warmer temperatures prompt earlier snowmelts and higher temperatures, which result in drier soil and vegetation that is more prone to wildfires for longer periods of time. Also, climate change makes forests more prone to beetle infestations, which in turn makes them more likely to burn. Leaders at CalFire have even suggested that they no longer have a wildfire season, since California now deals with wildfires year-round.
From 2000 to 2018, wildfires burned more than twice as much land area per year as in the period of 1985-1999. It is projected that a 1 degree temperature increase would increase the median area burned by as much as 600% in some forests. (80% of wildfires are started by people.)
The Metronome building in New York has a digital clock that usually counts down the hours, minutes, and seconds until midnight. Instead, it is currently counting down the time until Earth runs out of its carbon budget. The installation was designed by two artists (Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd). We have 7 years (and 98 days on 24 September) to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees.
The Climate Movement in 2020
The global day of climate action will have just happened when we release this episode, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to reflect on where the climate movement is at and where it needs to go in 2020 and beyond.
Last year, it felt like a moment for climate activism. The global climate strike drew large crowds in countries around the world, climate change leapt to the top of political agendas, and climate groups like Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, and the Sunrise Movement all had a lot of momentum. When I look at 2020, it really doesn’t seem like there is that same momentum.
There are still 3,133 strikes planned around the world for 25 September 2020. But that’s a lot less than the 5,668 in September 2019.
What are some of the biggest accomplishments of the climate movement to-date, in your view?
What are some of its biggest weaknesses?
Impact of the Pandemic on Climate Activism
There definitely is climate activism happening – earlier in September 300 Extinction Rebellion protesters were arrested in London at climate protests. 13 were arrested for blockading Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp (which publishes the Sun, the Times, and the Daily Mail in the UK). That prompted a big debate over there about protests tactics and the freedom of the press.
But activism has been much more muted this year. To what extent is that a result of the pandemic, versus other things?
Do you think climate activism will be able to regain the momentum it had in 2019? How?
Racial Justice and Climate Activism’s Whiteness Problem
Can you tell me a bit about the links between climate change and racial justice?
Climate change is a racial justice problem, so in theory climate activism and racial justice activism should go hand-in hand. But in practice, not always. Do you think climate activism has a whiteness problem?
A Green Recovery?
People have talked a lot about climate gains as a silver lining of the pandemic. Which is kind of gross from the point of view of respecting human life and suffering. But it’s also overblown: even with stay at home orders, we are on track to emit 92% as much carbon as last year.
One major question is whether governments will prioritize a green and just pandemic recovery, or if austerity will win the day.
Bill Gates had a really depressing fact in a recent article:
“As of last week [article came out August 4, 2020], more than 600,000 people are known to have died from COVID-19 worldwide. On an annualized basis, that is a death rate of 14 per 100,000 people. How does that compare with climate change? Within the next 40 years, increases in global temperatures are projected to raise global mortality rates by the same amount – 14 deaths per 100,000. By the end of the century, if emissions growth stays high, climate change could be responsible for 73 extra deaths per 100,000 people. In a lower emissions scenario, the death rate drops to 10 per 100,000. In other words, by 2060, climate change could be just as deadly as COVID-19, and by 2100 it could be five times as deadly.”
Worldwide, 71% of people agree that climate change is as serious a crisis as COVID-19. Canada and the US had some of the lower figures for this, but still over half agreed.
One possible sign of hope for a green recovery is the sudden prevalence of “build back better” in documents on pandemic recovery. The UN and OECD have used this language, as has the Joe Biden campaign, the Government of the United Kingdom, and the Government of Canada.
Canada’s Throne Speech and Climate Change
In Canada, the government released its Throne Speech on Wednesday 23 September. The Throne Speech sets out government’s priorities and it was seen as the document articulating how Canada will handle pandemic recovery.
The government pledged that “Climate action will be a cornerstone of our plan to support and create a million jobs across the country.”
Key initiatives:
The Government of Canada committed to legislating a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Which, notably, is the commitment that the Green Party campaigned on in 2019.
The Government also said that it would invest in retrofitting homes and buildings; disaster resilient infrastructure; public transit; zero-emissions vehicles; zero-emissions technology companies; and urban parks.
The government also pledged to plant 2 billion trees and reaffirmed its commitment to ban single-use plastics.
But it also said that it would “support” several polluting sectors, including oil and gas, during the transition.
What did you think about the government’s commitments on climate change in the throne speech, Robbie?
Given that Canada has missed its Paris Accord targets so far, do you think the net-zero commitment matters on its own? Or will it all come down to the quality of the measures that they introduce in the budget?
Final notes:
Robbie mentioned a photo of wildfire smoke meeting hurricane Paulette, here it is!
Are we running out of names for our tropical storms? Yup! This is the second time (ever) we’ve had to move to the Greek alphabet because we ran out of letters.
Check out our other episodes on COVID-19:
Kristen and Kyla React to COVID-19
COVID-19 and Inequality with Alix Jansen
Ten Unexpected Effects of COVID-19
Art, Artists, and COVID-19