Causes.com
| 6.25.24
Billions Faced Extreme, Climate Change-Fueled Heat Worldwide
Should FEMA classify heat waves as "major disasters"?
Updated June 25, 2024
- Scorching heat spread across five continents this week, with over 1,400 temperature records broken by the extreme weather. Billions of people felt these dangerous temperatures, which scientists say are undoubtedly fueled by climate change.
- Much of the heat hit after El Niño dissipated—which generally causes high temperatures—leading scientists to emphasize how climate change is driving the extreme heat. Previously, experts had expected this summer to be cooler than summer 2023, the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in at least 2,000 years.
- Climate scientist Michael Wehner said:
"It should be obvious that dangerous climate change is already upon us. People will die because of global warming on this very day."
- Data provided by The Washington Post's nonprofit, Climate Central, found that around 80% of the world felt heat last week that was twice as likely to occur because of human-caused climate change. Nearly half of the recorded temperatures are considered "exceptional heat" by Climate Central—describing conditions that would have been rare or even impossible in a world without climate change.
- Wehner continued:
"We have been predicting for at least the past two decades that extreme weather would become yet more dangerous as the world warms. This is not a surprise."
What’s the story?
- Much of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S. is facing an early summer heat wave, with several cities battling 90-degree heat for five consecutive days.
- More than 100 million people are under extreme heat advisories, watches, or warnings from the National Weather Service. Meteorologists have described the high temperatures as a heat dome, a phenomenon in which pressure high in the atmosphere keeps the heat from dissipating.
- Heat emergencies are declared when the heat index, which combines heat and humidity, hits 95 degrees for two consecutive days, or when temperatures exceed 100 degrees on one day. While heat waves in mid-June are not unprecedented, this one suggests that the summer ahead could be especially hot.
Areas most impacted
- The heat is stretching from the lower midwest to the northern tip of Maine, leading to record-breaking temperatures in Caribou, ME.
- Thousands of residents are facing power outages in Pittsburgh and other parts of western Pennsylvania from recent storms. Forecasters have warned the region that the heat index could be as high as 110 degrees.
- Many cities were caught off guard by the heat because of the early summer timing. In New York City, public pools and some beaches don’t open until later in June, but, due to the heat, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that some spots will open early.
Urging FEMA recognition
- A group of environmental, health, and labor organizations have filed a petition to urge the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to declare extreme heat and wildfire smoke as “major disasters.”
- If FEMA accepts the petition, it could unlock funds to help local agencies prepare for heat waves and wildfire smoke by investing in cooling centers and air filtration systems in schools. The petition is also pushing the agency to help pay for water distribution, health screenings for vulnerable populations, and increased electricity use during emergencies.
- Jean Su, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the petition, said:
“Major disaster declarations really open up the broadest pockets of funding that FEMA has available. State and local governments are severely ill equipped and underfunded to even deal with emergency measures.”
- Major labor groups hope that the petition will put more pressure on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and employers to address heat in the workplace. Christine Bolaños, the communications director of Workers Defense Project, a nonprofit focused on labor rights, said this disaster classification would force OSHA to make heat worker protections a priority.
- Historically, FEMA has denied requests to declare past heat waves as major disasters. The agency typically declares disasters based on how much uninsured public infrastructure could be damaged, or how many people die. However, it is challenging to directly link to a person's death, and it is not often mentioned on death certificates, and public infrastructure is not often at risk during extreme heat.
Should FEMA classify heat waves as "major disasters"?
-Jamie Epstein
(Image credit: JORDAN GREEN)
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FEMA hasn't ruled out declaring heat a major disaster but said intervention requires loss of life, resources required beyond what a state can provide and a Governor to declare an Emergency.
Currently governors respond using the national Guard, opening cooling centers, firefighters use ice immersion for heat stroke, and recommendations to limit outdoor activities and drink plenty of water.
Major changes are needed in order for FEMA to add heat as a new type of major disaster since the existing budget is insufficient for the current disasters which happen more frequently now with global warming. In 2023 FEMA ran out of money during the Maui fires,
1) Congress needs to increase FEMA funding
2) more infrastructure projects to replace roads, rails, runways, etc that buckle in high heat.
3) Executive needs to make FEMA part of the cabinet to better respond to crisis management.
4) OSHA needs better regulations on workers exposed to heat.
This week is a good example of what happens when 80% of the country is affected by a heat done disrupting rail and light rail that links ports with markets had service due to rails buckling in heat. If service interruptions are long enough there will disruptions to food distribution, and supply chains that can paralyze portions or all of the country.
https://www.causes.com/comments/131573
https://www.causes.com/comments/131786
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-06-18/northeast-heat-wave-2024-this-is-a-disaster-treat-it-that-way
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-southwest-swelters-under-extreme-temperatures-heat-dome-persists-2024-06-06/
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/fema-urged-to-fund-disaster-response-for-extreme-heat-wildfire-smoke-2024-06-17/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/nyregion/nj-transit-amtrak-delays-today.html
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/18/heat-dome-heatwave
1990's predictions have been coming true for some time. Those "1990 predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were fairly accurate." Exxon knew about this two decades before, predicting global warming "with incredible accuracy beginning in the late 1970s."
The lack of acknowledgement, accountability & action have led us to the atrocities we see today.
Future predictions are dismal. If you think the cost of food is high now...just wait. You think COVID was bad, I have news for you. The natural disasters we see today are nothing compared to what the future holds. You believe immigration is a problem now, ha, just wait. I wondering if Canada will build a wall to keep us out?
Fix this!!!
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/effects/
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/climate-change-impacts/predictions-future-global-climate
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/oct/25/charlie-kirk/many-climate-predictions-do-come-true/
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/12/exxon-predicted-global-warming-with-remarkable-accuracy-study.html
Every summer I hear them claim it's the hottest year ever. Last year the globe was boiling, they said. I can remember summers that were much hotter than this one or the last. It's all fear mongering and we are a nation of cowards who are stupid enough to believe anything our government tells us even though they are always lying about so many things. They can't accurately forecast the weather two weeks from now, but somehow they can predict what it will be in 50 yrs??? No, they can't, but they can certainly manipulate you with it. Research just how they have come to their conclusions and you find it's what the models say, and models are not reality and have many flaws. Temperatures, every year, can vary by 100 degrees from low to high, and we survive just fine, but somehow a rise of 1-2 degrees and the world ends? Not logical, sorry. Plus it's awfully arrogant to think we have the power, understanding or ability to control a thing as complex as climate. It's more about controlling you than it is the climate.
118 degrees predicted in Vegas on Monday. That's a record. Over 50 heat records set today in the US, A category 4 hurricane that just hit Jamaica & is on its way to the States. Northern California is on fire in Oroville.
People & animals are dying. These disasters continue to get bigger, come earlier, & the season lasts longer. We need to do something.
This existential threat will not be helped by:
1. Inaction
2. Denial
3. Dismantling the EPA
4. Tax subsidies for oil & gas ($1 trillion 2022)
5. Tax subsidies for cattle ranchers ($59 billion)
6. Drilling/Fracking/Importing/Exporting oil
7. Opposing clean, renewable energy sources
8. Manufacturing, buying, utilizing gas vehicles
9. Eating beef
10. Voting for republicans
Our country, the Earth, needs help. We should be the world leader in investing in, creation of, and the utilization of clean energy!!!
If we do this our world will be cleaner & safer for generations to come. No more wars in the Middle East, either...as none of the money grabbers will care.
Insurance companies see climate as the single biggest risk to their industry. When insurers can't raise rates high enough to cover losses they pull out of states which then need to offer state insurance to the uninsurable at higher prices for less coverage.
Some states like CA are allowing insurance companies to recognize climate change in rate increases but all state regulators need to do this.
Whether private insurance, state offered insurance for the uninsurable or FEMA flood plain insurance is too expensive people are opting not to insure yet home prices in vulnerable areas like Miami continue to rise.
When homeowners are uninsured and experience climate driven disasters that they can't afford they default on mortgages that then ripple through the financial industry according to Treasury Secretary Yellen.
Recommendations for State Insurance Regulators:
1) Transparency recommended by Federal (FIO) and private Industry (NAIC) which will jointly provide insurance costs by zip code
2) FIO recommendation to state regulators to include climate change risks in state insurance rate regulation which some states (CA, CT, NY, OR, WA) are doing by stress testing insurance portfolios but other states have not.
3) State regulators need to monitor blue lining (withdrawing insurance from high risk areas) which some states (LA had 17% of policies canceled) havent done. NAIC-FIO working on a report instead of existing ancedotal data.
4) Financial industry (FSOC) needs to monitor risks to financial system as this could be the next big federal bailout.
Natural Resource Defense council are encouraging states to require disclosure of floods, fires, etc during property sale to realistically adjust prices and discourage development in risky areas like coastal properties. I've had more than one friend retire to oceanfront property (FL, MA, NC) until the 1st hurricane and then move inland.
The Inflation Reduction Act is investing $2B into climate resilient infrastructure but received requests for grant requests of $4.6B so more needs to be funded in subsequent budget years.
" In 2023...damages from billion-dollar extreme weather events reached $92.9 billion, and estimated insured property losses totaled $78.8 billion. Many insurers have responded to climate-related financial risks by withdrawing their services from highly exposed markets, raising premiums, and gutting coverage. These are important market signals about the scale and scope of the economic effects of climate change."
" According to the credit rating agency AM Best, insurers recorded a $24.5 billion net underwriting loss in the first half of 2023, which nearly surpasses the $26.5 billion in losses recorded for all of 2022. The agency also views climate change as the single largest risk to the insurance industry."
"California, Louisiana, and Florida are already seeing substantial increases in insurance premiums or companies flat-out refusing to offer coverage in risky areas."
"While most people can still obtain insurance in the private market, some property owners in high-risk areas have had to turn to state-mandated insurers of last resort for their coverage. Specifically, here in New Mexico, this is called the F.A.I.R, or Fair Access to Insurance Requirements plan."
"In 2022, insurance firm AllState paused selling new home and condo insurance policies in California. "Our payments to help California residents recover from accidents and disasters have increased significantly in recent years due to higher repair costs and more frequent and severe weather," says a spokesperson for AllState. "We continue to offer coverage to most existing home insurance customers."
" In 2023, State Farm, one of the US' biggest insurance providers, announced it too would stop selling new home insurance policies in California."
" A report released in 2022 analysed 120 million homes and found one in 10 properties were impacted by natural disasters. Winter storms impacted 12.7 million homes, causing $15bn in property damage in 2021 alone, while hurricanes caused $33bn in damage across 1.2 million homes"
" A recent report by First Street Foundation, a non-profit focusing on climate risk research, found 23.9 million properties in the US are at risk from damaging winds, 4.4 million properties at risk from wildfire, and a further 12 million properties have a significant risk of flooding – in addition to properties in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema)'s Special Flood Hazard Areas (100-year flood zones that the government has already identified). "Private insurance companies are effectively labelling areas as uninsurable," the report found."
" The home insurance market was valued at $233bn in 2023 It's a business, and if business is bad, insurance companies have no obligation to stick around. Regulations in states such as California, Florida and Louisiana – some of the hardest hit when it comes to climate change impacts – have suppressed insurance prices for years. So, when disaster hits, and insurance companies have to pay out, they can't raise prices the following year to cover their losses. As a result, the insurance industry isn't turning as much profit as it used to, and so the financially sensible thing for them is simply to withdraw from high-risk markets, like California."
" Flooding is the most common and expensive natural disaster in the US, yet fewer than 60% of single-family homeowners living in areas where there's mandatory flood insurance have the insurance."
" When insurance companies pull out of states, homeowners are forced to rely on the state's "insurance of last resort".
"In California, this is called the FAIR Plan and it's for properties located in areas at high risk of fire that can't otherwise get insurance. The plan covers less and charges higher premiums than conventional providers."
"And yet between 2018 and 2023, the FAIR Plan's customers have risen from 140,000 to 330,000 despite the plan only being intended for temporary use. (Californians cannot purchase a home without having adequate home insurance to satisfy banks' home lender requirements.)"
" In a move to prevent more insurers from fleeing the state, California's Insurance Commissioner recently announced the state would let insurance companies consider climate change when setting their prices"
" this will likely mean higher rates for homeowners – which have already been increasing. Even through California's FAIR Plan, premiums have tripled for some homeowners, and thousands of people are simply dropping out of insuring their homes altogether. Non-renewals of home and fire insurance policies jumped from 11% in 2018 to 13% in 2021 (an increase of 127,581). A similar pattern is happening in Louisiana, where the state's insurer of last resort increased rates by 63% over the past year"
"[2023] An estimated 1 in 13, or 6.1 million, homeowners are uninsured."
" In Miami, home prices continue to rise – by 27% – despite the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicting that south-east cities like Miami will be facing more than 30 days of high-tide flooding a year by 2050. Projected sea level rise, which Miami is particularly vulnerable to, threatens $400bn worth of Florida property."
" This insurance protection gap, as noted by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, “can have significant consequences for homeowners and the values of their assets. In turn, these developments can have cascading effects on the financial system.” In areas where insurance coverage is out of reach or insufficient, consumers are forced to foot the bill. But if consumers cannot sustain the costs of natural disasters and are unable to continue payments on mortgages or other loans, that risk flows to lenders. This can create systemic risk, threatening financial stability and the health of the U.S. economy more broadly."
" Organisations like the Natural Resources Defense Council have urged states to require flood disclosure polices during property sales to help buyers decide whether buying is worth the risk. Research has shown disclosure can devalue flood-prone properties and discourage development in risky areas."
" March 2024, the NAIC and FIO announced a first-of-its kind, joint effort to collect detailed ZIP-code level data from homeowners’ insurers across the United States."
"Regulators of exposed financial institutions, such as those that oversee banks and credit unions, should analyze how the insurance availability and affordability crisis may raise microprudential concerns, such as increased credit risk, for institutions under their remit and should then help those institutions prepare accordingly."
" Biden administration's 2023 Inflation Reduction Act, $1.8bn was pledged to build climate resilient infrastructure and fund flood mitigation programmes. The previous year the government had received grant applications which totalled $4.6bn."
https://www.causes.com/comments/131573
https://www.causes.com/comments/131647
https://www.causes.com/comments/131786
https://www.causes.com/comments/131875
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/4-principles-for-addressing-climate-risks-in-the-insurance-industry/
https://sourcenm.com/briefs/wildfire-risk-is-causing-an-insurance-bubble-in-new-mexico/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240311-why-climate-change-is-making-the-us-uninsurable
China's fault
July statistics for Las Vegas:
Hottest month ever recorded
Average high: 111.5
Average low: 88.3
Average temperature: 99.9
# of 105 degree days: 31
# of 110 degree days: 21
# of 115 degree days: 7
hottest day: July 7th 120 degrees
# of heat related deaths: 63 humans
The motto "drill, baby drill" doesn't work here! We're on a highway to hell. We want clean, renewable energy. We want to live.
Today marks the 39th day consecutively that Las Vegas has seen temperatures 105 degrees or higher. This obliterates the previous record of 25 days straight in 2017.
Want to win Nevada? Do something about climate change!!!
How many damn fires have to be burning before Republicans pull their heads out of their butts? Maybe you could put your pride aside and give a crap about something other than your party!
Yes, FEMA should classify major heat waves as natural disasters when it leads to life loss, property damage, including loss of agriculture.
Global warming will only continue to get worse until humans decide to change our ways, or the Earth finally rids herself of us. The time to take action wit urgency was yesterday.
This is NASA's interactive model of our warming Earth up to 2022 since then we've gotten hotter)
https://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/climate-time-machine/?intent=021
We can & should be the world leader in the development & use of clean, renewable energies. Let's do it!!!
With JD Vance as VP on the Trump ticket, it's clear as night and day the Republicans have nothing to stop or slow climate change, it's just full speed ahead with fossil fuels!
We are truly at a point where it's night and day between the GOP direction and Democrats!
The GOP, restrict women's rights, give huge tax breaks to the wealthy, reduce funding to public schools, turn over Ukraine to Russia!
Wondering about all those climate change deniers now.
Heatwaves causes taxation on critical infrastructure like power grids and transportation as we recently saw across the country with the "heat dome"
Yes, pin all heatwave deaths on Dirty Energy/Dirty Industry/Etc if it'll get their billionaire owners imprisoned and stripped of all their wealth and belongings and their companies destroyed and recycled into greener options.
YES, CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL. We are living it!
Nature has these highs and lows. It's part of life happening forever
Yes this heat wave is killing people. declaring it a distaster would get needed aide into these places. Maybe more cooling centers.
That would be another waste of taxpayers money and would prove nothing but more fraud.
You guys need to listen to millennials and gen z on climate change
CAUSES ASKS: "Should FEMA classify heat waves as "major disasters"?" ME: They aren't? People die, agricultural crops are destroyed, wildfires are abeted ... and that's just for starters.
The US has waited too long to do anything about climate change. Rs have stuck their heads in the sand and deny that we have a problem. So about all we can do now is play catch up and try to mitigate the bad conditions we've created, including spending more and more money to help people and cities adapt to the change. Wake up Rs!
Either it's hot or cold and sometimes in-between, it is called the weather! Live it 😎