Fire, Floods and Power Outages: Our Climate Future Has Arrived

SAN FRANCISCO — Now we suffer the consequences.

Firefighters battling the Saddleridge fire in Sylmar, Calif., on Thursday.

In Northern California, power was cut to more than a million people this week. Near Houston, houses that flooded only two years ago just succumbed again. The South endured record-shattering fall heat waves. In Miami, salt water bubbled through street drains yet again as the rising ocean mounted a fresh assault.

All of it was predicted, in general outline, decades ago. We did not listen. Ideologues and paid shills cajoled us to ignore the warnings. Politicians cashed their checks from the fossil fuel lobbyists and slithered away.

Today, we act surprised as the climate emergency descends upon us in all its ferocity.

The scientists knew long ago, and told us, that the sea would invade the coasts. They knew a hotter atmosphere would send heavier rains to inundate our cities and farms. They knew the landscape of California, which always becomes desiccated in the late summer and early fall, would dry out more in a hotter climate.

Read the opinion piece from The New York Times by Justin Gillis - “Fire, Floods and Power Outages: Our Climate Future Has Arrived.”