Despite Trump, we can’t ignore consequences of climate change

“If you don’t believe climate change is real, talk to a firefighter.”

I was reminded of those words — uttered many times by a friend, a University of North Carolina physical oceanographer who spends part of each year doing research in southern California — as I watched the seemingly relentless news of the wildfires ravaging that state.

Of course, California experiences wildfires nearly every year. But this year, as we’ve all heard, is different. Just like the hurricanes that have pummeled Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida and the Virgin Islands are different, striking with a fury and wreaking destruction like we’ve rarely witnessed in the U.S.

Here in our country’s mid-section, we have felt almost contrite in our lack of misery: We haven’t been dodging wildfires or monitoring rising floodwaters, and it’s been a somewhat tame year for tornadoes, the bane of our little piece of paradise. Our weather has merely been typically unpredictable.

Earlier this month, for example, I was startled to see a resurgence of chicory along the roadside during one of my daily walks. Each June, I get almost giddy anticipating the first clumps of the bluish-purple flowers stretching for the sun above their sturdy vine-like stalks. As I carefully pick my way along the edge of the asphalt, the slim petals are welcome eye candy amid the tangle of grasses and weeds I can’t identify and therefore don’t really see.

But these blasts of color have usually disappeared by the end of August. I’m fairly certain this is the latest I’ve ever seen this dandelion cousin bloom.

It appears that our weather this fall, with temperatures bouncing between summer warmth and fall crispness, has been wild enough that even the chicory is confused — or perhaps emboldened.

If we’re paying attention, we should recognize that even these small peculiarities may be harbingers of permanent changes we need to accept: vegetation extending its natural habitat north as warmer average temperatures become the norm; fiercer storms devastating our communities; flooding occurring in areas that have never experienced it before.

Experts tell us this may be one of the costliest hurricane seasons on record, damages running in the hundreds of billions of dollars. More than 7,000 structures in California have been destroyed and rebuilding costs are already north of $1 billion. Dozens of Americans have died in these disasters. Will that get our attention? What will it take for us as a nation to finally address the inevitable consequences of our extravagances, our indulgences, our willful blindness?

It’s quite clear that our current administration is not willing to tackle this challenge. After President Donald Trump signaled earlier this summer that he plans to pull out of the Paris climate accord, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, recently announced plans to repeal the Clean Power Plan put in place by President Barack Obama.

This week, representatives from 200 nations who have signed the Paris agreement are gathered in Bonn, Germany, for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The small U.S. delegation, led by a State Department undersecretary, should not expect a friendly welcome.

But a number of our country’s governors and mayors are attending to demonstrate their support for the goals of the climate accord. They expect to staff a pavilion near the meeting site sponsored by some of our nation’s wealthiest environmental activists.

Here in Fayette County, 73 percent of us think global warming is happening, according to the 2016 Yale Climate Opinion Map. Fifty-eight percent think global warming will harm people in the U.S. But only 33 percent think this issue is worth discussing, even occasionally.

We need to raise our voices. We need to let our elected officials know that we want them to take these issues seriously. By refusing to acknowledge that human activities are contributing to the serious changes we are seeing in our climate, the current administration is dooming us to a future rife with catastrophic natural disasters for which we have no plan.

​If we care about this Earth, with all its beauty and its ferocity, we need to pay close attention to what these signs are telling us. We can stop and admire an unexpected display of color, but we also need to be prepared for the sometimes tragic human cost of this new order.

It’s up to us to make responsible decisions about how we choose to live amid this wonderful and sometimes chaotic natural world that sustains us.

I’m pretty sure the chicory will thrive even without a second growing season.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Despite Trump, we can’t ignore consequences of climate change."