White Rock News of the Day
Topic: Climate
Date: July 12, 2023
The New Abnormal
Extreme weather has affected vast areas of North America in 2023. Benjamin Kirtman, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami is most shocked by the rapidly warming ocean waters. He said, “It’s completely out of bounds.”
A 2019 study published by a prestigious science journal stated that humans evaluate weather as either normal or abnormal according to factors including expectations, memory limitations, and cognitive biases.
… we provide evidence for a “boiling frog” effect: The declining noteworthiness of historically extreme temperatures is not accompanied by a decline in the negative sentiment that they induce, indicating that social normalization of extreme conditions rather than adaptation is driving these results.
… Past work has shown that public policy tends to advance during “windows of opportunity” provided by, among other things, focused public attention. Without public perception of a problem, the ability of scientific experts and policy analysts to advance a policy agenda will be limited. This potentially poses a challenge for addressing chronic environmental problems such as climate change.
As climate disasters become more common, motivations to address underlying causes will decline as the general public accepts them as normal. Add the normal inclination to diminish gradually deteriorating situations and we are unlikely to save humanity from extinction.
In the first half of July 2023 alone, British Columbia wildfires have damaged more ground than was burned throughout ten of the fifteen years from 2008 to 2022. The four worst years for fire recorded in British Columbia are 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023. Incidentally, the four years of highest fossil fuel production.
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