Notes From the End of the World

Edition: Summer 2023

Well, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming, can we?

• At least 36 people have been killed in "unprecedented" wildfires that are raging across Hawaii's Big Island and Maui, officials said Wednesday. On August 9, a state of emergency was declared for the entirety of Hawaii. At least 11,000 people are displaced from their homes.

• Some people were forced to jump into the Pacific Ocean to escape the smoke and fire conditions, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to rescue them, according to a Maui County press release. Officials said they were looking into witness reports of people being trapped in their cars.

• Lahaina, a touristic and economic hub of 9,000 people, has been destroyed, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said. Residents reported heartbreaking destruction. "We have no more Lahaina. It’s gone.”

• Most of the fires on Maui – fueled in part by violent winds from Hurricane Dora, churning more than 800 miles away – have not yet been contained, Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said.

• Drought worsening in Hawaii, new data shows

Phoenix has suffered a record 31 straight days of 110+degree highs, and more heat is on the way

“The sidewalk is so hot in Maricopa County, Arizona, that people are being brought into the emergency room with significant, sometimes life-threatening burns. For the past three or four weeks of this record heatwave, people have been burned just by falling on the ground.

“The temperature of asphalt and pavement and concrete and sidewalks in Arizona on a warm sunny day or summer afternoon is 180 degrees sometimes. I mean, it’s just a little below boiling, so it’s really something,” Foster said.

It can take only a “fraction of a second” to get a “pretty deep burn,” he said. For people who have been on the pavement for 10 to 20 minutes, “the skin is completely destroyed” and the damage often goes down deep, meaning it is a third-degree burn.

Ocean water off Florida breaks jaw-dropping 100 degrees

Extreme heat and a lack of rain and wind pushed water temperatures around Florida to some of the highest levels ever observed anywhere. A buoy in the Florida Bay hit 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit at a depth of 5 feet Monday. Meteorologists say that could potentially be the hottest seawater ever measured.

Multiple reefs around the Florida Keys are now completely bleached or dead in a grim escalation that took place in as little as two weeks, coral experts told CNN.

This all comes as sea surface temperatures worldwide have broken monthly records for heat in April, May and June, according to NOAA. And temperatures in the North Atlantic are off the charts — as much as 9 to 11 degrees (5 to 6 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal in some spots near Newfoundland.

Around the United States, more than 35 million people are under heat alerts scattered across the western US, Plains and in South Florida. More than 5,000 heat records have been broken or tied in the US over the last 30 days, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population fell under extreme heat advisories, partly due to a stubborn heat dome that has been parked over western states. While baking parts of the country, the heat dome has also helped generate erratic storms with heavy rains in the Northeast, a pattern expected to continue for days if not weeks, and flash-flood warnings are widespread.

Heat warnings spread from the Pacific Northwest, down through California, through the Southwest and into the Deep South and Florida.

Death Valley, California, officially reached 128 F (53 C) on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, although the famed temperature display sign outside the Furnace Creek Visitors Center showed 133 F (56 C).

As of Monday, excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were issued for parts of the Great Basin, Southwest, Intermountain West, Great Plains and southern Florida, with more expected across the country later this week.

The excessive heat has prompted health concerns, especially in national parks in the Southwest, where at least four people have died from heat-related causes since the beginning of June.

A United Nations agency warned of an increased risk of heart attacks and deaths, as the northern hemisphere reeled from heat waves last week.

So, guess what the Republican Party’s response to all this is?

“This year, the House Appropriations Committee has launched an assault on EPA beyond even the wildest dreams of the Trump administration with a proposal to slash the EPA budget by a whooping 40 percent. The resulting $6.2 billion budget would be the agency’s smallest, in constant dollars, in nearly half a century.  

Adding grievous insult to crippling injury, the proposed budget also rescinds $9.1 billion from money already appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act. Those rescissions are laser-focused on two targets: climate change and environmental protection, two areas the bill literally treats as unspeakable, never using the words “climate,” except to prohibit EPA from addressing the topic.”

REPUBLICAN CLIMATE PLAN: Douse burning house with gasoline. Light match. Walk away.