Climate Change: The Eleven O’Clock Hour

Hmmm, are you aware we are approaching the eleven o’clock hour?

Climate change due to human activity. It is one of those things that we do not like to think about but can longer afford to turn a blind eye towards. The evidence of it grows with every passing day as the earth’s climate changes at an ever accelerating rate. The signs are everywhere from heat waves to devasting floods to rising sea levels.

The grim reality of climate change has introduced new terms into our language.

Atmospheric River: Long, narrow bands of concentrated water vapour in the atmosphere that transport huge amounts of moisture. They are sometimes described as a river in the sky. These systems can drastically affect weather patterns when they make landfall in the form of heavy precipitation in the form of either rain or snow.

It was an atmospheric river in October in 2024 that caused the storm in British Columbia that brought significant rainfall, causing flooding and record-breaking daily precipitation totals in some areas. Southern Vancouver Island was deluged with up to 12 inches of rain while the Vancouver metropolitan area received up to 6 inches.

In case you are wondering, the devastating Texas floods were not the result of an atmospheric river. The cause, in weather terms, was a mesoscale convective vortex with enhanced tropical moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry and remnant tropical moisture from the eastern Pacific. But it matters little which specific weather term applies. Global warning and climate change are the root cause.

Heat Dome: A high pressure system that traps hot air below it which heats up and compresses to form a dome. This phenomena intensifies heat and prevents the formation of clouds which in turn allows more radiation from the sun to reach the ground below. The result is clear, sunny days with little cooling wind – pleasant to view from inside but stifling if you step outside.

We experienced a heat dome here in Ontario in June. Temperatures soared into the 90’s Fahrenheit for a couple of days with humidex values approaching 110. Even the hardiest of us had to shelter indoors. It was so hot that the City of Toronto, in an ultimate example of irony, had to close some of its outdoor pools for the health and safety of staff. As the post goes up, we just experienced another “heat warning” episode with temps in the high 80’s for three days.

Carbon Budget: This refers to the maximum amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be emitted while still limiting global warming to a specific level. In direct terms, the cumulative amount of CO2 that can be released into the atmosphere without exceeding a target temperature increase such as 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels. 

How dire is the situation? The annual Indicators of Global Climate Change report has issued a warning that time is running out to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The carbon budget will be exhausted in three years at current levels of emissions.

Climate change is sometimes depicted as an overflowing bathtub. The atmosphere is the tub. Greenhouse gas emissions are the water filling the tub. The water level represents the concentration of greenhouse gases. In this context, we have three years or less to prevent the bathtub from overflowing with potentially irreversible consequences.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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