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A Viral Video Shows A Polar Bear Succumbing To Climate Change - We Are, Too

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The gut-wrenching viral video of the starving polar bear is a stark reminder of the toll that climate change can have on the natural system. The bear literally depends on the disappearing ice for its survival. Such tragic imagery alone should stir the hearts and minds of any compassionate human being. Skeptics often try to discredit the linkage between climate change and the plight of polar bears, but according to National Geographic, new studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and the European Geoscience Union, respectively, confirm that melting ice is a problem for the bears. Frankly, whether you believe implications of the photo or not, my focus herein is impact on human beings.

I often hear dismissive statements from people saying I am sorry for the polar bears, but I am more concerned about my life and family. Such statements literally make me cringe because it reminds me of how difficult it is for an average person to connect how their daily lives are being affected by climate change.

Many citizens will quickly lament how they are more concerned about their kids’ health, household budgets, or national security. I get it. I am also concerned because those very things are being impacted by weather-climate variability and change. The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season has already been estimated to carry a price tag of over $200 billion dollars (see figure below). Such figures will directly impact the U.S. economy. Further, look at the human and infrastructure toll that the season had on places like Puerto Rico, Houston, and the Florida Keys. And speaking of kitchen table issues, after Hurricane Harvey gas prices spiked because of the disruption in one of the world’s most important oil refinery hubs. Food prices reacted similarly to recent droughts in California and the Midwest. It is basic economics “101”. If you cannot get supply to market because grain barges are stuck on a low-flowing Mississippi River or California farmers are struggling, then this is passed on to all of us at the market.

Insurance Information Institute and Bloomberg via Twitter

Healthcare costs and the well-being of our families consume much of our "worry time" as well. Th graphic below from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) illustrates the various pathways that climate change impacts human health. I frequently worry that some disease carried by a mosquito in the warm tropical regions of our planet can now thrive in Georgia. Canadian medical personnel, for example, are already having to deal with more Lyme disease threats because the tick that carries it can thrive in Canadian climates now.

CDC

The U.S. military continues to convey its concerns about climate change and related challenges for national security. Those brave men and women do not tend to plan for threats based on political whims or hoaxes. Report after report from the Pentagon and associated entities continue to warn of current and impending threats from climate change:

  • New pathways of entry in the Arctic Ocean
  • Threat multiplication and amplification as drought and water supply issues ravage Middle Eastern regions
  • Immigration and civil conflict as climate refugees are forced to leave their nations and settle abroad
  • Increased military response to weather-climate disasters like hurricanes
  • Vulnerability of U.S. naval bases to sea level rise and more intense hurricanes

Such threats affect us now and going forward. Professor Kerry Emanuel, a noted scientist at MIT, recently published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noting that rainfall from Hurricane Harvey was likely boosted by climate change. The images of U.S. citizens displaced from their homes in Houston or without power for months in Puerto Rico are as equally disturbing as the stomach-turning video of that poor polar bear.

Robert Gifford is a psychologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He has coined the phrase “dragons of inaction” to describe human tendencies toward climate change. Beth Gardiner of the New York Times summarized Gifford’s thinking,

We have trouble imagining a future drastically different from the present. We block out complex problems that lack simple solutions. We dislike delayed benefits and so are reluctant to sacrifice today for future gains. And we find it harder to confront problems that creep up on us than emergencies that hit quickly.

It is easy to see the polar bear or butterfly as concrete examples of climate change impacts even though they are far removed from the average person’s daily life. However, it is not as obvious to “Jane Public” in Iowa or “Joe Public” in Alabama how a hurricane affected the price of that fill-up at the gas station or how more heatwaves are driving up the cost of their electricity bill.....but it is happening.

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