Golis: A dangerous world, courtesy of climate change

“Dangerous Heat Grips Much of the Southeastern U.S.”

“Deadly wildfires force thousands to flee in Turkey and Greece”

“Heavy Rain and Flooding in China Kill At Least 30”

— Headlines in recent days

Yes, climate change is bad news, arriving as deadly fires and floods, a rush of hurricanes and tornadoes, drought and dangerous heat.

And life gets complicated when we try to mitigate the impacts. Traditional jobs are threatened, people are asked to sacrifice, taxes go higher and familiar ways of doing things go out the window.

Why can’t life be simple? Who the heck wants to pay extra money for an electric car or a roof-full of solar panels?

But there is this problem. Who wants to pretend the climate isn’t changing?

Folks in the Trump administration aren’t dismantling environmental research efforts because they’re expecting rosy results. They’re furloughing scientists to steer clear of findings that leads to difficult, costly and often unpopular choices. The Environmental Protection Agency “plans to ignore science, stop regulating greenhouse gases,” said the technology news site, Ars Technica.

Doing something about climate change, it should be said, might also inconvenience the people who bankrolled the current administration’s rise to power. For those folks, change is welcome so long as it doesn’t happen any time soon.

And so President Donald Trump kicks the can down the road, claiming — all evidence to the contrary — that climate change is a hoax. For too many companies, exemptions from environmental rules are now available for the asking. A recent headline in the New York Times: “Candidate Trump Promised Oil Executives a Windfall. Now, They’re Getting It.”

When the U.S. government pretends there’s nothing to see here, the winner will be China, which means to dominate the market for clean-energy technologies.

Here in Sonoma and Napa counties, we don’t need to search far and wide for examples of the havoc brought about by climate change. People’s lives were forever changed by the 2017 fires, which destroyed more than 5,900 homes and killed 31 people.

Catastrophes happen elsewhere as well. Just ask the folks in the Hill Country of central Texas where people are still missing a month after torrential rains and devastating floods. The death toll sits at 108.

Or ask the folks in Los Angeles where winds and heat in January — January! — caused the costliest fires in U.S. history. The 31st fatality was uncovered last month.

“Across the Northern Hemisphere,” the New York Times reported, “searing temperatures are breaking records, disrupting everyday life and costing lives.”

After taking note of deadly heat waves in Europe, Pakistan, China, Japan and the U.S., the article said the world is getting hotter faster. (Paradoxically, the deadly heat in Pakistan gave way to torrential rains and flooding that led to the deaths of 57 people, including many children.)

Meanwhile, scientists warned that a drought in the southwest United States could last for decades.

“Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests,” said a recent New York Times headline.

Wildfires are not new to California, but their severity is. There’s a reason 15 of the 20 most destructive fires in state history occurred in the past decade.

No one should wonder why insurance premiums are going through the roof (except, of course, when the insurance company cancels your coverage altogether). Questions now are being raised about the long-term viability of the state program meant to backstop the out-migration of private insurers.

Premiums will go higher, CalMatters reported, as insurers are granted permission to deploy so-called catastrophe modeling.

A new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 79% of likely voters view climate change as a very serious or somewhat serious problem.

“Nowhere is the battle over climate change policy more urgent than in California,” reported CalMatters, teeing up a Sept. 17 conference on California and climate change. “The Golden State leads the nation with more EVs than any other, a gas car phaseout mandate, groundbreaking climate disclosure rules, and a dominance in solar and storage. But in 2025, that leadership is under siege.”

For residents hereabouts, the threat of wildfire stopped being theoretical early in the morning of Oct. 9, 2017. In Santa Rosa, the brooding, dawn sky gave way to thoughts of nuclear winter.

The devastation broke our hearts. We all know so many people who lost their homes and a lifetime of keepsakes. The stories of people fleeing in their bedclothes, of melted cars and of neighborhoods turned to ashes will live with us forever.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that a new study found the wildfire season is starting earlier in California and human-caused climate change is the main cause.

It’s August. In the North Bay, this means the fire season has arrived, and it’s not going away soon enough.

You know the drill. Pack your go-bag, know your evacuation routes and be careful out there.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.