The document discusses the increasing intensity of climate change extremes, particularly forest fires and hurricanes, exacerbated by human-induced CO2 emissions. It highlights the trends in weather patterns, the impact of global warming on dry and wet areas, and the historical context of hurricanes and fire areas since 1985. Solutions proposed include a shift towards a vegetarian diet, reducing food waste, and immediate action to mitigate climate change impacts.

1. Climate Change Extremes:
Increasing Wildfires and Hurricanes
Paul H. Carr

2. RISE CONFRONTING COVID, CLIMATE, & ECONOMY
OUTLINE
1. CLIMATE CHANGE EXTREMES: INCREASING
FOREST FIRES AND HURRICANES
2. CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE:
CO2 from fossil fuel burning is warming our
Earth via the Greenhouse effect
3. WHAT WE CAN DO IMMEDIATELY

3. WEATHER EXTREMES ARE INCREASING
Dry areas drier, Wet areas wetter.
• Normally dry areas drier from more
evaporation.
- Record high forest fires in CA, OR, and WA
• Normally wet areas getting wetter.
- Atmosphere holds more moisture at higher
temperatures
-Most active hurricane season in more than a
decade.

4. 5 million acres, size of Massachusetts, in CA, Oregon, and Washington State burned.
Increasing trend line
since 1980 exceeded.
CRISIS ?

5. GLOBAL WARMNG IMPACT
FOREST FIRES IN CALIFORNIA: 119,00O HAVE EVACUATED
August 22, 2020
How to find COVID-free shelter for 119,000 evacuees +
12,000 firefighters? (Manchester, NH has 113,000 people).
Smoke pollution makes COVID lung attacks worse
Global warming increases dryness that ”loads the dice” for
for more severe fires.
Warmer winters do not destroy the pine beetles, which kill
more trees for kindling.

6. Attribution of western US forest fire area to ACC. Cumulative forest fire area estimated from the
(red) observed all-metric mean record of fuel aridity and (black) the fuel aridity record after
exclusion of ACC (No ACC).
John T. Abatzoglou, and A. Park Williams PNAS
2016;113:42:11770-11775©2016 by National Academy of Sciences
ACC: Anthropogenic
Climate Change.
An 8 fold
increase
in area
burned
since 1985

7. • Oct 30, 2020. Power outage on Bourbon St, New Orleans, from
Hurricane Zeta, the second worst since Hurricane Katrina.
• 2 Million people without power up to Atlanta, GA.
• This hurricane season: most storms in a single year since 1916.

8. T
24 Aug 2005. Tropical
Storm Approaches
Southern Florida.
28 Aug 2005. Katrina,
Category 5 Hurricane,
gained energetic winds of
175 mph due to the
record high temperatures
of the Gulf of Mexico.
28 Aug 2005. Katrina,
Category 5, 175 mph
winds. Absorbed energy
from the record high
temperatures of the
Gulf of Mexico.
29 Aug 2005. Katrina
causes $100Bs damage to
New Orleans, LA
KATRINA: Tropical Storm to Hurricane
Converting thermal energy of ocean to kinetic energy of wind

9. 2018 HURRICANE MICHAEL’S WIND DAMAGE
This elevated house in Mexico Beach, Fla., came through
Hurricane Michael almost unscathed.
Credit Johnny Milano for The New York Times

10. A wise rich man with foresight had the house, built of steel reinforced
concrete elevated on tall pilings to allow a storm surge to pass
underneath with little damage. The house, whose assessed value was
$400,000, exceeded the building code.
Johnny Milano for The New York Times
Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si, On Care for our Common
Home” noted that the poor suffer the most from the increasing
weather extremes of climate change.

11. 11
2017 Hurricane
Harvey, Texas, set
a new US record
of 52 inches for
rainfall from a
single storm.
2017 Hurricane
Irma set net
record: 3 days as
a Category 5
Hurricane.

12. WEATHER EXTREMES ARE INCREASING
Dry areas drier, Wet areas wetter.
• Normally dry areas drier from more
evaporation.
- Record high forest fires in CA, OR, and WA
• Normally wet areas getting wetter.
- Atmosphere holds more moisture at higher
temperatures
-Most hurricanes since 1916.

13. "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of
evil (wildfires, hurricanes) to one who is striking at
the root (global warming).” Thoreau.

14. OUTLINE
1. CLIMATE CHANGE EXTREMES: INCREASING
FOREST FIRES AND HURRICANES
2. CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE:
CO2 from fossil fuel burning is warming our
Earth via the Greenhouse effect
3. WHAT WE CAN DO IMMEDIATELY

15. CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE
The EXPLODING POPULATION OF 7 BILLION IS
INFLUENCING OUR CLIMATE BY BURNING FOSSIL FUELS
THAT EMIT GREENHOUSE GASES: CARBON DIOXIDE, CO2.
a. THE HUMAN INFLUENCE ON WARMING
Emissions of the greenhouse gas, CO2, are increasing at a
rate of 2.5 ppm per year.
b. CONTRAST THIS WITH SLOWER NATURAL PROCESSES
18K – 10K years ago, C02 increased at a rate 1/300th slower.
15

16. 2020 CO2 levels
of 414 ppm are
133 ppm above
the pre-
industrial
average
1875
• Carbon
isotope ratios
indicate the
CO2 increase
since1750 is
from burning
~300 million yr
old fossil
fuels.
CO2 INCREASE, INDUSTRIAL ERA
16

17. At present rate
of 2.5 ppm
rise per year,
humans are
increasing
CO2 at a rate
300 times
faster than
the recovery
from the ice
age 18,000 -
10,000 years
ago.
CO2 CONCENTRATIONS, HIGHEST (33%) IN 800,000 YRS,
COULD REACH ~800 PPM, DOUBLING BY 21OO.
Ice
Age
17

18. Increasing CO2 gas density: 1. raises temperature of earth’s surface.
2. reduces temperature of the stratosphere.
18

19. GREENHOUSE EFFECT
The glass allows energy from the sun to heat the inside of the greenhouse.
The glass traps the long wave infrared head radiation inside by reflecting it.

20. • Verification of Swedish chemist and Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius 1900 prediction.
A logarithmic increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) (blue) will raise the
temperature (green) via the Greenhouse Effect.
• Temperatures have risen more rapidly since 1980,

21. Increasing trend line
since 1980 exceeded.
Starting in the 1980s, forest fires have burned increasing areas.

22. Increasing C02 with seasonal variations expanded on the next slide

23. As trees lose their leaves in October, CO2 levels increase.
As trees regain their leaves in May, CO2 levels decrease.

24. • C02 CONCENTRATION IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE IS GREATER THAN THE SOUTHERN.
• TEMP. INCREASE, SINCE 1880, OF NORTHERN = 1.1 deg. C
• TEMP. INCREASE OF SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE = 0.4 deg C
HUMAN CO2 FOOTPRINT
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Aboard NASA’s Aquilla Satellite.
24

25. 1750-2005: Even if
the cloud albedo
effect is assumed to
have the maximum
cooling value, there
would still be a net
warming of the
climate due to
human activities.
(UN Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change,
IPCC, 2007Report)
Solar Irradiance
increased by only 0.2%
since 1750.
25

26. MAKING EARTH COOL AGAIN: Challenges, & Solutions
COOLING CHALLENGES: Fall 2018 Reports
(1) Global Climate Change Impacts in US: 13
Government Agency Report
(Nov 2018). Up to 10% decrease in US economy by
2100.
(2) Preventing 2.7 F (1.5 C) degrees of warming." IPCC
report, authored by 90 scientists from 40 countries (Oct
2018). Greenhouse pollution must be reduced by 45
percent from 2010 levels by 2030, and 100 percent by
2050.
3. COOL SOLUTIONS
(.

27. We have 12 years
to limit climate
change
catastrophe,
warns the UN.
Urgent changes
needed to cut risk
of extreme heat,
drought, floods
and poverty, says
IPCC (8 Oct 2018)

29. U.S. Climate Report Warns of
Damaged Environment and
Shrinking Economy
Nov 23, 2018
Thirteen federal agencies predict:
Global warming could knock 10% off
our economy by 2100, double that of
the 2008 recession.
Projected climate losses per year:
$141 billion from heat-related
deaths,
$118 billion from sea level rise and
$32 billion from infrastructure
damage. TOTAL $291 billion/yr
Solutions:
-Putting a price on greenhouse gas
emissions
-Next generation reactor buildout
- Vegetarian/vegan diet

30. Southern states with hot climates stand to suffer more,
with Florida taking the brunt, as it must also deal with sea level rise.
The GPD of northern states and Canada will expand. Clim-migration.

31. God blessed America,
The future’s in Canada:
Where sick don’t go bankrupt &
College doesn’t break the bank.
As the South gets too hot,
Canada will always be cool.
Canada is such a jewel.
By Paul H. Carr

32. 3. COOL SOLUTIONS to GLOBAL
WARMING.
What we can do as individuals
a. Less food waste.
b. A vegetarian/vegan diet.

33. 33
Of the 100 ways of
reducing global warming
the following were rated:
3. Reduced Food
Waste
4. Plant-Rich Diet

34. 34
Peter Kalmus, PhD,
atmospheric
scientist at Caltech,
lives with his wife
and 2 children on
1/10th the fossil
fuels of the average
American.

36. STOP EATING RED MEAT: BEEF AND PORK
Agriculture accounts for 24% of our greenhouse emissions.
• Cattle & pigs emit the greenhouse gases methane, CH4. They eat
grains needed for humans.
• In addition, deforestation—clearing land for crops, for instance—
removes trees that pull CO2 out of the air,

37. Electric Cars (EVs): Fun Saving our Earth
This Chevy Bolt (EV) has no CO2 emissions

38. MY ALL ELECTRIC 2017 CHEVY BOLT EV
• 238 mile range after charging.
• 120 mpg equivalent
• Acceleration 0 to 60 mpg in 6.3 second, about ½ that of
Tesla Model S, but the Bolt’s cost is ½,
about $33,000 with the Federal rebate.
The batteries, motor, and one-speed transmission are made in S.
Korea. The Bolt is assembled in Michigan.

39. SUMMARY
1. CLIMATE CHANGE EXTREMES: INCREASING
FOREST FIRES AND HURRICANES
2. CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE:
CO2 from fossil fuel burning is warming our
Earth via the Greenhouse effect
3. WHAT WE CAN DO IMMEDIATELY:
A more vegetarian diet.

40. CONFRONTING COVID, CLIMATE, AND ECONOMY
Nov 5. Climate Change Extremes: Increasing Wildfires and Hurricanes.
-Global warming makes dry areas dryer and wet ones wetter
as the atmosphere holds more water vapor at higher temperatures.
-Forest fires are now burning 8 times as much area as in 1985.
- As our South gets too hot, Canada will always be cool.
-Hurricane Beta is the 9th named storm, the most in a single year since 1916.
Nov 12. Confront COVID and Climate Change Now
- If we wait for a crisis, it’s too late.
- When the melting glaciers in Antarctica slide
into the sea, levels could rise 3 -10 feet.
Nov 19 Transcending Death during COVID: Are Near-Death
Experiences Proof of Heaven?
-