The Year We Woke Up: A List of 2019’s Biggest Climate Change-related Calamities

Vice Asia describes 2019 as the year we “woke up.” While this certainly pertains to the youth—who this year came out in droves to protest on issues such as women’s rights and climate change–it also applies to millions all over the world who experienced worsening calamities, exacerbated by climate change. The experience of unnaturally powerful storms and weather phenomena occurring so frequently, and so close to home, served as a wake-up call for many people, and etched the vulnerability and urgency brought by climate change into everyone’s mind. 

2019 has given us a substantial preview of what to expect in the future if the state of reforms and negotiations to address the climate crisis remains in the status quo. In this article, we list some of the biggest climate change-related calamities that happened in 2019, both as a reflection of the past year and a sobering reminder of what we face if drastic changes are not made.

Fire and Ice, Water and Wind

January saw one of the coldest months in North America, with a disruption in the jet stream, caused possibly by warming Arctic waters, creating a polar vortex in most of Canada and the northern United States, plunging the region to temperatures of up to -40°C.

Twitter user @davidpfunk takes this photo of an icy Lake Michigan from his plane / Twitter

Twitter user @davidpfunk takes this photo of an icy Lake Michigan from his plane / Twitter

Meanwhile, Australians down South felt the opposite, with unprecedented heat waves, sometimes lasting for more than 40 days and reaching higher than 40°C, affecting parts of Tasmania and Southern Australia.

In March, we experienced what some would say is the worst weather-related disaster ever to strike the Southern Hemisphere. Southeastern Africa, specifically the countries of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, was hit by Cyclone Idai, displacing thousands of residents due to roaring floods, turning port cities such as Beira into an “island in the ocean,” after being almost completely cut off from the continent.

Cyclone Idai hits Beira, Mozambique | Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Cyclone Idai hits Beira, Mozambique | Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

A few months later in May, Cyclone Fani hit the Indian subcontinent, leaving 89 people dead, the last of several unusual storms in that season appearing in very unexpected places likely caused by warming seas—creating the most favorable conditions for storms to form.

A flock of birds rests on a tree shade in the middle of a heatwave that hit Europe in the summer of 2019. | James D. Morgan / Getty

A flock of birds rests on a tree shade in the middle of a heatwave that hit Europe in the summer of 2019. | James D. Morgan / Getty

The succeeding summer season brought extreme heat to Europe, with heat waves raising temperatures in June to as high as 45.9°C in areas such as France, and breaking historical records all over Europe since we started keeping track of them. Scientists say that “every heatwave occurring in Europe today is made more likely and more intense by human-induced climate change.” July, the month after, was then designated as the hottest month on record for the planet, period.

In August, the world saw the Amazon rainforest burned by humans for cattle-grazing and farmland expansion, and the succeeding wildfires exacerbated by the dry spells caused by climate change. It’s quite a paradox that we are destroying the very forests we need to combat climate change while such destruction is also aggravated by climate impacts.

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

In the Arctic, record-low sea ice levels were observed in August, with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado noting that 250 billion tons of sea ice, equivalent to more than 90 million Olympic-size swimming pools, have already been lost. A Washington Post article says that “Greenland lost from 12 billion to 24 billion tons of ice per day, which was about 6 to 18 billion tons above the typical rates seen on these dates seen during the period from 1981-2010.”

The aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas. | Brendan Smialowsky / Getty

The aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas. | Brendan Smialowsky / Getty

Consequently, in September, Hurricane Dorian, strengthened by warming seas, battered the southeastern coast of the United States and its surrounding territories, specifically the Bahamas, where the hurricane stalled and brought storm surges and strong winds into the island nation. It left 70 people dead and more than 300 people are still missing as of early December.

A month afterwards in November, the grand Italian city of Venice, known for its canals and waterways, experienced its worst floods since 1966. High tides or acqua alta reached a peak of 1.4 meters four times in the month of November alone, when it would otherwise take place only twice a year. The floods also left the city damaged, including the historic St. Mark’s Cathedral.

Rolling Stones.jpg

 And finally, in December, we return to Australia where bushfires once again set the country on fire, ravaging the southeastern portion of the continent and leaving many lives disrupted and changed forever. Koalas in New South Wales, caught in the midst of the catastrophe, were estimated to have lost 30% of their population. Despite these tragic incidents, the Australian government continues to uphold the status quo in its energy production portfolio, remaining heavily reliant on coal power. It’s also worth noting that the Australian delegation played a significant role in blocking progress at the recently concluded 25th UNFCCC Conference of Parties held in Madrid, Spain. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the result of the negotiations “a disappointment.”

Heath Holden / Getty Images

Heath Holden / Getty Images

Waking Others Up

Despite the growing frequency and intensity of climate disasters all over the world, we still find many people, especially those in power and authority, choosing to ignore the suffering of the many. Placing primacy on vested interests and equipped with a false sense of security, they continue to stall, as long as they can, making the changes needed to avert the worst consequences of climate change. This flies in the face of unequivocal pronouncements by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its recent special reports on global warming in a 1.5ºC world, climate change and land, and oceans and cryosphere, which all tell of drastic reforms at scale, necessary for life on this planet to continue as we know it.

As we enter 2020, we stress the need for radical hope–one that will galvanize people into action, with a sense of ownership of and responsibility for the world we are living in and the same and only one our children will inherit.

Climate change is not something we need to prevent from happening in the future. It is happening now. Although many have woken up, the question remains: what do we do with those pretending to sleep?

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