and as global temperatures continue to rise as a result of climate change,
historic weather events impacted the U.
S. In 2021.
Hurricane ida brought unprecedented amounts of rain to the new york city area,
California had the second largest wildfire in state history this year.
Last year I should say and texas was
temporarily frozen amid a rare winter storm in february
could 2020 to bring even more devastating events joining us Now in front of the show,
Deborah brosnan,
president of Deborah brosnan and
Associates and international scientific consulting
company providing solutions to environmental risks and climate change.
Deborah, welcome back to the show. Always a pleasure to talk to you.
Let's start with the basics
of happy new Year.
Why is climate change making unprecedented events feel like normal,
even colder weather events like what we saw in texas last year?
Oh I think 2021 was the year of reckoning for
all of us with climate change because as you've described,
the texas pretty much froze.
We've had wildfire. Second largest wildfires in California.
Over 2.5 million acres burned
the pacific northwest was melting, roads were melting,
we had a heat wave and just recently we had wildfires in colorado.
I think 2021 is the year when climate change really
came home to roost for everybody and even the I.
P. C. C. I. P. C. C. Came out and said it basically that everybody in the planet
is experiencing climate change
and I believe with the covid
situation with covid and climate change together
that we are becoming more aware of these events and
we're becoming more aware that it's not just our neighbors,
But each of us individually or experiencing these.
So
from a scientific perspective, what happened in 2021 was not unexpected.
It is becoming the new normal
and and there's a lot of data showing that it will become the future and in fact,
we will even get more more intense storms,
more hurricanes moving up into the middle attitudes.
So yes, it is, it is it is becoming a new normal.
The past two years have been among the busiest
on record when it comes to atlantic hurricane season.
Denver do believe future seasons will bring
even more hurricanes more violent hurricanes.
I think what we're looking to see is that we will have
not even so much more hurricanes,
but the hurricanes that you develop will
develop faster and they will develop stronger.
So we're expecting to see
basically a more rapid development of the storms that do come into play.
And as much as we're going to see more of them, we're going to see stronger ones.
Any other weather trends you foresee across the
country in our world this year in 2022.
And of course, I have to ask how you think climate change factors into it.
I think climate change is a major driver in what we're seeing.
It's not just that these
these storms are occurring
is that we're having storms and events
occurring in places where they never occurred before
and at the frequency that they never occurred before.
I mean, either to all intents and purposes should not have had the,
the impact it had on new york.
And yet it was huge.
There were some severe floodings and
unfortunately deaths associated with either.
So for 2022, I think two things one, we will see more wildfires,
we will see wildfires in areas where we haven't seen them
and we will see straight what looked
like strange patterns weather patterns emerging.
The other thing on a positive note
is that
these weather patterns are affecting all of us
and I believe the world is now coming to grips
with the fact that we're all in climate change together
and we're seeing an alignment.
So inasmuch as we'll start to see these events happen, we will start, I believe,
to see a much greater response
across sectors, both in individual communities, among governments
and in private sector, because we're,
It's really brought us together 2021 and knowing that there is, the only way out of it
Is for all of us to work together and find solutions across the board
and I believe we will see a lot more of that in 2022,
which is to me very hopeful and very positive,
You believe 2/3 of the planet is under an effective quote death
sentence and without the resources to manage the climate change transition.
Deborah, what sort of timetable are we looking at here?
Well, for some it really depends on where you are in the world.
I think for some of the northern areas, we have more time, more developed areas.
We have more time and more resources to start to adapt and mitigate
for these small island developing states, particularly the low lying states,
marshall islands
islands in the Caribbean.
They really are in quite a bad way already and there's a huge urgency.
We're not talking about 100 years, we're talking about perhaps decades at the most.
Um they're already seeing the impact.
They're already seeing their beaches getting lost,
already having storm surge coming in, experiencing more droughts.
Uh what we're going to start seeing in many of
these islands is an increase increase in climate refugees.
So these are, if you like under a death sentence right now, it really is,
it's quite drastic from any of these areas.
Deborah, I have less than a minute with you,
but I want to ask when it comes to action and accountability,
why should we look to the private sector more than the government in your opinion?
I don't think it's an either or. I think the government can set policies
and can create the space for the private sector in which to act.
But fundamentally, the private sector has resources,
it has the ability to make decisions
and it is going to be directly affected by
climate change and the consumers
that use all these private sector goods and services
are also being affected directly.
The private sector has both a moral obligation to step up,
but also business obligation to step up.
They will lose business if they don't take action. It's as simple as that.
Deborah Rosin and president of Deborah BRosnan and Associates.
We always enjoy your, your content, your experience, your time.
Deborah thank you so much.