Don Sutherland's photos with the keyword: climate change

AI-generated image: With CO2 now exceeding 420 PPM, humanity is leaving the Holocene and returning to the Mid-Pliocene warm period. Glacial erratics provide reminders of the ice sheets that once existed. Rising seas have claimed land. Tropical plants have migrated northward. The world is a vastly different one from which modern humans evolved, proliferated, and prospered. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence concerning climate change and its causes and growing urgency for humanity to choose a safer climatic future, COP 28 failed to adopt even minimal targets for curbing and reducing the fossil fuel emissions driving climate change. Despite bold rhetoric about addressing climate change, the United States became the world's largest oil and gas producer on record. Both outcomes are a de facto choice to take humanity into a climate that has not been seen since the Mid-Pliocene period, which was 1.8°C-3.6°C (3.2°F-6.5°F) warmer than the pre-industrial climate. Then, seas peaked at 25 meters above current levels. Those outcomes represent an unspoken but real down payment toward sacrificing some of the world's great coastal metropolises—Amsterdam, Bangkok, Jakarta, Lagos, London,New York, and Tokyo—to Neptune for only human misery in return.

A snowstorm blankets the landscape (Larchmont, New York)—February 13, 2024. The storm brought 3.2" (8.1 cm) of snow. Overall, the season has been characterized by much below normal snowfall. Through today, seasonal snowfall is 7.5" (19.1 cm). Last winter saw the least snowfall on record with just 2.3" (5.8 cm). New York City went through a record 701-day stretch without seeing daily snowfall of 1.0" (2.5 cm) or more. The old record was 383 days. Should New York City finish with less than 10.0" (25.4 cm) of snow, Winters 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 would mark the first time two consecutive winters had less than 10.0" (25.4 cm) of snow. (The snow season ends on June 30th, although New York City has never seen measurable snowfall after April 25th. Normal snowfall is 29.8" (75.7 cm). In terms of temperatures, Winter 2023-2024 is concluding today with a seasonal average temperature of 40.6°F (4.8°C) in New York City. That is its fourth warmest winter on record. The past two winters have become the first occurence of two consecutive winters having average temperatures of 40.0°F (4.4°C) or warmer in New York City. Such winters were once rare. Prior to 2000, only one winter, 1931-1932, had a mean temperature of 40.0°F (4.4°C) or above. Since then five winters have seen such warmth: 2001-2002, 2011-2012, 2015-2016, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024. New York City's records go back to 1869. Many locations experienced their warmest winter on record. Much of Canada, the Northern Plains in the United States, parts of Europe, and northwest Africa saw extraordinary warmth. Scandinavia was one of the few places that had a colder than normal winter. Overall, it seemed that autumn lingered through the winter months giving up only its glorious colors, but not much of its warmth. Now, the early flowers of spring already dot the landscape.

AI generation: A pianist plays with one hand during a moonlit night while a nearby volcano explodes. The image represents humanity’s largely business-as-usual course even as rising greenhouse gases lead to severe heatwaves, intense precipitation, severe droughts, and widespread marine heatwaves. The use of a single hand symbolizes humanity’s less than full effort to address climate change. The erupting volcano warns of the dangers that lie ahead. The full Moon and clear night sky represent the flourishing world that is fast disappearing.

An AI generation of fish fleeing warming, increasingly acidic waters in search of refuge from climate change. Climate change has led to an increased frequency, expanse, and magnitude of marine heatwaves, along with growing acidification of the world's oceans.

Another round of smoke from ongoing wildfires in Canada shrouded New York City today (New York City, New York)--June 30, 2023. The Air Quality Index remained in the 160s (unhealthy) throughout the afternoon.

A pallid sunrise created by the wildfire smoke that originated in the western United States and Canada (Larchmont, New York)—July 20, 2021 Climate scientists have long highlighted the overwhelming evidence that greenhouse gas pollution is driving a warming of the Earth’s climate. They have long warned that extreme weather and related events—heat waves, drought, floods, and wildfires—would result from ongoing climate change. Greenhouse gas polluters knowingly attacked the truth and deliberately pushed propaganda aimed at paralyzing policy. Policy makers remained oblivious 2021 has already seen an unprecedented heat wave crash upon North America’s Pacific Northwest; unsparing drought send reservoirs in California and Utah’s Great Salt Lake to record lows; exploding wildfires and fire tornadoes pillage parts of western North America and Siberia; terrible floods ravage parts of Europe, India, Nigeria, Russia, and China; and drought-driven famine stalk Madagascar’s helpless population like vultures awaiting death. The suspects —those who bear primary responsibility for the climate catastrophes of this year and the even greater ones that lie ahead—are well-known. Yet, in many countries, policy makers remain enthralled by the siren song of those fossil fuel polluters. Many governments subsidize the expansion of these increasingly destructive enterprises and activities. People bear the enormous and growing burden of the costs and consequences of climate change. The lifeless morning of July 20 is just the latest reminder that the world is now at, and perhaps beyond, a pivotal moment. That moment requires courageous, committed, and ethical leadership that, perhaps for the first time, puts the wellbeing of society ahead of the interests of the amoral architects of destructive climate change. There is no refuge for the world’s peoples from climate change. There are no permanent resting places for the world’s peoples. The intervals between extreme events are temporary respites. Justice requires that there be no respite for the polluters. November’s COP26 conference offers the world’s leaders a renewed chance to chart a better course for humanity. Eloquent words and bold promises won’t matter. Only credible commitments anchored in enacted policy changes will matter. Examples include eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, permanently suspending the awarding of new oil and gas exploration and drilling leases, shutting down the coal industry, providing investments for rapidly building and scaling clean energy technologies, levying a fee on the greenhouse gas polluters for their pollution, and establishing binding deadlines for the transition toward achieving global net zero emissions. There still remains time for a reasonable transition. However, each day of relative inaction only squanders the slender amount of time that now separates relatively painless transition from painful disruption. The world’s leaders can still secure humanity’s future. At COP26, they should rise to the occasion. What course will they choose?

Glacier overlooking Fjallsárlón, Iceland—July 28, 2016. The unprecedented heatwave that melted all-time temperature records in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington provided a fresh and recurring reminder of what is at stake as climate change continues. To date, the recent episodes of shocking heat occurred in Europe on two occasions during summer 2019, Siberia in 2020, the U.S. Southwest in summer 2020, the U.S. Southwest in mid-June and then the Pacific Northwest in late June. Nevertheless, the status quo still stubbornly resists.