From Jasper to Kerala - Climate chaos and capitalism

Sunday, July 21st was the hottest day ever recorded at 17.09 degrees Celsius, calculated by averaging thousands of global land and sea temperatures. But the next day broke the record again, registering 17.16 degrees. 

 

Last year was the hottest year on record too, but this record seems likely to be broken this year as well. Such records will continue to be broken unless the world stops burning fossil fuels and starts taking concerted action to ensure a livable future for generations to come.

 

The greenhouse effect traps more of the sun's energy, raising temperatures but also increasing wind speeds, raising the capacity of the air for water vapour and increasing electrical discharges. These contribute directly to the various extreme effects of the climate crisis in "heat domes", rapidly developing hurricanes, increasingly frequent tornadoes, atmospheric rivers and flash flooding. Still other parts of the planet suffer from drought, famine and desertification.

 

In North Korea, powerful summer floods have prompted the rescue of close to 5,000 people according to the state news agency. 

 

In Kerala, 166 people were killed and 3000 displaced this week by mudslides caused by torrential rains.

 

15 people in Hunan province in the southeastern region of China were killed in mudslides caused by winds and rains from the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi. This extreme weather also displaced 300,000 people in China after causing death and destruction in Taiwan and the Phillipines where authorities were struggling to contain an oil spill after a tanker ship capsized.

 

Closer to home the impacts are clear for all to see. Extreme heat across the southern and western U.S. has been devastating. In California, the Park fire is now the seventh largest wildfire recorded, consuming more than 350,000 acres. Extreme heat in Death Valley has seen air temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius and sand temperatures close to 70 degrees - a Belgian tourist who lost his flip flops suffered severe burns to his feet.

 

It is no different in Canada. Last year saw the most destructive wildfire season ever recorded, with almost 18 million hectares of forest burned, tens of thousands of people evacuated and cities across North America blanketed in dangerous smoke. While this year's wildfire season hasn't been as destructive overall, in BC and Alberta the past few weeks has seen the rapid expansion of huge wildfires. The town of Jasper saw a third of all structures in the town destroyed as two separate wildfires laid waste to this tourist centre. Alberta premier Danielle Smith was very emotional when talking to the media about the scale of the destruction, but maintains her climate denial - last year she called climate change a "conspiracy theory", instead putting forward her own conspiracy by blaming unnamed arsonists with no evidence. 

 

In early July, rains fed from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, that ravaged the Caribbean, Mexico and Texas, deluged Montreal, flooding roads and communities. In mid July, southern Ontario was hit by a series of three thunderstorms in 3 hours on July 16th that deluged London, Brampton and Toronto in blankets of rain. Nearly 100 mm of rain fell in Toronto, flooding basements with poisoned water, causing widespread power outages, burying roads under water and causing transit mayhem. The rain intensity was "something you'd see in a hurricane", according to meteorologist Dave Phillips.

 

The UN climate talks have failed to halt the rise of global greenhouse gas emissions driving more extreme weather because they will not confront the fossil fuel industry. This is no accident as big oil and gas companies are some of the largest, most profitable in the world. The portability of fossil fuels helps bosses in all sectors of the economy to maximize profits. Fossil fuel producing states like Canada are locked into massive investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, roads and direct subsidies to producers as they compete economically on the world stage.

 

The policies of supposed climate champions like the Trudeau liberals do not match the urgency of the crisis, using weak market mechanisms that will not drive the emissions reductions needed. At the same time, they continue to foster further oil and gas development, particularly for export,

 

Meanwhile, major cities like Toronto are ill prepared for the quickly developing climate crisis. 

 

The July 16 downpour recorded half the rainfall from Hurricane Hazel in 1954, but over 3 hours instead of 2 days. The flooding 70 years ago destroyed bridges and many GTA homes and killed 81 people. But the worst destruction was in floodplains of rivers like the Humber that swelled to four times the normal flow. Afterwards, housing development was banned from these areas, and bridges are required to be more robust.

  

The amount of green-space in the GTA has dwindled since then making the city more vulnerable. The expansion of hardscape—pavement, roofs, etc—that shed water has turned the city into a bowl with limited drainage. One week later a storm dropped 25 mm in half an hour causing flooding on the DVP and Lakeshore Blvd that shut them down for 3 hours. 

 

Now flooding risks are greater because of inadequate storm sewer capacity that struggles to divert water from communities located close to the lake, rivers and other streams buried under pavement. Overflowing water then flows along city streets, in yards and basements following the path of least resistance.

 

Maps of the vulnerable communities for storm sewer overflow are not made public for fear that this would affect property valuations.

 

It's a public health issue, as about a quarter of the city is served by combined sewers where wastewater and stormwater share the same channel. Normally these flow to wastewater treatment plants, but when they overflow they release harmful bacteria, pathogens, heavy metals, oils, pesticides and nutrients that can increase algae growth downstream. 

 

In addition, water treatment facilities are forced to release partially treated water to prevent being completely overwhelmed—1.3 million litres were released on July 16th.

 

Downtown subway stations were flooded, and the concourse level of Union station was covered in an inch of water. Flooded transformers and lightning strikes caused widespread power outages especially in the downtown core and the west side. At its peak, 167,000 Hydro customers were affected—some for over 2 days.

 

But the Ford government keeps making it worse for Toronto. They are increasing the hardscapes by spending billions on roads, while driving private vehicle ownership by underfunding public transit development and operations, leading to inadequate or inoperable public transit. They are pushing the expansion of urban sprawl that is increasing the runoff inundating Toronto's rivers and streams. They are pushing the expansion of methane gas fired electricity, and passing Bill 165 that overturned an Ontario Energy Board decision that had gone against a request from Enbridge to charge customers for new development hookups. All this will drive further climate crises, and decrease the ability of Toronto to handle the intense rainfall that is the new normal. 

 

An economy that is structured to produce a surplus for the owners of capital treats "unintended" consequences of infrastructure decisions as an externality—to be paid for by people and governments. Capitalism is driving down working conditions and wages while simultaneously undermining prospects for a livable future.

 

We need an economy where the needs of the vast majority of working people, including sustaining a world for future generations, is the goal—not the profits of a tiny minority. This will take revolutionary action by the global working class, connected with Indigenous struggles for land back.