Climate change is increasingly causing extreme weather around the globe, including more hurricanes and other storms, record-breaking heat (i.e. 2023 was the hottest year on record, 2024 may break that record), and extreme drought.
The month of October is in the record books as the driest month on record for nearly 80 climate stations across the eastern half of the U.S., from New York City to Nantucket, MA, from Newark, NJ, Columbia, SC, and Memphis, TN, to St. Louis and Detroit. Despite the rain on November 21, this month has not been much better.
Drought causes forest fires, because the warmer air, combined with lack of rainfall, dries out foliage more quickly, making it susceptible to combustion. If there are high winds, the danger is exacerbated.
In November, New York City had more than 270 brush fires, a record, including one in Prospect Park. Since early October, The New York Times reports, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have had 860 wildfires.
Feeding these fires is extreme, shifting weather, with The Times reporting that extremely wet weather earlier in 2024 led to lush vegetation growth, and that now, with the sudden and extreme dry conditions, there’s ample fuel for fires.
“The weather whiplash we’ve seen is more likely to happen in a warmer world,” Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told The Times, explaining that the warmer it is, the thirstier air becomes, sucking moisture out of soil and plants, drying them out faster.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that “rising temperatures caused by climate change are making already dry regions drier and wet regions wetter. In dry regions, this means that when temperatures rise, water evaporates more quickly and thus increases the risk of drought or prolongs periods of drought.”
The WHO reports that droughts have huge economic consequences: “An estimated 55 million people globally are affected by droughts every year, and they are the most serious hazard to livestock and crops in nearly every part of the world. Drought threatens people’s livelihoods, increases the risk of disease and death, and fuels mass migration. Water scarcity impacts 40% of the world’s population, and as many as 700 million people are at-risk of being displaced as a result of drought by 2030.”
New York City is under its first drought warning in 22 years, with reduced reservoir capacity normal for this year from 79 percent to 63 percent. New Yorkers are being asked to conserve water.
Globally, this is a significant problem, too. ScienceDaily, in an article about a report released on November 16 from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the total amount of fresh water on earth had dropped precipitously since May 2014, which “could indicate Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase.”
“The reduction in available water puts a strain on farmers and communities, potentially leading to famine, conflicts, poverty, and an increased risk of disease when people turn to contaminated water sources,” the article said, paraphrasing a UN report published in 2024.
The ScienceDaily said that while it is strongly suspected that global warming is the cause of this drop in fresh water, it is difficult to prove this definitively. However, the fact that this drop in global fresh water coincided with a period when earth experienced the nine warmest years on record, NASA’s Rodell said, “We don’t think this is a coincidence, and it could be a harbinger of what’s to come.”
Drought and lack of water will, of course, exacerbate migration of disadvantaged communities around the world, leading to the movement of large numbers of people, millions, across country borders, worldwide.
As drought conditions increase, so will the wildfires and the resulting serious health hazards.
“Wildfires not only are dangerous due to the spread of fires, which can destroy miles worth of forests, it is the wildfire smoke that is of the most danger,” reports the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC). “Wildfire smoke can contain an amalgamation of different hazardous chemicals that can spread far and wide due to winds and air currents. These can include fine levels of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, lead, or aromatic hydrocarbons. A large amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases can be released into the atmosphere as well.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists 15 health risks from forest fire smoke, from eye and respiratory tract irritation to coughing and wheezing to reduced lung function and bronchitis to heart failure, stroke and increased risk of premature death.
The EPA also lists an increased risk of asthma exacerbation as a risk factor to wildfire smoke exposure.
The AJMC reports that approximately 10 percent of the tri-state population (NY, NJ and CT) have asthma and that a significant cause of death in the area is heart disease and chronic lower respiratory diseases.
This could indicate that “should wildfires become as prevalent as predicted in this area, the burden on health care systems … could be more demanding,” the AJMC states. Not to mention the suffering by individuals who have asthma and other heart and respiratory ailments.
For more information about droughts and wildfires, you can visit drought.gov, Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell and the World Health Organization.
Peter Aronson, a volunteer writer at the New York League of Conservation Voters since September 2022, is a former journalist and retired attorney. He is the author of Mandalay Hawk’s Dilemma: The United States of Anthropocene, a novel for middle-grade readers about kids fighting global warming. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, wrote: “A scathing work and an essential blueprint for youth battling climate change.” To read more about Peter, visit his website www.peteraronsonbooks.com or to purchase his book, click here.