“There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
– John Ruskin

Given that writer and critic John Ruskin lived from 1819 to 1900, he must be forgiven for the above quote gone wrong.

Just ask residents in Mexico, the US Midwest, China, Northern India, Bangladesh, Jamaica and South Asia. August’s weather was anything but good to them.

According to the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization, 2007 has been a year of extreme weather conditions. Prior to August, the WMO said the world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in the first seven months of the year, from heavy rain and flooding in Great Britain and Asia to heat waves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa and Bolivia.

The UN agency said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than one degree Celsius higher than average for those months.

August didn’t get any better. The US National Climatic Data Center has a list of all the hazardous weather events for the month.

Of course, we all remember Dean the hurricane that chugged its way through the Caribbean before crashing into the Mexican Yucatan as a category five colossus – the same scale of hurricane that slammed into New Orleans two years ago.

Forest fires were prominent in Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece where a Herculean effort was required to save the 2,800-year-old temples and stadiums of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Although some of the Greek fires are believed started by arsonists, the fires came on the heels of a summer-long drought and three consecutive heat waves that sent temperatures soaring over 40 degrees Celsius.

Extreme drought conditions were also felt across the United States in the west and southeast regions and parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Exceptional drought hit Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and parts of Mississippi, North and South Carolina. More than 40 cities, mostly in the southeast, had their warmest August ever.

By August 28th, 64 percent of the western U.S. was in moderate to exceptional drought, while the third week of August saw a major flooding event in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Six cities in these states set August precipitation records with more than 35 centimetres of rain.

While many European countries had their warmest January on record, England and Wales experienced their wettest May to July since records began in 1766.

Heavy rainfall devastated Mozambique in February, Uruguay in May and the Sudan in June. By August, monsoon-related rainfall that began in June was ravaging China, Vietnam, the Philippines and North Korea.

And thanks to a warm, sunny summer, scientists have reported that there is less sea ice in the Arctic than ever before recorded. Dry conditions also contributed to Lake Superior reaching its record lowest level for August.

By August’s end, negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world’s biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. A week-long U.N. climate conference in Vienna concluded that industrialized countries strive to cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes there has been an increasing trend in extreme weather events observed during the last 50 years.
Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.

September has started with ominous news of another category 5 hurricane named Felix (the first time two such powerful storms have hit land in one Atlantic hurricane season) and tropical storms Henriette and Gabrielle.

This year’s extreme weather events have caused thousands of human deaths and resulted in millions of dollars of destruction. Such weather has become the insurance industry’s biggest nightmare.

About the weather, many people say it is what it is. There was a day when that was true, but not today. Scientists are now saying it is what we make of it.

We humans are now, as Tim Flannery titled his 2005 book, the weather makers.

RESOURCES – Flannery’s book “The Weather Makers: How We are Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth” is available in paperback from HarperCollins Canada. It contains many suggestions for individuals on how to combat climate change. You can read an excerpt from the book at www.theweathermakers.ca.

Another must read is Fred Pearce’s “With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change,” 2007, Beacon Press. As Pearce says in his introduction, “Nature is strong and packs a serious counterpunch.” His analysis of the evidence for global warming and the large climatic effects it may unleash will cause you to ponder your and your children’s future.

The National Geographic has photos of 2007’s weather related disasters and a disaster-planning guide.

August also saw the release of Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature length documentary “The 11th Hour” concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The film offers hope and solutions with one scientist stating that current technology could reduce the human footprint on Earth by 90 percent. Check out 11th Hour Project and 11th Hour Action for more information on what you can do.

Michael Jessen is a British Columbia eco-writer. He can be reached by telephone at 250 229-5632 or by e-mail at zerowaste@shaw.ca.