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27 August 20
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Sports Come to a Halt: NBA, WNBA, MLB, MLS Postpone Games as Players Protest Jacob Blake Shooting
Ben Golliver, The Washington Post
Golliver writes: "The NBA's restart inside a restricted bubble at Disney World, which has proceeded smoothly for more than a month without any positive novel coronavirus tests, came to a screeching halt Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. The league announced the cancellation of all three games scheduled for Wednesday as a result, and a meeting of NBA players later Wednesday night cast doubt on whether the postseason would continue at all."
The unprecedented decision to postpone the games was quickly followed by a similar decision by the WNBA, which postponed three scheduled games across the state in Bradenton, and by teams and players in numerous other professional sports.
In Milwaukee, the Brewers announced they would not play their Major League Baseball game Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds. The Seattle Mariners’ game against the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ game against the San Francisco Giants also were postponed.
The cancellations underscored an emerging new reality in big-time sports in which athletes are increasingly emboldened to express themselves on racial injustice and other social issues and leagues are finding ways to accommodate their views.
Tensions inside the bubble have mounted over the past two days, with players and coaches outraged by the video of Blake’s shooting, but the Bucks’ decision not to play in Game 5 of their first-round series caught league and team staffers by surprise.
Bucks guard George Hill was among multiple NBA players to question whether games should continue considering the ongoing social justice protests around the country, and members of the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics discussed sitting out the first game of their second-round series scheduled for Thursday.
Instead, the Bucks went first. Shortly before the scheduled 4:10 p.m. tip Wednesday, the Magic took the court for warmups like usual. The Magic was never joined by the Bucks as arena staffers, ballboys and the referees milled around the court. As the game clock ticked down toward the customary pregame introduction period, the Magic left the court, returned to its locker room and eventually departed Adventhealth Arena at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
The Bucks’ players, who were dressed in their game uniforms as if they had arrived at the arena ready to play, remained inside the locker room with their coaches, General Manager Jon Horst and other team personnel for more than three hours before emerging to demand justice for Blake from Wisconsin politicians.
“When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable,” Hill said, reading a statement on behalf of the Bucks players. “We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment we are demanding the same from lawmakers and law enforcement. We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable. For this to occur, it’s imperative for the Wisconsin state legislature to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.”
The National Basketball Players Association held a meeting Wednesday night to discuss next steps, including whether to continue play or to cancel the balance of the postseason, which is scheduled to run through mid-October. Coaches were invited to a portion of the meeting, which was held in a Disney World ballroom, before the players met among themselves.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, two of basketball’s top contenders, voted against finishing the postseason at the meeting, according to people with knowledge of the situation, while a majority of the teams present voted to continue. The NBA has a Board of Governors meeting scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday morning to determine its next steps and attempt to salvage the playoffs. There are three games scheduled for Thursday, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether those would be postponed. The Athletic first reported the meeting’s voting results.
“Throughout the season restart, our players have been unwavering in their demands for systemic justice,” union chief Michele Roberts said in a statement before the meeting. “This week we witnessed another horrific, shocking and all too familiar act of brutality in the shooting of 29 year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The players have, once again, made it clear — they will not be silent on this issue. We stand with the decision of the players of the Milwaukee Bucks to protest this injustice and support the collective decision to postpone all of today’s games.”
NBA players have been outspoken on the issues of police brutality and racial injustice and have used their platform to express them from inside the bubble set up by the league at the Disney World resort in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. “Black Lives Matter” is painted in bold letters on the courts, and players are wearing words and phrases calling for social justice on the backs of their jerseys.
But the sentiment has pivoted to anger and despair since the Blake shooting Sunday night. Lakers forward LeBron James issued a powerful postgame statement Monday, saying, “Quite frankly, it’s just f---ed up in our community.”
James’s remarks were followed Tuesday by Clippers Coach Doc Rivers, who said, “It’s amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back.”
“I commend the players on the Bucks for standing up for what they believe in, coaches like Doc Rivers, and the NBA and WNBA for setting an example,” former president Barack Obama wrote on Twitter. “It’s going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values.”
Before the Bucks’ players addressed a small group of media members, the organization’s ownership group issued a statement backing their decision not to play.
“We fully support our players and the decision they made,” Bucks owners Marc Lasry, Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan said. “Although we did not know beforehand, we would have wholeheartedly agreed with them. The only way to bring about change is to shine a light on the racial injustices that are happening in front of us. Our players have done that and we will continue to stand alongside them and demand accountability and change.”
Numerous NBA franchises, including the Lakers, issued their own statements of support for the Bucks.
The Bucks franchise has had multiple incidents with police brutality and racial profiling in recent years. Bucks guard Sterling Brown sued the city of Milwaukee after he was injured during an incident with police, and former center John Henson spoke out publicly after he was denied service by a Milwaukee jeweler.
“Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha and the additional shooting of protesters,” Brown said, reading from a statement. “Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.”
A group of Bucks players turned out for a July protest in Milwaukee with T-shirts that bore some of George Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe.” Brown, Donte DiVincenzo, Brook Lopez, Frank Mason III, reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brother Thanasis joined the crowd.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) held a brief phone call with the Bucks on Wednesday to explain how the Wisconsin process works. Kaul’s agency is investigating Blake’s shooting, and he held a news briefing Wednesday to offer an update on his ongoing investigation and identify the Kenosha police officer involved.
“I commend the Bucks and now all NBA teams that suspended their games today for stepping up and participating in the dialogue about these issues and making their voices known,” Kaul said at the briefing.
Milwaukee’s other pro team quickly followed the Bucks’ lead as MLB’s Brewers, who like the Bucks play not far from Kenosha, decided they would not play against the Reds, who agreed to sit out.
“Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight," MLB said in an unattributed statement. “Major League Baseball remains united for change in our society and we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice."
Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun told reporters the Bucks had “inspired” them.
“Our team and the Reds felt that with our community and our nation in such pain, tonight we wanted 100 percent of the focus to be on issues that are much more important than baseball,” Brewers pitcher Brent Suter, the team’s MLB Players Association representative, told reporters.
In San Diego, the Seattle Mariners, who have more Black players than any team in the sport, voted unanimously to sit out their game against the Padres, outfielder Dee Gordon said on Twitter.
Later, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers elected not to play. Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts, one of the game’s brightest stars, said he would not have played had the game taken place. In contrast to teams who played on while Black players sat out, the Dodgers decided if Betts chose not to play, they would follow him, pitcher Clayton Kershaw said.
“I’ll always remember this day and I’ll always remember this team having my back,” Betts said.
As if to underscore the prominent role athletes have in raising societal awareness of police brutality and racial injustice, the players’ strike came on the four-year anniversary of the first time former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand for the national anthem in protest.
On Tuesday, the Detroit Lions canceled practice and players addressed reporters huddled around a whiteboard reading, “The World Can Not Go On.” On Wednesday night, Washington Football Team Coach Ron Rivera announced Thursday’s practice was postponed, and several NFL players expressed support for the Bucks on social media.
“NBA is showing us how it’s done,” wrote Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills, who has frequently knelt during the national anthem. “Time to connect with local activists to help formulate demands.”
“I don’t think it’s surprising it has spread to other leagues,” Harry Edwards, a sociologist who in 1968 organized the Olympic Project for Human Rights, said in a phone conversation. "[NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell] has to be blind not to see he has some issues here that he’s going to have to deal with up front with the players. This one could spread very, very rapidly, especially if there’s yet another killing between now and the opening of the NFL season, which in my estimation is not unlikely. That’s what we’re up against here.”
All but one of the six Major League Soccer matches were postponed after one or both teams decided not to play. The only one to commence as scheduled was Nashville SC at Orlando City.
The start of the Atlanta-Miami game in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was delayed 20 minutes before being postponed. The players and referees gathered in solidarity at midfield. The same scene played out in Utah, where Real Salt Lake had been scheduled to host Los Angeles FC.
Before the first game of the MLS tournament at Disney World this summer, more than 100 players participated in a demonstration protesting racial inequality and supporting social justice causes. Throughout the month-long competition, players and coaches wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts and wore messages on their game jerseys.
Naomi Osaka, a two-time Grand Slam tennis champion, announced that she would not play her semifinal match in the Western & Southern Open in New York, a U.S. Open tuneup, hours after winning her quarterfinal. A few hours after Osaka’s announcement, the sport’s organizers said play at the event would be paused Thursday and would resume Friday. Osaka’s announcement came with some heft; the 22-year-old is the highest-paid female athlete in the world, having brought in more than $37 million in prize money and endorsements last year, and she has been outspoken on social justice issues all summer.
“I don’t expect anything drastic to happen with me not playing, but if I can get a conversation started in a majority White sport I consider that a step in the right direction,” Osaka wrote on Twitter. “Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach.”
The NHL was not aware of any plans to postpone the league’s remaining Wednesday night playoff games, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Sportsnet, instead holding “a moment of reflection” in Blake’s honor before the Tampa Bay-Boston game in Toronto and the Colorado-Dallas game in Edmonton.
“I don’t expect the league to initiate a game stoppage,” Daly said. “Obviously, our players are free to express themselves in any manner they feel is appropriate."
Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested and charged with murder of two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (photo: YouTube)
17 Year Old Police and Trump Supporter Opens Fire With Assault Rifle at Protest, Killing 2
Stacy St. Clair, Christy Gutowski, Robert Mccoppin and Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune
Excerpt: "There's one absolute truth about Kyle Rittenhouse, the alleged vigilante who has been arrested in connection with a violent Kenosha night that left two people dead and another wounded."
here’s one absolute truth about Kyle Rittenhouse, the alleged vigilante who has been arrested in connection with a violent Kenosha night that left two people dead and another wounded.
He idolized police.
His Facebook page, which was deactivated Wednesday morning after his bond court appearance, pays repeated homage to law enforcement, including a picture of him holding a long-arm rifle and framed with the “Blue Lives Matter” logo. Several posts also honored officers who died in the line of duty, while another shows him wearing a T-shirt with the logo for a popular police apparel manufacturer and Crocs emblazoned with the American flag.
The young man also has a yearslong affiliation with local police cadet programs, with photographs on social media showing him in full uniform complete with a badge, arm patch and trooper-style campaign hat. The Grayslake, Lindenhurst, Hainesville Public Safety Cadet program had pictures of Rittenhouse participating in its activities on social media before its Facebook page also was taken down Wednesday.
Yet it was Rittenhouse’s own local Police Department that arrested him around 5 a.m. Wednesday in Antioch, where he lives in an apartment complex with his mother. He was taken into custody as a fugitive from justice, wanted for first-degree intentional homicide in Kenosha.
He is being held at a Lake County juvenile detention facility pending a hearing on his potential extradition to Wisconsin, according to the sheriff’s office.
Rittenhouse attended an Iowa Trump rally in January, and video from the event shows him cheering for the president from the front row. The teen also posted a video from the rally on one of his two TikTok accounts.
His other TikTok account contains a video of himself firing a semi-automatic rifle at a target, while the song “Sail” by Kreepa plays. The rifle in the video, which was posted earlier this month, appears identical to the one he was seen carrying Tuesday night.
White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway was asked Wednesday night about Rittenhouse attending the Trump rally. “We’re not responsible for the private conduct of people at our rallies any more than … all the crazy people who have been involved with the Obama/Biden campaigns or other things,” she said.
Two people were killed and another was injured in gun violence that erupted just before midnight in Kenosha, though authorities said they had not yet determined if there was more than one shooter involved. They would not answer questions about which death Rittenhouse is charged with.
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said his office would “have to make some determinations about, at least preliminary decisions about charges or holding (the suspect) by the end of the day (Thursday).”
Authorities said the two people shot to death were a 26-year-old Silver Lake resident and a 36-year-old Kenosha resident. A 26-year-old from West Allis was injured. Authorities did not release their names.
A video posted early Wednesday shows a young man who appears to be Rittenhouse talking on the phone as he runs away from a man with a bullet wound on his head.
”I just killed somebody,” a voice on the video can be heard saying.
It’s unclear why Rittenhouse decided to involve himself in the unrest in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot multiple times in the back at close range on Sunday. In videos posted Tuesday night before the latest shootings, an armed Rittenhouse can be seen hanging out with older men who are carrying weapons and saying that they are protecting a boarded-up gas station.
The Kenosha Guard, a vigilante group that patrolled the city’s streets Tuesday night without the sheriff’s blessing, released a statement Wednesday morning saying it did not know whether the shooter had any connection to the group. It also cautioned the public to wait until the facts emerge before weighing in on the case.
In an interview with the Daily Caller that night, Rittenhouse refers to his presence as his “job” and explains his self-appointed responsibilities in policelike vernacular.
“People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business,” Rittenhouse says in the 19-second clip. “And part of my job also is to protect people. If someone is hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle; I’ve gotta protect myself obviously. But I also have my med kit.”
In another video clip, officers in an armored vehicle toss bottles of water to Rittenhouse and other armed civilians. Though the people are clearly violating the city’s 8 p.m. curfew and Rittenhouse is too young to openly carry a firearm in Wisconsin, the officer expresses his gratitude for the group.
“We appreciate you guys,” the officer says. “We really do.”
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth shrugged off the interaction at a Wednesday news conference.
“Our deputies would toss water to anybody,” he said.
The sheriff also downplayed video indicating police let Rittenhouse walk past them with a semi-automatic rifle over his shoulder as members of the crowd were yelling for him to be arrested because he had shot people. The lack of response, however, allowed Rittenhouse to return to Antioch, a far northern suburb more than 20 miles from Kenosha.
Court records indicate that Rittenhouse worked as a lifeguard at a YMCA in suburban Lindenhurst. A YMCA spokeswoman told the Tribune that Rittenhouse was a part-time employee who has been furloughed since March because of the pandemic.
“We abhor the recent violence in Kenosha,” said Man-Yee Lee, communications director for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. “Our condolences go out to the families of the victims in this incident. The YMCA of Metro Chicago is committed to racial equality. We stand with the Black community against violence toward Black and Brown people, including police brutality. We also support the right to assemble to advocate against injustices prevalent in our society, including systemic racism.”
It was not immediately known if Rittenhouse attended school, as Community High School District 117 released a statement saying an Antioch resident tied to the Kenosha violence attended Lakes Community High School for a short time during the 2017-18 school year and was no longer enrolled in the district.
Rittenhouse attended the Lake Villa school for one semester as a freshman in 2017, said Jim McKay, district superintendent. McKay said he didn’t know why Rittenhouse left the district or what school he attended afterward.
”I don’t know the details of his departure,” said McKay, who added that he doesn’t believe the teen had been involved in any sports or extracurricular activities. “He was with us for such a short period of time.”
In January 2017, his mother sought an order of protection, accusing one of Rittenhouse’s classmates of bullying her son with taunts of being “dumb” and “stupid,” as well as threatening to hurt him. Wendy Rittenhouse, a single mother who works as a nurse’s assistant, expressed concern for her son’s safety but ultimately dropped the request, according to Lake County court records. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Last week, Rittenhouse received a speeding ticket and a citation for driving without a license in Kenosha.
A drive-through testing site at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston last week. (photo: Go Nakamura/Getty)
CDC Moves to Reduce COVID-19 Testing, Trump Officials Deny Responsibility
The New York Times
Excerpt: "Over the past six months, about 1.5 billion children around the world have been told to stay home from school to help minimize transmission of the coronavirus. More than 30 percent of these students - around 463 million - were unable to gain access to remote learning opportunities when their schools closed, according to a report on Wednesday by Unicef, the United Nations agency for children."
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Portland police officers walk through clouds of smoke while dispersing a crowd from in front of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 22. (photo: Nathan Howard/Getty)
I Was Abducted by Federal Agents in Portland. Now I'm Suing.
Mark Pettibone, BuzzFeed News
Pettibone writes: "My name is Mark Pettibone, and I was abducted by unmarked federal officers in Portland, Oregon. Now, together with the American Civil Liberties Union, I'm suing the Trump administration to hold it accountable for its authoritarian and unconstitutional tactics."
Early one morning in July, I was walking back to my car in downtown Portland after a night demanding justice and accountability for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the many other Black lives taken violently by police. Suddenly, an unmarked, dark-colored minivan pulled up in front of me, and four or five people clad in military fatigues jumped out. I had no idea who they were, but I’d been warned earlier that unmarked vans had been snatching protesters who strayed from the larger group near the Hatfield Courthouse. So I did what most people would do. I ran.
One of them pursued me on foot, and two blocks up the street the van swooped around and cut me off again. Knowing well that there was no escape, I dropped to my knees and asked, “Why?” Nobody answered. Instead, they threw me into the van without telling me who they were or where they were taking me. I feared for my life.
Inside the minivan, the same four or five men were seated all around me. Someone pulled my beanie over my eyes so I couldn’t see anything. They grabbed my hands and held them over the top of my head while keeping pressure on my head and neck to keep my head down.
My mind was racing. Black Lives Matter demonstrations have been met with counteractions by far-right extremist groups in the past. Was I being abducted by them or police officers?
We drove for what felt like an eternity. Eventually the minivan stopped and the men pulled me out. I pushed my hat above my eyes and saw a large garage, filled with militarized vehicles and more people wearing similar camouflage uniforms. As strange as it sounds, I felt a sense of relief — I had been abducted by law enforcement, not one of Oregon’s right-wing militias.
The officers led me to an area where they took pictures of me on a cellphone from various angles. Then they confiscated my belongings, cuffed and shackled my wrists and ankles, and put me in a cell. Two people arrived later to read me my Miranda rights, asking me if I’d waive those rights to answer some questions. I declined their request and asked for a lawyer. After that they left me alone.
Sitting on the metal bench in my cell for hours on end, I occupied my mind by reading the etchings from previous detainees. I’d never been arrested before, and I couldn’t stop thinking of the worst-case scenarios. Will I be here for hours? Days? Longer? Would they accuse me of something I didn’t do? Did I do something wrong? Why am I even in this cell? I’d read about activists disappearing into vans in authoritarian countries abroad — was this what that felt like?
But as scared and angry as I was, at least I was still alive. I kept thinking of the many BIPOC people and immigrants who have experienced this kind of treatment by law enforcement officers and didn’t live to tell their story. How many ICE raids happened just like this, with someone being thrown into an unmarked van and separated from their families for months, years, or forever?
Eventually I was released without charges and with no record or documentation of my arrest. I had no way to know who had arrested me, how I had gotten on their radar, or what they had hoped to accomplish. Only later did I learn they were federal agents working with the Department of Homeland Security.
Since being abducted, I’ve only attended two protests. A lingering paranoia and fear have made me hesitant to exercise my rights to the fullest. I think that was part of the point of “the arrest.”
I’m not going to let this kind of unlawful intimidation chill me from participating in democracy and standing up for what I believe in. We shouldn’t have to live in fear of our own government abducting us off the streets for exercising our constitutional rights.
That’s why I’ve joined forces with the ACLU and fellow protesters, including military veterans, Black activists, and parents. The Trump administration thought it could silence us with its chemical weapons, rubber bullets, and police state tactics. But the spirit of liberty and racial justice here in Portland remains resilient and strong. We won’t be scared into silence. Nor will we rest until the Trump administration is held accountable for its lawless actions in Portland.
Social Security Check. (photo: Eric Gay/AP)
Trump's Push to Terminate Payroll Tax Could End Social Security Benefits by 2023, Chief Actuary Warns
Rebecca Shabad, NBC News
Shabad writes: "The federal government's ability to pay Social Security benefits could stop by mid-2023 if President Donald Trump were to permanently terminate the payroll tax and not offer another revenue source, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration said Monday."
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This Aug.25, 2020, satellite image released by NASA shows Hurricane Laura churning in the Gulf of Mexico. (photo: NASA)
Trump Looted Billion FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund in the Middle of a Record-Setting Hurricane Season
Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone
Stuart writes: Laura, the strongest August hurricane observed in the Gulf of Mexico since Katrina, is steamrolling toward Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas and expected to make landfall by Thursday morning."
The wisdom of that decision is called into question as Hurricane Laura heads toward Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi
The National Hurricane Center has warned the storm could bring with it an “unsurvivable” surge — waves up to 20 feet high that may cause “catastrophic” damage up to 30 miles inland — along with hurricane-force winds, heavy rain and widespread flash flooding.
If those predictions bear out, Laura could be one of the most destructive Gulf hurricanes on record. It’s particularly bad timing considering that, less than three weeks ago, instead of working with Congress to craft comprehensive legislation to address the ongoing crisis and deliver desperately-needed aid, President Trump looted FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to the tune of $44 billion — authorizing the agency to pay for a $300 per week supplement to regular unemployment benefits.
The $300 a week benefit supplement is similar to the $600 one that was included in the CARES Act passed at the start of the pandemic. An extension of that $600 benefit was included in second relief package that the House has already approved, but that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t hold a vote on. And because the Senate won’t sign off on the House bill and Trump didn’t work with lawmakers to reach a compromise, the unemployment supplement isn’t coming from money appropriated by Congress. It’s coming from the government account meant to cover natural disasters like the one presently bearing down on Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
“I am extremely concerned about the health and safety of Americans when Hurricane Laura comes ashore,” Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ), head of the subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response, and recovery, said in a statement. “The fact that President Trump would take up to $44 billion from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund right before a possibly record-setting hurricane season shows his inability to protect our country during a crisis. If he had convinced his Senate allies to pass our Heroes Act, we would have extended unemployment benefits and still had plenty of money for FEMA and states to use to help Americans recover from a natural disaster, like Hurricane Laura.”
While nearly unprecedented, a hurricane of Laura’s magnitude is not entirely unexpected. For months, experts have been warning that wind patterns and warming seas were conspiring to create a historically devastating Atlantic hurricane season, both in terms of the number of storms and in their intensity. It was with those warnings in mind that, back in April — in the midst of the pandemic, the first time in American history every state had a major disaster declaration simultaneously — House Democrats wrote to FEMA administrator Peter Gaynor to express concerns about the agency’s own preparedness. Their questions went unanswered.
Four months later, things have only gotten worse: the virus has infected millions of Americans, the entire state of California is engulfed in flames, Iowa has been devastated by a rare inland hurricane, and now Laura is on the way, on top of it all. “There is a reason the Constitution gave Congress the sole power to authorize government expenditures,” Payne continued. “It was to prevent reckless Presidents from taking money from one program to fund another one.”
A horse walks towards flames as the LNU Lightning Complex fires tear through Vacaville, California, on August 19, 2020. (photo: Noah Berger/AP)
Climate Chaos: Extreme Heat, Wildfires and Record-Setting Storms Suggest a Frightening Future Is Already Here
Jeff Berardelli, CBS News
Beradelli writes: "From the historic heat wave and wildfires in the West, to the massive derecho that tore through the middle of the nation, to the record-breaking pace of this year's hurricane season, the unprecedented and concurrent extreme conditions resemble the chaotic climate future scientists have been warning us about for decades - only it's happening right now."
While climate catastrophes are typically spaced out in time and geographic location, right now the U.S. is dealing with multiple disasters. The Midwest is cleaning up from a devastating derecho that caused nearly $4 billion in damage to homes and crops, as nearly a quarter-million people in the West are under evacuation orders or warnings from fires that have burned over 1 million acres, and at the same time residents along the Gulf Coast are bracing for back-to-back landfalls of a tropical storm and hurricane.
"This current stretch of natural catastrophe events in the United States are essentially a snapshot of what scientists and emergency managers have long feared," says meteorologist Steven Bowen, the head of Catastrophe Insight at AON, an international risk mitigation firm.
Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University, happened to be in Australia on sabbatical last year and witnessed the devastating wildfires there — a similar scene to what is playing out in California right now. For years Mann has sounded the alarms about the acceleration of human-caused climate change, but even he is somewhat surprised at the pace.
"In many respects, the impacts are playing out faster and with greater severity than we predicted," he said.
To be sure, these events are not all related to each other, but the one thing they do have in common is that climate change makes each one more likely. The simple explanation is that there's more energy in the system and that energy is expended in the form of more extreme heat, fire, wind and rain.
It may be tempting to look at these extremes as a "new normal," but Dr. Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says while it may be new, it won't be normal.
"For some time we have talked about a 'new normal' but the issue is that it keeps changing. It does not stop at a new state. That change is what is so disruptive," he said.
California wildfires
The fires unfolding in California right now have no parallel in modern times. With more than 1 million acres burned in just one week, the season is already historic with more acres burned in this past week than is typical of an entire year. Two of the state's top three largest fires on record are burning at the same time — the LNU and SCU complex fires — with the likelihood that one of these will take over the top spot soon.
As of Monday morning, CalFire reports over 7,000 fires have burned more than 1.4 million acres this season, overwhelming resources to the point where many of the smaller fires are being allowed to burn. CalFire stated that to fight these fires to the maximum of their ability, the agency would need nearly 10 times more firefighting resources than are available.
As is the case in any natural disaster, the cause can be traced to multiple coinciding events. In this case, the spark for most of these fires was a siege of lightning strikes as a result of moisture drawn into California from two decaying tropical systems in the eastern Pacific, which ignited dry brush.
Daniel Swain is a well-known climate scientist who specializes in studying the link between climate change and weather in the West at the University of California, Los Angeles. In a blog post he described how even someone like him, well-versed in climate disaster, is shocked by the current situation: "I'm essentially at a loss for words to describe the scope of the lightning-sparked fire outbreak that has rapidly evolved in northern California – even in the context of the extraordinary fires of recent years. It's truly astonishing."
While it's not rare for tropical moisture to invade California, it is infrequent, and extremely unfortunate that it happened during one of the worst western U.S. heat waves in recent history, not to mention an ongoing short- and long-term drought. Researchers believe that in the year 2000 the western U.S. entered a megadrought, one of the worst in the past 1,200 years.
This is why climate scientists often say that climate change "loads the dice" for extreme weather. The cause of the fires is not climate change, but many of the factors which set the stage and made conditions ripe for fire ignition and spread are a direct result of a warming climate.
On August 16, Death Valley reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth. It was just a small part of a monster heat wave which broke hundreds of heat records over a two-week span. The link between heat waves and climate change is straightforward, and multiple studies have shown that a warmer climate is making heat waves more likely and more intense.
"Basically there is more heat available: Earth's energy balance is out of whack," says Trenberth. That extra heat energy, trapped in the atmosphere by excess greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, must be used up in some way.
Trenberth explains, if the land was wet the heat would be used first to evaporate water, keeping air temperatures moderate. But when the air and ground are bone dry, as is typical of the dry season in California — especially in summers like this — the excess heat energy is expended by drying out the brush and warming and drying the air.
This long-term drying out of the air has created a "vapor pressure deficit" — or in simpler terms, a moisture deficit. According to a 2019 study, this is a leading reason for the intensified summer fire seasons in California, presently at record levels.
According to the paper, "Nearly all of the increase in summer forest-fire area during 1972–2018 was driven by increased vapor pressure deficit."
Midwest derecho
A derecho is a particularly fierce and long-lasting line of thunderstorms, often causing winds over 75 mph. While these weather events are common during summer, the event that took place August 10 in Iowa and Illinois seemed otherworldly.
The squall line plowed a path 800 miles long and 40 miles wide through communities and corn fields, damaging 43% of Iowa's corn and soybean crop and causing nearly $4 billion in damage. Winds are estimated to have reached up to 140 mph, with hurricane-force winds lasting 40 to 50 minutes.
At first glance it would seem that this is just a freak natural event, with no real connection to climate change, but that may not be the case. While there is not much research on the connection between climate change and derechos, one recent paper found some alarming results.
The research team used a climate model to simulate mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), a technical term for masses of thunderstorms, in a warming world. These MCSs are the parent structures which sometimes spawn derechos. Using a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the paper concluded: "At the end of the century, the number of intense MCSs are projected to more than triple in North America during summer due to more favorable environmental conditions."
The research also found that MCSs' maximum hourly precipitation rates will increase by 15% to 40% in the future, due to a warmer atmosphere loaded with more moisture. "The moisture source for MCSs in the central U.S. is predominantly the Gulf of Mexico and climate change will increase the low-level jet stream moisture transport from the Gulf northward," explains lead author Dr. Andreas Prein, from the National Center For Atmospheric Research.
"How this all relates to changes in derecho frequency and intensity is poorly understood," Prein admits, but now that climate models are capable of modeling this, he plans to make it a priority in future studies.
While Mann did not comment specifically on derechos, he does feel extreme events are not properly captured in current climate models. "I have argued that the climate models are likely underpredicting the impact on the frequency and severity of various types of extreme summer weather events due to deficiencies in their ability to capture some of the relevant jet stream dynamics."
Hurricane season
Having two tropical systems like Marco and Laura in late August, the beginning of the peak of hurricane season, is not abnormal, even if the storms are very close to one another. But what is abnormal is the record-setting pace of the current hurricane season. So far the Atlantic season has tallied 14 named storms, 10 days ahead of record pace. That's two more than the average number for an entire season, which runs through the end of November. Seasonal forecasters are predicting up to 25 named systems this year, which would place second behind 2005.
While there are many factors that contribute to how active a hurricane season will be, the most obvious is the warm water which fuels storm development. This year, nearly the entire tropical Atlantic Basin is above normal. This is part of a long-term trend of warming in which Atlantic sea surface temperatures have increased by around 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900, and the measure of Ocean Heat Content hits record highs each and every year.
Warmer ocean temperatures do not guarantee more storms, but they do tip the balance, giving storms that extra boost to develop. After years of research, climate science is still not sure how a warming climate will impact the number of systems in the future, but there is consensus that, in general, hurricanes will get stronger and the strongest, most destructive hurricanes will get more frequent. Since major hurricanes — Category 3 and greater — are responsible for 85% of the damage, a warmer climate is likely to have devastating economic and human consequences.
Compound events
Within research circles and among emergency planners, the concept of compound threats has become a very popular subject. For years now scientists have warned that increasing population, exposure and vulnerability combined with extreme events spiked by climate change, would overwhelm resources and compromise emergency response. Experts argue we are now seeing that unfold in real time.
"These equally profound events occurring in different parts of the country at the same time — what we call compounded or connected extremes — run the risk of putting significant strain on resources, budgets, and the supply chain," said Bowen.
This is a topic often missed in general discussions of climate change. It may seem easy to dismiss a few degree rise in global temperatures as inconsequential. However, when a cascade of extreme events, each made worse by human-caused climate change, pile on top of one another, it exposes the fragility of interconnected human systems.
"Add in the continued complications posed by COVID-19, and you're faced with even greater challenges in trying to get communities back on their feet," Bowen said.
Bowen recently authored a paper with other prominent scientists attempting to tackle this complicated issue. He says because of socioeconomic factors, population spreading into more high-risk regions, and an acceleration of climate change, more intense events "will only exacerbate the impacts of these compound scenarios in the future."
Experts warn that what we are witnessing in the present moment is a window into everyday life in the not-too-distant future if humans do not reverse course and curb emissions. This is how climate change becomes a truly destabilizing force. That's why Bowen and colleagues argue that much more urgency is needed to identify these unexpected combinations and the risks they pose to society.
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