As Las Vegas bakes in unrelenting heat, we’re getting an alarmingly close view of the global climate emergency.
In the past week alone, we’ve seen flights canceled at McCarran International Airport due to heat and wind, an emergency homeless cooling station being set up in the central valley, and NV Energy urging residents to reduce their energy use during peak hours to avoid power outages.
It’s an incontrovertible fact that is playing out before our eyes: Human-generated global warming is posing an increasing threat to Las Vegas.
Not that we’re alone in this regard. The disruption of weather patterns has created extreme heat domes in places throughout the West this summer, including:
• Portland, Ore., which recorded a record high of 116 degrees in late June. To put that in some context, the city’s high temperature for today is forecast at 87 degrees.
• Grand Junction, Colo., which has an average high temperature of about 90 degrees at this time of year, recently recorded a record high of 107.
• Death Valley, where the low temperature Sunday was a staggering 107.7 degrees, a record for North America. The high that day reached 128.6 degrees, resulting in a 24-hour average of 118.1. That was the hottest daily average ever observed on Earth.
These heat events are putting a huge swath of Americans in extreme danger, as evidenced by the fact that excessive heat warnings and heat advisories Sunday affected areas populated by 30 million people. Much of Nevada, a large part of interior California, and areas in Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Idaho were included in those heat advisories.
Those facing the highest risk are homeless individuals who are exposed to the elements, and others lacking adequate cooling systems in their homes.
But extreme heat is a problem that could affect us all. Power outages can and do occur when the grid is overloaded. Cars can and do overheat or break down due to heat-related stresses. Air conditioners can and do go out, with no guarantee of quick relief because of high demand for service technicians.
Then there’s the disquieting prospect of the long-term effects of heat on air travel, the economic lifeline of Las Vegas.
Flight cancellations due to heat are extremely rare here, thank goodness, but they’re becoming more common in the Southwest.
Why can’t planes fly in high temperatures?
Because extreme heat reduces the density of the air hovering just above the tarmac, which robs an aircraft of the lift it needs to get off the ground.
There’s no getting around this problem — it’s a matter of physics. So barring advancements in aircraft technology, it’s a risk we’re facing unless we address the spiraling heat.
And that means Nevada must maintain its efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, develop renewable energy sources and adopt other protections against climate change.
The state has taken a number of steps forward on this front in recent years, such as the approval of a ballot measure last year requiring power utilities to acquire 50% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
But as evidenced by this recent string of brutally hot days, which included tying the all-time high of 117 degrees on Saturday in Las Vegas, we must do more.
Fortunately, Las Vegas is well-armed with experts to help deal with this growing threat. That includes the remarkable staff at the Desert Research Institute, which is working on projects across the world to develop innovative approaches for addressing climate change. One recent example came in late June, when DRI partnered with the Houston Advanced Research Center for a two-year project to model and predict extreme heat risks in coastal communities.
It’s great to see Las Vegas leading the way like this. Curbing global warming isn’t something that any community can do by itself — it’s going to take nationwide and worldwide collaboration.
Nevadans understand this, and we’re moving in the right direction. But in yet another summer when temperatures routinely climb into the 110s and stick there, we can’t afford but to keep pushing forward.