We have been seeing much more extreme weather gradually over the years. Winters in Los Angeles have somehow been both rainy and cold, with some minor heat waves in between. For instance, this weekend the temperature is expected to rise up to 77 degrees. Should we be wearing sweaters or not? Who knows.
We’re already seeing the effects of climate change around the United States, but what are the effects of climate change for us here in Los Angeles this winter?
Back in 2019, we saw snow in Los Angeles, unusual enough. Yet global warming is causing winters to grow warmer due to the burning of fossil fuels, as well as increasing levels of greenhouse gases. A weak La Niña weather system is forecast this winter, affecting weather patterns across the U.S. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts expanding droughts in the central Rocky Mountains and the Colorado River watershed, which also stand to affect Southern California.
Annenberg Media spoke with John Vidale, a USC professor of earth sciences who is a self-professed “optimist,” but also a realist. He explained how climate change is raising not just the temperatures, but also sea levels.
“The circulation areas are getting drier and wetter. But again, I don’t know which way Los Angeles is headed,” he said. “It does seem a little drier than it used to be. Climate change is affecting our motion currents a bit. It’s raising sea level just a tiny bit. It’s having much more effect, I think, in the northern latitudes, northern and southern latitudes, where the ice is all melting.”
Brendan Zbanek, a USC sophomore studying communications and marketing who aced Vidale’s International Baccalaureate environmental science class, is fascinated with climate change as well. He believes global warming will impact not only our seasonal temperatures, but real estate as well.
“In California, there are houses on the coast that are just kind of eroding as the sea levels and the ocean levels rise,” Zbanek said. “So, these multi-million-dollar properties, people are just being forced to lose their homes. And then that also, with that wildfire as well as we’ve seen in California, especially. So, wildfires obviously aren’t good for anyone, as they just burn homes and people are misplaced.”
Zbanek also wonders about the future of the agricultural economics.
“It also affects just basic weather patterns, and a lot of that can really throw off the agricultural systems. So that can lead to the farmers and the agriculture workers, not only in America, obviously, but in the entire world, into different periods of droughts, or just really anything that throws away their typical farming practices, which obviously isn’t great for grocery stores and just people’s food overall,” he said.
We hate to be a Krampus, but with the economy’s high prices already, hopefully crops will successfully grow, or we could be in for not-so-merry holidays.