The Hurricane Helene devastation in Asheville confirms we can't hide from climate change

People are still reeling from the devastation Hurricane Helene left behind, with some wondering why the storm was so intense. At least 162 people were killed across six states, with many still unaccounted for and over $35 billion in estimated damages. One community was particularly hard-hit: Asheville, North Carolina. But this is strange, because Asheville has been painted a place more resilient to climate change than other areas affected by the global crisis.

Record-breaking flooding washed out roads, including long stretches of interstates, while knocking out electricity for days. Now mules and planes are transporting supplies to the pummeled city, where residents describe a community covered in debris and without running water. Many in Asheville are scientifically literate enough to be aware that climate change, driven by burning fossil fuels, can cause extreme weather events like hurricanes to become both more common and more severe. Indeed, a recent report calculated that climate change may have triggered as much as 50% more rainfall during Hurricane Helene in some parts of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Before all this, multiple accounts from Asheville residents described hope their community would be safe from these events. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, many Asheville citizens believed they were insulated from the kinds of vicious storms that are a byproduct of climate change. “I never, ever considered the idea that Asheville would be wiped out,” Anna Jane Joyner, a climate campaigner who grew up in the area, told The Guardian.

As experts explained to Salon, the tragic reality is that there are truly no places on Earth safe from climate change.

"No where is 'safe' from climate change — but of course many people in certain parts of the world are more vulnerable than others," Dr. Charlotte A. Kukowski, a postdoctoral research associate at the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab who has studied climate change refugees, told Salon. "Tragically, those who are least responsible for climate change are the ones most at risk: namely low income people in low income countries in the global south. Low lying regions such as Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable to storm surges and climate change induced sea level rise, but even regions that have thus far been 'lower risk' are no longer safe with the increasing severity of the climate crisis."

Hurricane Helene was "absolutely" fueled by climate change, "no question," Dr. Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who emphasized his opinions are his own, told Salon. "Hotter ocean means stronger storm and hotter atmosphere means stronger flooding rain," he said. As such, Kalmus argues that both residents of Asheville and people all over the world should heed the inevitability of climate change — and the urgent need for action to address the problem at its source.

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"Even just a few years ago I regarded the Pacific Northwest as a climate haven," Kalmus said. "Now look at the deadly heat dome, the fires and smoke. Here in North Carolina, Asheville was seen as a climate haven because it’s up in the mountains and therefore cooler. Nowhere is safe. Nowhere. People need to accept this. People need to understand that I’m not exaggerating when I say everything is at risk. All the impacts so far are tiny compared to what’s coming. We must end the fossil fuel industry to survive."

As Kukowski pointed out, part of the problem in convincing people is that individuals in more affluent countries often feel detached from the issue of climate change. In addition to the economic and scientific challenges entailed in addressing climate change, people also must psychologically adjust to the new reality caused by humanity's carbon emissions.
 
"The fact that some parts of the world are more at risk than others I think gives some of the super rich the idea that they can hunker down in a bunker in New Zealand and aren’t in this with the rest of us, and unfortunately that’s true to some extent," Kukowski said. "As a rule of thumb, the older and richer you are — particularly if you live in cooler climates rather than tropical ones — the less risk climate change poses to you over the course of your lifetime, compared to young people in poverty in the global south."

Dr. Twila Moon, the deputy lead scientist at NASA's National Snow and Ice Data Center, told Salon that scientists and other experts urge communities everywhere to plan for climate change precisely because it is "a global event and a myriad of impacts will touch all communities in both interconnected and different ways."

"This is why planning for, reacting to, and influencing climate change is something every person can and should be talking about and working on with others," Moon said. "There’s no need to be a climate scientist to talk with your neighbors and coworkers about how to prepare for extreme weather like flooding, high winds, wildfires and smoke, or heat waves, and how you can work together to minimize future risks, like through using less oil, gas and coal."

Moon added, "It’s okay to feel surprised, angry, sad, frustrated or grieving due to climate change and the weird weather it’s bringing to us all. But it’s important to find others to talk with this about and find ways that you can work together to reduce future risk and prepare for these new experiences. This collaboration is key to addressing the climate crisis and to making ourselves and our communities better able to deal with these changes, in part by bringing purpose and positive personal relationships."

According to Kalmus, it is also essential to remain focused on the primary culprits behind climate change: the corporations that continue to emit greenhouse gases that cook our planet.

"This is caused by the fossil fuel industry," Kalmus said. "The entire industry has been systematically lying and blocking action for decades, otherwise I’d say it was just caused by fossil fuels. The lying executives, their lobbyists, and the politicians who took their money are responsible for this irreversible damage and they belong in prison."