Fasten your seatbelt: One reason turbulence is getting worse
Bumpy flights. Seasonal allergies. High coffee prices. None of these things seem to be connected, but they are.
Planet-warming pollution is making all of them worse.
Imagine Earth’s systems as a giant web. Tugging on one thread pulls many others, creating a ripple effect. And because humans have added a huge amount of heat-trapping pollution to the atmosphere by burning oil and gas, we’ve essentially tugged the “temperature” thread, sending global temperatures soaring 10 times faster than they did after the last Ice Age.
The ripple effect is being felt all over the globe. Warmer oceans provide the ideal conditions for hurricanes to form and intensify quickly. Hotter conditions dry out vegetation, turning forests into tinderboxes during wildfire season. These extreme weather events make headlines because they’re so destructive. But there are lesser-known effects too.
Here are three ways climate change is showing up in our daily lives, even if we don’t realize it.
1. Flights are bumpier
You know those white-knuckle moments when the plane suddenly drops and starts bouncing? Planet-warming pollution is making it worse.
Picture the Earth’s atmosphere like a layer cake. The bottom layer (where our weather happens) is getting warmer as we burn fossil fuels and add heat-trapping carbon dioxide. But the layer above? It’s actually getting colder because more heat is being trapped in that first layer. Planes typically fly right about where these two layers meet.
“The bigger the temperature difference between these layers of the atmosphere, the more vertical wind shear you get, and that can cause more turbulence,” explains Environmental Defense Fund climate scientist Fiona Lo.
It’s what pilots call “clear air turbulence” — and it’s hard to avoid as it doesn’t show up on radar like storms do. It’s more like an unexpected pothole.
While modern planes are built to handle turbulence, it’s another reason to always wear your seatbelt.
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2. Allergy season is longer
If you’ve noticed your seasonal allergies showing up earlier or lingering longer than usual, you’re not imagining things.
While a few unseasonably warm days won't trigger the start of the pollen season, if there are enough days of warm temperatures, plants will think it's spring and start releasing pollen.
In some places, like Seattle, that means people sensitive to pollen are feeling their spring allergies as early as January. And those allergies last longer too, because the onset of the first frost, which stops flowers from giving off pollen, is arriving later and later.
“Depending on the person, and what they are allergic to, it may feel like their once seasonal allergies now last all year long,” says Lo.
3. Coffee costs more
The rising price of your daily cup of coffee isn’t just because of inflation.
Coffee beans have more than doubled in price over the last year because extreme heat, drought and disease have devastated coffee crops in places like Brazil and Vietnam. “Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like heat waves and drought,” explains Lo.
Because coffee plants require a very specific temperature range to thrive, they are extra sensitive to these climate change-induced extremes. (And it’s not just coffee. Experts say food prices are climbing 2.5% per year because changing weather patterns are impacting crop yields.)
Unfortunately, the price of coffee doesn’t look like it will come down anytime soon. Farmers are working harder than ever to maintain their crops as harvests shrink. Some are choosing to abandon coffee altogether.
“Climate change is affecting our daily lives in many different ways,” Lo says. "But there is hope. Every action we take to reduce fossil fuel use is a part of the solution."
Hope for a warming planet
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