After a recent visit to the Norwegian Arctic with her mother, Holly Hubbard Preston saw the impact of global warming.
In early October, it was 103 degrees in the Napa Valley. Much as I wish that unseasonal heat was an anomaly, my recent trip to the Norwegian Arctic makes me think it’s probably the new normal for fall in the wine country.
A gloomy appraisal but one hard to deny after observing miles of melting sea ice in a polar region scientists say is warming four times faster than the global average. Peering over the edge of a ship, watching the water volume expand in real-time, I understood why scientists are sounding the alarm for those living in the lower latitudes.
The San Francisco Bay is adjoined by some 1,000-miles of coastline—much of which could see water levels rise by three feet within the next seventy or so years, the National Academy of Sciences projects. Aware of this statistic, it wasn’t until I stood on the ship, looking down at the melting ice I could grasp the full impact of those 36 inches.
More than just challenging our waterfront lifestyles and infrastructures, the increased water supply threatens to destabilize nearby ocean currents and air temperatures, and so too, its iconic fog.