Arizona has been experiencing a great and terrible climate crisis for the past three hundred years. Heatwaves, wildfires, and prolonged droughts are ever more present as the planet’s temperature increases. Carbon emissions released by the United States choke the Earth’s atmosphere and disproportionately affect the already scorching American southwest. Additionally, the very harmful connotation that global warming isn’t real or far from an issue of the present will lead humanity to ruin. So, Arizona’s population and environment is in danger because the health of citizens and the increasingly volatile terrain make for a not suitable future.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Arizona’s climate has increased by two degrees in the last century (EPA, 2016). The change in temperature brings a menagerie of problems like, severe heat waves and increasingly less accessible water availability. The Decreasing size of snowpacks also diminish water supplies opportunity for winter related activities such as skiing and tourism which indubitably harms the state’s economy. In a similar way wildfires are becoming a pressing matter, encouraged by prolonged droughts and harbored by invasive grasslands, they become ferocious and pose a great threat to urban areas and human lives. (Davis, 2023) According to a Climate central study many regions in Arizona will become uninhabitable by 2050. With Increasingly difficult living conditions how does the prevalent idea that Global Warming doesn’t affect an Arizonan’s daily life so quick to be taken as fact?
Well, a lack of media literacy and acknowledgement to the world around them is a great contributor. The present state of politics in the United States also uses environmental facts as bases for argument and pipelines to indoctrinate citizens in their pursuit of power. In such a diverse state many people find it difficult to think of themselves as a part of a larger community, resulting in disregard over environmental stressors that harm public health systems, raise insurance cost, and threaten livelihoods. Misinformation has never deadlier in 2023, Maricopa County alone counted 645 heat-related deaths (Davis, 2023). It is through understanding that Arizona may realize its venture towards dark times, industrial innovation may make things easier but without adaptation and empathy humanity risks an Icarus-like demise.
Still, many believe that the idea of climate change is over blown. They argue that Arizona has always had an extreme climate and used historical data to disprove the notion that recent weather is a human caused issue. They spin the idea that technological advancements are improving continuously, past the point the threat of rising temperatures.(Britannica, 2023) As they see it, Arizona is a resilient state that will survive for as long humanity wills it to be and global warming is a hoax that has no real merit and is something to be used to divert attention from more important issues like economic development and resource management. They are correct in the idea that Arizona will exist as long as humanity wills it to be. While it is true that Arizona has always harbored extreme weather conditions the intensity and frequency of recent times has been incredibly clear to see.(Britannica, 2023) The claim that technological advancements will be enough to mitigate the impact of these changes overlooks the fact that these solutions are often reactive rather than proactive.(Britannica, 2023) For example, air conditioning may provide temporary relief from heat, but it does nothing to address the underlying issue of rising temperatures or the increased demand on energy resources, which can further strain the state’s infrastructure. And while Arizona may be a resilient state, what is the extent of its strength? An issue is not solved because it is ignored but rather grows under the care of negligence and feeds off the human unwillingness to act with the purpose of resolution.
To end, Arizona has been grappling with an escalating climate crisis for centuries, but the current intensity of heatwaves, wildfires, and droughts signals a dire future if action is not taken. The rising global temperatures, largely driven by carbon emissions from the United States, disproportionately impact the already scorching American Southwest. The harmful misconception that global warming is either nonexistent, or a distant problem will only accelerate the harm, leading humanity down a dangerous path. Arizona’s population and environment are at significant risk, as the health of its citizens and the increasingly volatile landscape threaten the viability of a sustainable future. The urgency to address this crisis has never been greater.
