Climate: Exacerbating The Term “Exacerbating”
Even the terminology we use is becoming more severe
Where there’s heat, there’s multipliers
If you have watched the news recently, you may have noticed the redundancy of several new terms and phrases. Amplification is one, threat multiplier is another. The word “exacerbate” is used almost nightly on the newscast that we watch.
To exacerbate something, of course, is to make it worse.
It is because the reality of climate crisis touches upon almost every other single place and event. As just one example, the fire in Maui had many factors: abundant fuel (invasive grasses) excessive heat, drier air, high winds, limited water availability, lush resorts versus less green residences, and insufficient infrastructure of utilities.
But there is only one major factor that exacerbates all the rest.
It is a hotter world. Human accelerated warming helped make every other factor, including a much longer fire season.
Another term which now regularly appears is vulnerability. You may have heard that human exploitation and trafficking has made refugees and migrants more vulnerable. You will hear that famine and conflict in North Africa and other regions is exacerbated by…
