Animals froze to death in Texas last week and we may have been to blame, say scientists
A calf born in Texas during Winter Storm Uri | Credit: Austin Miles/Handout via REUTERS
Winter Storm Uri has taken its toll on both humans and non-human animals alike with viral posts and mainstream media reporting on tragedies such as ranchers losing calves born into the cold, hatcheries without heating and sanctuaries having to choose which animals to save. Was this purely an act of God or are we humans to blame yet again, as some scientists believe?
For five days last week, Texas froze, as the Lone Star State was hit by arctic air brought down from the north by Winter Storm Uri. The effect on a state used to mild winters was devastating and widespread, with a spike in energy demand causing blackouts as everyone sought to heat their homes and stave off the cold. Humans were left both cold and dark, resorting to burning wood and keeping gas stoves lit to stay warm, leading to an increase in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
As if we humans didn’t have it bad enough, the cost to non-human life was profound. On TikTok, a video was posted of a fisk tank that had frozen, apparently in Texas. The Reuters news agency on Thursday reported that ranchers were losing newborn calves and lambs who are particularly vulnerable to cold temperatures, and other animals were going hungry as diesel solidified into a gel rendering useless the vehicles that many farmers use to transport feed and hay for bedding.
Even sanctuaries, the places where we would expect animals to be the safest, did not escape tragedy. Caregivers at the San Antonio Primarily Primates sanctuary were forced to choose which animals had the best chance of survival to prioritise their evacuation, according to CNN, with a chimpanzee and some lemurs losing their lives and unknown numbers of monkeys and birds unaccounted for. This was despite a Herculean effort to keep the animals warm by using generators, space heaters, propane tanks and blankets.
At first glance, there may not be a lot we can say about this from an animal rights perspective. After all, farm animals die regardless of freak weather conditions and one could even say that the cows, sheep, chickens and other animals who succumbed to the sleep of hypothermia were spared a life of exploitation only to end with a far more brutal death at the hands of slaughterhouse workers.
The mainstream and viral coverage of the tragedy affecting animals only served to reminds us of the hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance that is rampant within our society - we lament the deaths of the poor baby cows and sheep and post sad-faced emojis as we share their stories on Facebook and Twitter, all while their body parts, the veal and the lamb chops, sit in our fridges and freezers.
Any further guilt can be deflected or avoided altogether by blaming Mother Nature… except that it can’t, not conclusively anyway. Scientific opinion appears to be divided on the underlying cause of Storm Uri and other occurrences of dramatically low temperatures in places that are usually much warmer.
While we tend to think of climate change in terms of a warming of the atmosphere and the ensuing localised heatwaves and forest fires, cold waves like that brought on by Storm Uri could in fact also be part of an oscillating system of weather changes. A shifting of the jet stream that usually acts as a barrier between the colder arctic air of the far north and the gentler southern climate could have arisen because of atmospheric warming with links to climate change caused by human activities. And we all know that a major contributor to global warming by greenhouse gasses is the emissions from animal agriculture and the burning of rainforests and the removal of natural carbon sinks as land is cleared to grow soy for animal feed or to graze cows to be raised for their flesh.
Confused about the #PolarVortex? Usually a strong jet stream confines Arctic air to the north, stabilized by a big difference in temperature between low and high latitudes. The smaller the difference in temperature, the more the wind belts meander (Via @RemoteLongitude & @NOAA) pic.twitter.com/GEpzwjw1dS
— UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) February 15, 2021
In an email sent to Vox, Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, said: “The large, persistent, southward dip in the jet stream responsible for this cold invasion is likely to happen more frequently in a warming climate, as are the warmer-than-normal spells that sit alongside this dip.”
Francis knows her stuff, having co-authored a 2018 study that showed Arctic warming was linked to an increase in extreme winter temperatures in the US. She went on to say that “wavy jet streams are expected to occur more often as we continue to warm the planet, especially melt the Arctic.”
The science is by no means clear, and there is no shortage of sceptics when it comes to the link between cold waves and climate change. But only time will tell as data continues to be gathered and analysed. The main problem is that while weather observations suggest a causal link between warm spells and extreme cold, computer modelling of weather patterns doesn’t agree that there is a link. According to NASA, the planet’s average surface temperature has since the 19th century risen at a rate nearly ten times greater than it did after the Ice Age. Warmer temperatures have not also meant warmer winters, with the NOAA reporting nearly twice the number of extreme winter storms in the latter half of the 19th century than the first.
Despite the uncertainty and questions, we already know that extreme warm is a result of human-driven climate change. The fact that extreme cold could be part of that is just one more reason why we must move away from the major contributors and opt for a change in the way we transport ourselves, the way we live, and the way we eat.
Shifting away from animal agriculture is essential if we are to maintain our way of life and it is not just us saying that either. Don’t believe us. Believe the ever-increasing number of respected institutions that all agree we are steadily eating our way to catastrophe.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager at Surge.
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