Monday, November 5, 2012

Climate Change: Sandy as a Teachable Moment


How to Make Hurricane Sandy a Teachable Moment

By Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.


In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the prime concern now must be to help the many people who are suffering greatly from its effects.

At the same time we should not miss an opportunity when appropriate to respectfully and cordially increase awareness of the many important lessons related to the monstrous storm. 

For example:

1.   Climate change can have disastrous consequences. In addition to the tens of millions of people who are greatly suffering due to Hurricane Sandy, please also consider how food prices are spiking because the US corn crop was devastated as almost 2/3 of the US is suffering from drought, and the many houses lost and acres of forests destroyed due to severe, widespread wildfires in many states. Also, there are great potential dangers at a time when glaciers all over the world and polar icecaps are melting far faster than the worst-case projections of climate scientists.

2.   We may be facing a new normal, with severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, wild fires, and storms that are more frequent and more severe. Hurricane Sandy is the type of “extreme climate event” that global warming models predict. While some are in denial about the planet warming, we should consider that every decade since the 1970s has been warmer than the previous decade; the ten warmest years since temperature records have been kept have occurred since 1998; July 2012 was the single hottest month for the US since such records were kept in 1995.

3.   It is essential that saving the planetary environment become a central focus for civilization today. Unfortunately, climate change was not even mentioned in the 2012 US presidential and vice presidential debates.

4.   The federal government, through FEMA, can play a very important role in responding to disasters. However, if Mitt Romney had his way, there would be no FEMA and we would have to depend for help on the profit-driven private sector.  Also, the Ryan budget would reduce funding for FEMA as well as many other programs that Americans depend on, mainly to continue and increase tax benefits for the wealthiest Americans and highly profitable corporations.

5.    Republicans are generally in denial about the tremendous dangers from climate change, despite a very strong consensus in over a thousand peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and dire warnings by scientific academies all over the world that climate change is a major threat, largely caused by human activities, and despite the many wake-up calls we have been receiving in terms of severe, sometimes record-breaking, storms, tornados, floods, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, Anyone who thinks that climate change is a hoax promoted by liberals should visit the website of ConservAmerica (www.ConservAmerica.org), previously called “Republicans for Environmental Protection. This conservative group only endorsed four percent of Republicans in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections, because so many Republicans are in denial about climate change and other environmental threats. Paul Ryan is a climate denier and has a miserable record on the environment.

6.    Governmental workers, including first responders, should be applauded for their courageous, dedicated efforts to respond to emergencies, not demonized, as many Republican politicians have been doing.

3 comments:

  1. Voting is one of the only ways we have to make our voice heard. If you think that there is any chance that climate change is real, then vote for the people most likely to reverse climate change (the president isn't the only influential person being elected). The results of this election will change the world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely, Maggie. Climate change is definitely real, I have written about this on my own blog. (As well as with Richard in his book.) And I've been working to get out the vote here in MN where i live. This is indeed the most important election for generations to com

    Everybody: Vote Green!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am beginning to hate blogger, a long reply has just disappeared.

    Do you not feel that scripture is so much more about the now than any time previous?

    The Abomination of Desolation is where we are headed. Any time the earth has changed a twentieth as fast as we are changing things an extinction event has followed. We will make the PETM extinction look like the teddy-bears picnic.

    I have been told that I should not look for reasons, but I truly believe His Laws are for good reason. Reasons we can discern.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9glPZq27kH4 a good reason not to eat pork. Our mistreatment of pigs is so very widespread that the consumption of this product is a stain upon my soul.

    Now is not the time to start eating shellfish. Our oceans chemistry is changing fast and in ways we do not fully understand.

    Science, Daniel and Revelations have a horrifying consilience.

    Regards
    Tony

    ReplyDelete