With one week left before an historic election that, as it happens, has been roundly criticized for its utter lack of high-level discussion of climate change, the smooth functioning of democracy itself might well be undermined by the storm, with the potential for widespread power outages in some areas lasting 10 days or more — well beyond next Tuesday’s scheduled polls.
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have engaged in three debates, numerous tit-for-tat exchanges via the media, and a barrage of competing television ads from coast to coast. Even with all the Sturm und Drang, one issue has been conspicuous by its absence- climate change. It’s taken Hurricane Sandy/The Storm of the Century/Frankenstorm to bring climate change to the forefront of our national conversation. Even with Frankenstorm having ravaged the East Coast, neither candidate has seen fit to address climate change, even in passing.
This just in: Rome is burning while a crazy guy in a toga is playing the violin in the middle of the charred rubble….
There’s no definitive way to know if Sandy is related to or caused by global climate change. Just the fact that the question is being raised should be enough for reasonable people to begin thinking about this subject in very serious terms. And by “reasonable,” I mean people in leadership positions who should be thinking about what impact continued willful ignorance will have on our planet.
Many scientists believe the atmospheric concentration of those gases must be kept below 350 parts per million to avoid dramatic and runaway changes in our climate. That benchmark has already been passed.
According to the latest measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration, the average global temperature across land and ocean surfaces during September 2012 was 1.21 degrees above the 20th century average. That temperature ties with 2005 as the warmest September in the 133 years that records have been kept.
No, scientists can’t say beyond any shadow of a doubt that global climate change is responsible for Sandy. Still, the anecdotal evidence is substantial, and it shouldn’t be difficult to ignore. If we don’t see Hurricane Sandy as a wake-up call (and there’s no reason to believe we will), we’ll miss an opportunity to address the one issue that directly impacts every human being and the future of our planet.
Think about it this way: even if we can’t PROVE that global climate change is absolutely responsible for Hurricane Sandy, why not make a commitment to take steps that will reduce atmospheric CO2 levels? Why not do everything we can to leave the planet in the best possible conditions for future generations? Why not stop acting as if our actions (or, in this case, inaction) don’t have consequences? Do we have to wait until we wake up one morning to discover that it’s too late, that the damage is irreversible?
WE DESERVE BETTER.
