Shuswap B.C., Gunn lake B.C., 19,000 evacuated in Yellow Knife alone. And hundreds more across Canada. Over 400 fires in Louisiana. 110 degree temps across the Midwest. With the loss of more of paradise to the onslaught of climate change, we have to ask ourselves when we are going to be ready to get serious about doing the big things to slow this crisis.
As the latest new heatwave finally washed against our shores in the Pacific Northwest, we are lucky that it was not the 20 degree variation other places are seeing. Lytton, before it burned, saw temperatures that much higher than previous highs. If we saw highs 20 degrees hotter, we would also be at 120 or higher, as the Midwest is currently seeing. Being in typical (or atypical summer drought season) surrounded by tree farms of our own making, and with westerlies being predominate, it is just a matter of time before we see a major fire storm sweep across the Olympic Peninsula. Perhaps it will take out one city rather than dozens, but my guess is that Port Townsend clearly has the forest cover to ignite.
Additionally, across the country, we have seen insurance companies, the real arbiters of climate change, abandon homeowners in risky areas. I’m sure Hawaii will be become the next target.
Homeowners struggle to get protection from climate disasters as big insurance companies scale back
If you have noticed a slowdown in my posts lately, it’s due to the fact that the headlines are validating what this blog along with all the major scientists on the planet, have warned about for decades. Why have we done so little to prepare? Because we are essentially just another country dictated by oil companies, not politicians. Until we are willing to challenge their hegemony, we are trapped in a cycle of destruction. Why? Well, we are not cutting our oil consumption.
If there is any good news on the horizon, it’s that the oil industry is pricing itself out of existence. Which will come first, our society destruction as the wealthy create the enclaves they think will allow them to survive? Or will the cost of solar and wind energy that already is vastly cheaper than even natural gas, allow us to simply turn off the taps? Unfortunately, as you look at the supporters of politicians like Trump, they are not rooted in reality anymore. They are like the Romans who believed the Empire would save them as the Visigoths appeared at the gates. However, a recent New York Times article documented the progress in Oklahoma, of all places, at moving towards an oil free future. There are glimmers of hope.
The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think
Other signs of hope. The new “Children’s Crusade” continues to push against the status quo.
Judge Rules in Favor of Montana Youths in a Landmark Climate Case (subscribe to the New York Times if you can’t read this article or go to your library and look it up).
We are now deep into the next epoch of the earth, one of our own stupid making: The Anthropocene. No amount of ‘restoration’ is going to be of much good if we simply continue to pour out more and more CO2.
Anthropocene: Scientists say they’ve found a site that marks a new chapter in Earth’s history | CNN
Demand our politicians actually do something and not simply ignore it as many of our Democrats appear to be doing. As was so wonderfully illustrated in Veep. “I feel like provoking someone, Mike… I really do.”
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