#storms #hurricanes #ClimateChange #Helene #Milton
If you still don’t believe the climate is changing, look at the quantity and severity of the 2024 storms.
First, Helene. Second, Milton a week or so afterward.
In fact, Milton had grown to a Category 5 hurricane (the worst) before it hit land.
Florida got the double whammy of both storms consecutively, as debris from Helene had yet to be cleared before Milton hit.
Some folks on Florida’s Gulf Coast had gone nearly 50 years before being affected by storms. Then, they got a double hit.
Though the damage is not as bad as predicted it could have been, it will probably take years for places like Florida and Western North Carolina to fully recover from the destruction.
Climate change is happening worldwide. In fact, many migrants are coming to the U.S. because the climate in their countries has become so severe they cannot make a living as farmers etc.
Western North Carolina, shielded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, has learned that it is not immune from storm devastation.
All this means that sea levels will eventually rise, perhaps rendering expensive beachfront properties nearly worthless.
Will property insurers give up insuring properties in some areas? In some cases, they already have. Though most people devastated by storms say they will rebuild, how long with the rebuilding take, and how long will it last before the next storm comes along?
All hands, and minds, need to be on deck to try to mitigate this change as best we can.
It will be no easy task. Property near water has become the most desirable, yet the most vulnerable.
If we do nothing, it will only get worse. So, we have to do something. We have to try new ways to protect people and property from these frequent severe storms. Mitigation ideas and potential solutions are already out there, but the will to enact them is still missing.
Perhaps a new building material will be widely available to withstand these storms.
Perhaps we should not build so close to water that even the smallest storm-generated waves could do real damage.
Certainly, it will take money for this mitigation. But, money alone won’t solve the problem. The money has to be combined with innovation, keeping in mind that all the manmade innovation in the world cannot always defeat Mother Nature.
The other issue is time. We can’t wait years for the innovation, or the will to enact it, to come. It has to come ASAP.
So, as we continue to brace for more severe storms, we have to first recognize the problem. Denying a problem won’t make it go away.
Then, we have to put the best scientists, unrestricted by political or financial constraints, to work finding solutions.
The storms will always come. How we prepare for them, and recover from them, will be the key to the planet’s survival as we know it.
Peter
Tag Archives: climate change
CLEAN-POWERED CARS BY 2035?
#CleanPoweredCars #GasolinePoweredCars #California #cars #transportation
California wants to ban the sale of new cars solely fueled by gasoline by 2035.
Used gas-powered cars will be allowed, but no new ones can be sold, according to the plan.
Certainly, climate change is real, and California is among the places hardest hit.
But it begs the question: how many used gasoline-powered cars will still be on the road?
It also begs the question: how long will it actually take to eliminate all gas-powered cars? The big issues are having enough rapid-charging stations, and how governments will cope with the decreased revenue from the gasoline tax, according to David Wickert, transportation writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia is poised to become a leader in the manufacture of electric cars and the batteries that fuel them.
Here’s a thought: what if someone could come up with a way to convert internal-combustion cars to electric, hybrid or hydrogen power?
But, first things are first. As previously stated, there have to be more rapid-charging stations before we go entirely non-combustion.
Then, we have to look at auto manufacturing. It appears the big car companies are moving quickly away from internal combustion engines. That’s a good sign.
Then, the price of the clean-powered cars has to come down. The recent bill passed by Congress offers assistance in purchasing clean-powered vehicles, but to qualify, the vehicles have to be priced in a certain range. In other words, there are no subsidies to buy expensive cars, even if they are clean-powered.
Getting back to a previous thought, what does one do with a perfectly good gasoline-powered car? The body may be good enough to last for years. Would you spend, say, a few thousand dollars, or perhaps a bit more, to change out the guts of your car so you can drive your “new” clean-powered car?
Many would, perhaps. But now, there is no technology to do that. One might predict that someone, somewhere is working on that technology.
This news reminds us that transitions are hard. We may all want to do the right thing — the world may command us to do the right thing.
But moving from one era to the next requires infrastructure changes, innovation and the courage to move to something different. It’s also requires government to re-imagine revenue streams, as Wickert points out. All of these things can take time.
California is trying to provide that transition time. Can the innovators pull it off within that time?
Transitions are also messy. For example, if your gas-powered car craps out on you between now and then, and you can’t live without a car, what do you do that will solve your practical problem now, yet comply with the future new rules?
The lesson here is that we should have been preparing for this transition long before we did.
Certainly, it’s easier said than done. Hindsight is always 20-20.
But just because we are starting the transition in earnest later than we should have been doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.
The warming planet certainly isn’t waiting for us humans to act. It will keep warming, causing all sorts of disasters.
We just have to do the hard, messy things as we can. In fact, most of life’s journey involves hard, messy things. What’s convenient at the moment is not always the right thing for the future.
So, if you are not ready to ditch your gas-powered vehicle for something that runs much cleaner, your best bet is to hope you can buy enough time until the technology allows you to convert that vehicle, or the vehicle craps out on its own. Hopefully, you’ll be able to afford the change.
Peter
CLIMATE CHANGING THE WAY WE LIVE
#ClimateChange #weather #floods #heat
There are fires in places that almost never burn.
There is extremely hot weather setting records in places that don’t usually get hot.
There are floods in places that don’t usually flood.
There’s even cold weather in places that never get cold.
No matter how you cut it, our climate is changing. We have to figure out exactly why, and what we can do to fix it. Science points to fossil fuels and industrialization as a cause. We want to keep being industrious, but we need to find different ways to do it.
If we don’t, peril will persist. Life as we knew it will be gone.
Weather, once unpredictable, is now pretty predictable. Still, no one could see the unexpected weather in many parts of the world. It’s not just the unexpected. Expected, predictable events are becoming worse than predicted.
For example, one can predict wildfires in California. But recent fires have been far more frequent and devastating, and less seasonal, than in the past. (If only we could move water from places that have too much of it, to places that don’t have enough.)
Also, one can predict triple-digit heat in Texas in the summer. But one never expects triple digit heat in Canada, forcing a British Columbia town to burn up.
Think of what triple-digit heat would do if it reached as far north as the Arctic. Even the final round of the Open golf championship in England saw record warmth for that locale (though it was actually a pleasant 80 degrees).
These changes may force people to rethink careers, where they live and how they should prepare for the unknown.
There are some disasters for which there is no possible preparation. But, for many, doing the right thing beforehand can mitigate damage, injury or loss of life.
Most important of all, we must act soon to determine the long-term global actions that will need to occur. As individuals, we can prepare as best we can to save our own lives and possessions. But, as a world, we have to take large-scale measures to mitigate these changes.
Some will sit back and let nature take its course. One does that at his or her peril.
If our actions as humans contributed to these events, our actions as humans can mitigate them.
Just as we can prepare as individuals to protect ourselves and our things, we can also prepare to change things that either aren’t going well in our lives, or are not sustainable in our lives for the long term.
Is what you are doing the thing you want to be doing? Have you thought about what might be if you did something else? Are you looking for something that would change your circumstances potentially exponentially for the better?
There are many programs that can help you do that, even without having to give up – at least for now — what you are already doing. No specific education, background or experience is required. As a bonus, they can be done regardless of the climate you live in.
To check out one of the best such programs, message me.
In summary, prepare for what you can predict. Presume what you predict will be worse than you believe. Throw in some preparedness for things you don’t expect to happen. Engage with the world to mitigate nature’s changes.
Don’t sit back and wait for things to get better. They probably won’t, unless you (and we) act.
Peter