Atlantic starting to come alive

We now have approximately one more week of August left and the Atlantic is starting to come alive. Hurricane season is about upon us. There’s a system coming off the coast of Africa and one percolating in the Caribbean. I’m dreading this because the water is soooo warm: it’s around 86 or 87 degrees and hurricanes only need 80 degrees.

Earlier in June and July, the US had been experiencing heat waves and severe droughts, leaving the soil just parched and without protective vegetation. Now, at the end of August, the first front has come in, bringing with it lots of rain. I think this front is slow moving and maybe periodically stalls because the amount of rain falling in an hour or day is producing one in a thousand-year flash flooding. I think we’ve seen 5 one in a thousand-year event in one month: St. Louis, Missouri; eastern Kentucky; Death Valley, California; Effingham, Illinois; and Colorado Rockies. And now the latest in Dallas, Texas.

I think due to these recent extreme flooding events, climate change has propelled to top of mind across the world in a recent Fast Company poll, overtaking COVID-19 and inflation as concerns. Unfortunately, the US has the highest number of people thinking climate concern is an exaggeration. Here are some choice quotes:

The United States, along with India, has the dubious honor of having the lowest percentage of people willing to compromise their lifestyle for the environment: 16% compared to the global average of 21%.

“In a summer of hellscape weather, climate change is top of mind for people around the world”, FastCompany, Shalene Gupta, August 25, 2022.

Relatedly, the United States also has the highest percentage of respondents who believe that climate concerns are grossly exaggerated: 22% compared to the global average of 17%. Part of this is due to the ideological split between Democrats and Republicans. While 85% of Democrats believe that climate change is a result of human activity, only 49% of Republicans agree.

Ibid.

It is hard to understand where the climate deniers are coming from – well, with the exception of those who make a living off of fossil fuels. That I get since I happen to live in an area where oil and gas is still king, although we are trying to pivot to clean energy and possibly to tech. But the rest of them…why can’t you see those extreme weather as worrisome?

September is typically the month I have to watch out for as this is when I get caught in a hurricane or maybe a brush. From now until end of November (maybe into December) will be anxiety-ridden months as we try to avoid calamity.