Hurricane Sandy came blasting in and blasted out. In her wake she left destruction that most of us will only see in our lifetime. She devastated the coasts of Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Millions of people are without power. Unlike a hurricane that usually shows up in August or September when the air is relatively warm, Sandy pulled in cold air making it a frosty hurricane. West Virginia is still digging out from a few feet of snow, dragged in by Sandy.
I live in Connecticut. We had hurricane Irene last year which actually was mild compared to the Halloween snow storm that paralyzed Connecticut and southern parts of Massachusetts. When Sandy was forecasted we knew what to do. That's not saying the other states didn't. There is only so much you can do when facing a double barrel shotgun.
These freak storms are not seeming so freakish any more. They are becoming what is known as "extreme weather". And extreme weather should no longer surprise anyone. It's been predicted for years, but maybe only a few of us news nerds ever really paid attention. This past summer, the Arctic lost the most ice it has ever lost since record keeping began. Greenland melted. The ocean is warmer. Warmer water breeds gigantic hurricanes. This past year we have witnessed horrible tornadoes. Floods and droughts. Alaska was literally buried in snow. Yeah, they get a lot of snow up there, but what do you do when the snow is higher than your house? There were times in the past few summers where it seemed like half of the country was on fire. This past summer, hundreds of heat records were broken. We became a shake and bake country.
We, human beings, are to blame. We used to be a nation of one car families. Now it is not uncommon to have not just two cars, but three or four. That's a big difference from the 1960's. In the last fifty years, we had ignored climate scientists and meteorologists who have tried and tried explain to all of humanity that we are on a collision course with nature. To put it bluntly, we deserve all that has been dumped on us. In the 1970's there was a commercial that had a line we all used to laugh about. I think it was about either shampoo or margarine. The commercial ended with a shot of a lady dressed up in leaves and bark and a headful of flowers (did I mention it was in the 70's?) Her last line in the commercial was "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." Indeed.
I shudder to think what kind of world we will have in fifty years. I won't be here, but my children and grandchildren will. The world will have to figure out what to do because this problem does not exclusively belong to the United States. Japan is still recovering from the earthquake and Tsunami that hit their northeast coast one and a half years ago.. Hundreds of thousands of people can never go back to their homes because of radiation. They survived what Mother Nature threw at them, but not what mankind blew at them. Western Europe and the Scandinavian countries are far ahead of us by imposing strict standards for carbon emissions and they have been recycling long before we had figured out the term "recycling" had nothing to do with bicycles.
Deregulation is not the answer, it is the problem. Fracking for natural gas causes earthquakes. That is a fact. So far, the fracking earthquakes have been small, but the more fracking that is done at the expense of other problems like water pollution, and air pollution, who knows when the planet will shake in one gigantic fit of anger. Capturing wind for alternative energy is a benign stamp on earth. At first there will be bird casualties, but birds are very smart. They can adapt to their environment so much easier than humans can. Solar power hurts no one and nothing. We have the resources to expand wind and solar energy, but do we have the willpower? It's difficult to do when a few uber wealthy have made their fortune in power plants and will do anything to make sure they will remain wealthy. Americans, the average Joes and Janes, who put their bodies and brains together for the greater good can do anything. It's time to stand together or we will perish alone. I am betting on humans, after all, we now all know what Mars looks like.
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