Dateline: Wake Forest, North Carolina late Friday afternoon. Again, I find it prudent to begin my Sunday article with a disclosure of commencement. As I learned firsthand from my decade in Florida, hurricanes are certainly dynamic things and part of today’s article describes my personal relationship with Ian.
On Tuesday the 1/6 Committee canceled a public session scheduled for the next day because of the impending landfall of Ian. I’m not criticizing that decision – on the contrary, I agree with it – but I have to wonder if TV ratings didn’t have something to do with the decision. Perhaps the greatest service the Committee has rendered to the public to date is informing many of the facts; especially those who are regular consumers of right wing media. Much like a train wreck, Americans are drawn to watching coverage of hurricanes.
Having lived in the Tampa Bay region for about a decade the names of the towns effected were more than dots on a map to me. I still have many friends in that area. This was not Ian’s first visit to US soil but since too many Americans don’t consider anyplace not in the lower 48 part of America it was treated as if it were. For the record Puerto Rico is part of the United States and, for that matter, Cubans are very much people too deserving the same respect as anyone else.
As I write this its raining and windy outside my window. Certainly not a day for a stroll or outdoor dining, but far from a disaster. My worst fear is a power outage that lasts more than a few hours because there is a local crew shortage with many having been prudently and correctly sent to the hardest hit areas. There may well be some localized flooding in low lying stretches of road. I’ll be a good citizen and stay off the roads for a bit unless I have an unforeseen emergency.
I was fortunate enough to have never experienced a direct hit from a hurricane but a few came way too close for comfort. My mind certainly flashed back to them. I also read a brilliant new book, Two Degrees, by Alan Gratz over the last few days. At 70, I may be Alan’s oldest regular reader. He is primarily a YA (young adults) writer. I bought three copies because two of my granddaughters (13, in eight grade and 20, a junior in college) are also huge fans of his. About one-third of the book is about the experiences of a young girl caught in a mythical Miami hurricane.
I doubt most of my readers qualify as YA and the book doesn’t meet the criteria for the site’s recommenced reading list but… Alan must have been one heck of a teacher when he was still in the classroom because he makes a very serious climate change plea and is simultaneously entertaining. Two of my biggest regrets with regard to this column both relate to climate change. In 2012, while I was working for President Obama, of necessity I temporarily cut my publishing back to about once a week, a group of grad students offered to partner with me on climate change issues. Sadly, I simply didn’t have the time. The campaign was pretty much a 24/7 thing. Since then so many topics arise that climate change too often gets put on the backburner.
My pet peeve with the broadcasts is putting so many news professionals in harm’s way to get a live shot of someone in the wind. Is that really necessary let alone prudent? Will it only stop after a fatality or extremely serious injury? If Ali Velshi (or another credible journalist) tells me its pouring and the winds are in triple figures complete with a background shot I believe them.
The last aspect I’ll touch on is the inequity we experience in storms. Many can get out of Dodge when the warnings come in. They have resources. However, many simply lack the funds. To exacerbate the situation Ian hit on the 28th of the month when the really poor are at their poorest. Think back to Katrina – which disproportionally adversely effected the poorest – it also hit very late in the month. Now climate change has nothing to do with timing but massive poverty in America is a social issue we talk about a lot but do precious little to really address.
If you were looking for a weather report you came to the wrong place. I just want to communicate that climate change is real, man is making it worst and we are doing next to nothing to address the social problems surrounding its impact. (And only slightly more to address our behavior which is exacerbating it.)
This problem isn’t going away and left unattended it will win. This is to a large degree a zero sum game and if climate change wins it means mankind loses. Do something about it no matter how small. The cumulative effect of a lot of smalls is a large. Do you want to be part of the victory or part of the loss?
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